Two texts, one question

At B1 you read a text. At B2 you read two, and the interesting question is no longer what each one says but where they actually disagree — which is usually narrower than it looks.

Two writers almost never disagree about everything. Find the fact they share first; the argument is about what follows from it.

Four things to look for while reading an argumentative text:

• Die Zahl ist von achtzig auf vierzig Prozent gefallen.

  evidence — checkable, and both sides can cite it

• Das halte ich für zu optimistisch.

  opinion — marked as the writer’s own judgement

  ich halte … für, meiner Ansicht nach, vermutlich

• Zwar teile ich die Kritik, aber daraus folgt nicht, dass …

  a concession before the real point

  zwar … aber concedes, then overrides

• Das ist keine Drohung, sondern beobachtet worden.

  the writer defending against an objection they expect

Tone is worth naming too. A text can be sachlich (matter-of-fact), skeptisch, zustimmend, ironisch or gereizt — and a writer who is annoyed will still make a fair point, so tone and argument have to be judged separately.