When you write an academic essay, you make an argument: you propose a thesis and offer some reasoning, using evidence, that suggests why the thesis is true. When you counter argue, you consider a possible argument against your thesis or some aspect of your reasoning. This is a good way to test your ideas when drafting, while you still have time to revise them. And in the finished essay, it can be a persuasive and in both senses of the word disarming tactic. It allows you to anticipate doubts and pre empt objections that a skeptical reader might have it presents you as the kind of person who weighs alternatives before arguing for one, who confronts difficulties instead of sweeping them under the rug, who is more interested in discovering the truth than winning a point. Not every objection is worth entertaining, of course, and you shouldn't include one just to include one.

But some imagining of other views, or of resistance to one's own, occurs in most good essays. And instructors are glad to encounter counterargument in student papers, even if they haven't specifically asked for it. the turn against counterargument in an essay has two stages: you turn against your argument to challenge it and then you turn back to re affirm it. You first imagine a skeptical reader, or cite an actual source, who might resist your argument by pointing out a problem with your demonstration, e.g. That a different conclusion could be drawn from the same facts, a key assumption is unwarranted, a key term is used unfairly, certain evidence is ignored or played down one or more disadvantages or practical drawbacks to what you propose an alternative explanation or proposal that makes more sense. You introduce this turn against with a phrase like one might object here that. or of course. or with an anticipated challenging question: but how.

or but if this is so, what about. then you state the case against yourself as briefly but as clearly and forcefully as you can, pointing to evidence where possible. the turn back your return to your own argument which you announce with a but, yet, however, nevertheless or still must likewise involve careful reasoning, not a flippant or nervous dismissal. This will work if the counterargument concerns only an aspect of your argument if it undermines your whole case, you need a new thesis. A turn into counterargument here and there will sharpen and energize your essay, but too many such turns will have the reverse effect by obscuring your main idea or suggesting that you're ambivalent. counterargument in pre writing and revising good thinking constantly questions itself, as socrates observed long ago. But at some point in the process of composing an essay, you need to switch off the questioning in your head and make a case.

Having such an inner conversation during the drafting stage, however, can help you settle on a case worth making. As you consider possible theses and begin to work on your draft, ask yourself how an intelligent person might plausibly disagree with you or see matters differently. And, of course, the disagreeing reader doesn't need to be in your head: if, as you're starting work on an essay, you ask a few people around you what they think of topic x or of your idea about x and keep alert for uncongenial remarks in class discussion and in assigned readings, you'll encounter a useful disagreement somewhere. Awareness of this disagreement, however you use it in your essay, will force you to sharpen your own thinking as you compose. If you come to find the counterargument truer than your thesis, consider making it your thesis and turning your original thesis into a counterargument.

If you manage to draft an essay without imagining a counterargument, make yourself imagine one before you revise and see if you can integrate it. copyright 19, gordon harvey adapted from the academic essay: a brief anatomy , for the writing center at harvard university refutation paragraphs the refutation paragraph is normally found only in argument essays and argument research papers it is also known as the concession paragraph. When students are writing an argumentative essay, they need to acknowledge the valid points of the opposing argument, otherwise writers sound narrow minded and thereby less effective. Rather than weakening the paper, a good concession paragraph will actually strengthen the essay by showing that the writer has thoughtfully considered both sides of the argument before arriving at the final argumentative position. Be careful though, writers don't want the other side of the argument to sound better than his/her own. One way of avoiding this is by answering or countering any of the points the other argument has.

It can be one of the first body paragraphs, it can be one of the middle body paragraphs, or it can be one of the last. The placement of the refutation paragraph depends on the logical organization of the essay, and writers need to develop a clear outline in order to decide where the refutation section will be placed. the refutation paragraphs typically have: introduce the opposing argument acknowledge parts of the opposition that are valid one of the most effective ways to rebut a counter argument is to show that it is based on faulty assumptions. Either the facts are wrong, the analysis is incorrect, or the values it is based on are not acceptable. Furthermore, some counter arguments are simply irrelevant, usually because they are actually responding to a different argument.

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And some counter arguments actually make your argument stronger, once you analyze their logic. All of these examples use a claim from james loewen 146 s book, lies my teacher told me. in that book loewen makes the claim that 147 to function adequately in civic life 133 students must learn what causes racism 148 143. The examples below are ideas that you might use as a counter argument to this claim, in a paper agreeing with loewen. Then you would rebut, or answer, the counter argument as a way to strengthen your own position.

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faulty factual assumption

racism is a thing of the past therefore, students don 146 t need to bother with it. the factual assumption in this example is that racism is a thing of the past. One response would be to muster facts to show that racism continues to be a problem. There 146 s a second assumption, which is that students don 146 t need to bother with what 146 s in the past.

Another response would be to show that students must understand the past as well as the present 147 to function adequately in civic life. 148

faulty analytical assumption

learning about racism might make students more racist. the analytical assumption is that learning about racism can make you racist. The response would be that understanding the causes of a problem is not the same as causing or creating the problem. Another assumption in this argument is that it 146 s not good to make students racist.

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who cares if students are racist? this counter argument is based on an assumed value that your readers probably do not share 151 namely, the idea that it 146 s ok for students to be racist. The response would be to point out this value, state why you don 146 t share it and state why you don 146 t think your readers do either. Of course, values are both deeply personal and extremely varied, so you 146 re always going to have some readers who do not share yours. The key is to base your arguments on values that most readers are likely to share.

true but irrelevant

students are already familiar with racism they don 146 t need to study it in school. many students are, in fact, already familiar with racism.

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But loewen is not saying they need to learn about racism, he 146 s saying they need to learn what causes it. This is a very common form of counter argument, one that actually rebuts a different argument. Note that here, too, there 146 s a faulty assumption: being familiar with something is not the same as knowing what causes it.

makes the argument stronger

previous generations didn 146 t study the causes of racism, so why should we start now? the response here would be to show that previous generations did not 147 function adequately in civic life, 148 because they had a lot of problems with racism segregation and more hidden forms of discrimination. Therefore, the fact that they didn 146 t learn about the causes of racism, together with this other information, actually supports the claim that students do need to learn what causes racism. Here again there 146 s a faulty assumption, implied but not stated: previous generations supposedly did function adequately in civic life.

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