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Counterargument:

Refutation and Concession Exercise


If you have not read the following reading posted to the Assignments folder on Blackboard, then you should do so before proceeding. Refutation and Concession Endings Justificatory Reasoning Reasons versus Evidence Introductions Premises Guide to Rhetorical Outlines Instructions: You may use the justificatory piece you wrote for the last exercise as the basis for this exercise, or come up with a new proposition. Be sure that your propositions are derived from the course readings. If you choose to expand upon your prior text, remember to revise based on feedback and your own constantly evolving understanding of the material and of your audience. In this exercise, your draft expands to incorporate a fundamental element of scholarly writing: the counterargument. Your essay must have the following elements. While you must adhere to the requirement of opening with an introductory paragraph that concludes with your proposition, and you must have two paragraphs that open with reasons and are devoted to developing those reasons, you are now welcome to insert your counterargument and refutation/concession where you think it makes most logical and rhetorical sense. You may not, however, open with the counterargument/refutation strategy. It must appear somewhere after the introductory paragraph. 850-900 Word Refutation/Concession Draft Introductory paragraph that ends with your proposition Two paragraphs, each of which opens with a justificatory reason and is devoted exclusively to developing that reason with evidence, explanation, or rhetorical appeals. A paragraph that opens with a counterargument against some aspect of your reasoning: your assumptions/premises, your proposition, your reasons, your evidence. A paragraph that refutes or partially concedes to that counterargument. An ending (which can be a reason: see Endings) Rhetorical outline. Remember, your essay is a first draft. Dont overwork it. Use your Rhetorical Outline as Draft 2. Note in it how you might improve upon your wording (says statements) or your rhetorical strategies (does statements). Make note at the bottom of the outline of any grammatical or mechanical errors you observe as you analyze your draft.
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Skeletal Plan for a Possible Concession/Refutation Draft: Paragraph 1: Intro/Justificatory proposition Paragraph 2: Open with the strongest reason against my proposition. Devote the remainder of the paragraph to developing this counterargument with evidence, explanation, and whatever other strategies that will most strongly support my opponents reason. Paragraph 3: Open with a statement that refutes my opponents reason, or concedes that it has some validity. Paragraph 4: Open with a reason in support of my proposition, and develop it Paragraph 5: Open with a second reason in support of my proposition, and develop it Paragraph 6: Conclude by pointing out the long-term positive effects of what I propose Note that the above is just one possible blueprint. You might wish to provide a counterargument to one of the reasons, instead of the proposition as a whole. Or you might wish to take issue with the opening premises (presumed common ground) that you use to introduce your proposition. For example, returning to the death penalty, if I opened by discussing the values that I imagine my readers have and that lead them to advocate the death penalty, I might make the turn after introducing my proposition to refuting the idea that those are the main or only considerations that a death-penalty proponent has. Alternately, I might provide a counterargument to one of the reasonsperhaps pointing up problems with the data upon which the expenses are based, and then moving to prove that despite these questions, the data is reliable and useful. A justificatory argument that cannot hold up to strong counterargument may lead the rhetor herself to change her mind. The purpose of counterargument, refutation, and concession is to insure the strength and validity of our propositions and reasoning. Rhetorically, such testing adds to the persuasiveness of the argument by acknowledging and addressing others concerns, showing that the writer has been thorough, thoughtful, open-minded, reasonable. Such qualities shape the attitude of the reader toward the writer and her proposition. As with the previous two assignments, remember that this is an exercisenot an essay. Aim for logical development and clarity, not beauty. You do not have to exhaust the topic in 750 words, but at this point you should have selected strong reasons and evidence so that the piece is substantive. If you have extra material, be sure to cut and paste it into a document and put it in your Justificatory Folder. You may be able to make use of it later on. Prewriting for the Draft Think of a tentative justificatory proposition (or use the one from your previous exercise). Be sure that it is debatable: some or all of your colleagues should need to be persuaded of the truth or rightness of your proposition. List as many reasons and evidence as you can think of to persuade your doubters and opponents to embrace your proposition. Consider quantitative and qualitative, abstract and concrete, textual and any other sorts of evidence that they might find compelling and that would be acceptable in your field (ask your instructor what kinds of evidence are not permitted in your field). Choose the strongest reason or evidence from among these, the one you think your peers would probably find most compelling. Gather whatever evidence you have to support this reason. Consider which evidence would be most persuasive and most directly supports your reasons.
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Now list the strongest arguments and evidence against the reason you have selected. List, as well, strong reasons against your proposition. Note that a writer may refute a proposition, or may refute one or more reasons, or both, depending upon the writers motive. Repeat this process using the assumptions you based your introduction upon (shared premises/common ground), your proposition itself, or some aspect of your evidence. Revise your current proposition (or rewrite it entirely) so that it captures what you have learned in this process. Make a brief skeletal outline, noting your intended architecture, and commence writing the draft.

Writing the Draft Set your timer and your goal for how much time you will spend on this draftsay, 90 minutes. At this point, some of your colleaguesperhaps you--are able to write a 750 word first draft in 60 minutes. Each writer is different, of course, but the idea with these exercises is to be so fluent and rigorous in your reasoning that you can turn out a solidly reasoned text in a relatively brief amount of time, whether delivered in writing or in person, impromptu. Write your proposition. Follow your skeletal outline. When you have written your first draft, check for logical coherence. Also note whether the last sentence of your paragraph links to the first sentence of the next paragraph. At this point, you should begin to pay attention to transitions as well as logic The Rhetorical Outline: Detailed Proposition: (paraphrase your own proposition) Audience: Goal: Plan: Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Says: (paraphrase) Sentence 1 Does: (describe the action/strategy/purpose of this sentence: is it providing a reason? Offering an example? Defining a term? Introducing an anecdote?) If you find that a sentence is not doing much of anything, say so: This sentence is redundant. Or, this sentence is a tangent.) Continue this for every sentence in your exercise. If two or three sentences are saying and doing the same thing (a meaning cluster) feel free to group them. For example: Paragraph 1 Says: Sentences 4 through 6 say that scholars imagine a rational audience. Does: Sentence 4 provides the reason, Sentence 5 provides a quotation that exemplifies this reason, and Sentence 6 provides a second, paraphrased example to support the reason. Grammatical/Mechanical/Style Any grammatical, mechanical, or stylistic issues that you notice in outlining your draft should be added to your Customized Proofreading Sheet, following the CPS instructions.
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Directions for Submitting Your Exercise & Outline: Submit a single-spaced copy of your essay and outline to the Blackboard link marked Assignments. Bring two copies of your first draft and your outline to class (or bring one copy and your laptop). Please use the following heading on your exercise: Your Name Refutation and Concession Date Submitted

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