Senior English

1. Prepare for class by… • Grab an essay from the tray by the door • Warm Up: • Grab an essay from the tray. At the top, write “Opposing Positions & Counterarguments” Senior English Independence and Inquiry • Agenda: • Warm Up • Example Essay + Think Aloud • Notes • Pre-Writing Journaling+ research March 12-13, 2014 • Objectives • Students will understand how to incorporate and respond to opposing positions.

2. Options for Counterarguments • Acknowledging Readers’ Concerns • You take their point of view seriously, even if you don’t agree with it

3. Acknowledge… The homeless, it seems, can be roughly divided into two groups: those who have had marginality and homelessness forced upon them and want nothing more than to escape them, and a smaller number who have at least in part chosen marginality, and now accept, or in a few cases, embrace it. I understand how dangerous it can be to introduce the idea of choice into a discussion of homelessness. It can all too easily be used for all the wrong reasons by the wrong people to justify indifference or brutality toward the homeless, or to argue that they are getting only what they deserve. And I understand, too, how complicated the notion can become: Many of the veterans on the street, or battered women, or abused and runaway children, have chosen this life only as the lesser of evils, and because, in this society, there is often no place else to go. Nonetheless we must learn to accept that there may indeed be people on the street who have seen so much of our world, or have seen it so clearly, that to live in it becomes impossible.

4. Options for Counterarguments • Accommodating Readers’ Concerns • Not just acknowledge their concerns, but accept some of them and incorporate into your own argument.

5. Accommodate… Another argument is that ethnic group leaders are too inclined to cry wolf in alleging racial insensitivity in ana attempt to avoid accusations of hypersensitivity and political correctness. Often, this is the case. But no one should overlook genuine cases of political insensitivity in an attempt to avoid accusations of hypersensitivity and political correctness.

6. Options for Counterarguments • Refute Objections • Assert that they are wrong and argue against them

7. Refute Objections • Support: • Statistics • Anecdotes • Authorities • Examples

8. Refute: What not to do… • Straw Man • Don’t choose the weakest opposing position and knock that down • Ad Hominem • Don’t misrepresent their position or criticize them personally

9. Reason #1: Opposing Position: (List as many as you can, then star the strongest) Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute

10. Independent Work • For each reason, think of as many opposing positions. Choose the best and write that down • Come up with support for the opposing position • Acknowledge or accommodate at least one

11. Thesis Notes • Arguable—not stated as fact or as opinion • Clear and precise wording • Example of what not to do, “Democracy is a way of life.” • Appropriate Qualifications • Controversial issues have no clear cut answers • Words like “probably”, “very likely”, “apparently”, “it seems” • Avoid words like “

12. Thesis Journal Write • Write at least 3 theses that are arguable, have clear and precise wording, and make appropriate qualifications • Circle the strongest one

13. Outline • Thesis • Reason #1 • Support • Opposing Position • Support • Acknowledge/ Accommodate/ Refute • Reason #2 • Support • Opposing Position • Support • Acknowledge/ Accommodate/ Refute • Reason #3…