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Argument Advice

Write a 600 word paper defending a claim. A claim is a debatable thesis. Your paper must include paragraphs of confirmation (ordinary support) and at least one paragraph of refutation (where you keep supporting your thesis by acknowledging and then ANSWERING opposing viewpoints). Here are some debatable claims:

Invading Iraq has made us safer.

Parents must curtail the trend toward expensive birthday parties for kids.

Users must stop misusing and abusing cell phones.

Writing courses in college should no longer be required.

A topic sentence outline for an argument might look like this (of course you would have to add an opening and closing paragraph):

Proposition: Buying a mobile home is smart.

confirmation: Mobile homes are inexpensive.

confirmation: Mobile homes are almost maintenance free.

refutation: True, mobile homes may not be a solid an investment as houses, but they offer more flexibility.

refutation: Homeowners say that mobile homes are unsafe; however, the dangers can be minimized.

refutation: Homeowners claim that mobile homes parks have hidden and uncontrollable costs and that the rules are too restrictive, not realizing that many homeowners also face these realities with their homeowner’s associations.

Remember that the purpose of refutation is to refute, not to concede. You must answer each objection not by simple denial, but by offering evidence to show each objection to be one or more of the following:

illogical
unimportant
untypical
untrue l
no worse than the alternative
an advantage (when properly understood)
motivated by self-interest
offset by another advantage

Tips:

Find a simple name for your opponent. Do not use a generic name (my opponent; those who oppose riding motorcycles). You can invent a simple name by establishing in the opening paragraph a specific person (our pastor; my mother)
Refute each objection after mentioning it (and attributing it to an opponent).
Always give the opponent’s objection first and then your response. Do not give your opponent the last word.
Be fair (or at the least appear to be fair) when stating your opponent’s objections. Ideally, the opponent would think or say of your paraphrase, “Yes that is exactly the point I want to make.”
.Use your resources to hammer at the important objections. Ignoring an important objection weakens your argument by suggesting that you are afraid of or ignorant of it. Do not waste space hammering at the trivial objections. Doing so weakens your argument by suggesting that you are afraid of the stronger objections.
Do not repeat evidence from your confirmation to refute an objection. Doing so indicates that you are weak on evidence. Like a general, you must plan which forces (evidence) to keep in reserve to combat a counterattack.
If you are preaching to the choir, you can insult and clobber your opponent’s intelligence, morals, or motives; however, if you are trying to convert the heathen, you must flatter and gently prod.
Begin your opening paragraph with a specific instance that illustrates the controversy. Set up your refutation by naming an opponent in your opening paragraph. The opening paragraph must END with the DEBATABLE proposition.

Last updated 02/06/2007