Acknowledging the Opposition A key to strong persuasive arguments

You have to convince your opposition! Remember… You have to convince your opposition!   In order to write an effective persuasive paper, you must anticipate and overcome objections that the opposition might raise.      

Ask yourself these questions… What will my opposition say against my idea? How can I defend my idea against their arguments? Are there any of my points that they can easily attack? Can I see any weak links in the opposition's thinking?

Example Use the class example on raising the legal driving age to consider some arguments that might be raised by the opposition. Select what you believe to be the strongest argument - Raising the driving age will prevent accidents

Refutation After identifying the strongest argument, think of how you can counter, or refute it, in your essay. list and refute the opposing argument in the last paragraph before the conclusion. Be respectful and reasonable to protect your credibility.

Those in favor of raising the legal driving age in Alabama only want to protect Alabama teenagers from the danger of inexperienced driving. These individuals believe that increasing the driving age will decrease accidents, but this isn’t true. An inexperienced driver is going to lack experience at any age, whether it be 16 or sixty. Therefore, instead of working to change the legal driving age, we need to work to increase driver education so that inexperience is not as much of a problem for new drivers at any age.