1. Everything you are dying to know!
Counterarguments!
Everything you are dying to know!

2. The Counterargument
What is it?

3. Counterargument? What is that?
A Consideration for the argument against your thesis
The Opposition
Allows you to anticipate doubts and pre-empt objections
Build ethos!!
The Turn Against & The Turn Back
The Turn Against
Your Argument
The Opposition
The Turn Back

4. What is it and how do I do it?
The Turn Against
What is it and how do I do it?

5. The Turn Against: What is it and how do I do it?
Turn against your argument – challenge it!
The one sentence that acknowledges the opposition
Someone might challenge your argument by…
Different conclusion drawn from same facts
You assumed something that was unwarranted
Key term is used unfairly
Evidence is ignored or played down

6. The Turn Against: What is it and how do I do it?
Someone might challenge your argument by…
One or more disadvantages or practical drawbacks to what you propose
EXAMPLE: Eaarth and locally grown foods
AN alternative explanation or proposal that makes more sense

7. The Turn Against: What is it and how do I do it?
“Some might say…”
Use phrases like…
“One might object that…”
“It might seem that…”
“Its true that…”
“Admittedly…”
“Of course…”
“Some might say…”
Counterargument
“However”
“But”
The Rebuttal
“I argue that…”

8. The Turn Against: What is it and how do I do it?
State the argument against yourself as briefly but clearly and forcefully as possible!

9. What is it and how do I do it?
The Turn Back
What is it and how do I do it?

10. The Turn Back: What is it and how do I do it?
Return to your own argument!
Announce your return with…
“But,” “Yet,” “However,” “Still,” “Nevertheless”
Involve CAREFUL reasoning (not flippant or nervous dismissal

11. The Turn Back: What is it and how do I do it?
In reasoning about the counterargument you may…
refute it, showing why it is mistaken—an apparent but not real problem;
acknowledge its validity or plausibility, but suggest why on balance it's relatively less important or less likely than what you propose, and thus doesn't overturn it

12. The Counterargument
Where do I put it?

13. The Counterargument: Where do I put it?
Introduction
Body Paragraph 1
Body Paragraph 2
Counterargument
Conclusion
There are many different places one can put a counterargument!
For our purposes you will put your counterargument…
After your body paragraphs and before your conclusion! (Yes you must have one)

14. What about pre-writing and revising?
The Counterargument
What about pre-writing and revising?

15. Counterargument: Pre-Writing and Revising
Your thesis must be ARGUABLE!
Consider the other side of the argument when writing your thesis:
“How might someone disagree with my thesis?”
Are you stuck?
Listen to class discussion about the topic: someone is bound to disagree eventually
Ask different people how they feel about your topic

16. Counterargument: Pre-Writing and Revising
Pro Tips:
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

17. Let’s Practice!
We will write a counterargument together!
Lets pick a topic!
The Turn Against
The Turn Back
Evidence
Concluding Sentence

18. Go forth and create perfect counterarguments!

19. Presentation template by SlidesCarnival Photographs by Unsplash
Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free:
Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
Photographs by Unsplash