Acknowledgments and Responses

1. Acknowledgments and Responses The Craft of Research, Chapter 10 Ping Wang Tetherless World Constellation Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

2. Outline • Questioning Your Argument • Finding Alternatives to Your Argument • Deciding What to Acknowledge • Responses as Subordinate Arguments

3. Overview • To convince readers that they are thoughtful and judicious. • Imagine your readers asking questions • Acknowledge and respond to that imagined questioning, to suggested alternatives and to outright objections

4. Questioning Your Argument • Once you have the core of your own argument • 1. Question your problem • Why have you defined the problem in that way? • Why do you think there is any problem here at all? • 2. Question your solution • Exactly what kind of solution are you proposing? • Why is your conceptual answer (practical solution) better than others?

5. 3. Question your support, focusing first on your evidence. • It isn’t accurate/precise enough/ current/representative/authoritative • You need more evidence. • The best time to fix a problem is when you find it. • If you don’t show readers that you have put your own argument through the wringer, they will do it for you.

6. Finding Alternatives to Your Argument • Alternatives in Your Sources • Note where a source takes an approach different from yours, focuses on different aspects of the problem, etc. • Note any alternative positions the source cites • Reflect on how that writer sees your issue differently from you • Respond by explaining why you didn’t use some evidence • You’ll better anticipate weaknesses or limits to your argument

7. Three Predictable Alternatives • 1. “But there are causes in addition to the one you claim.” • 2. “But what about these counterexamples?” • 3. “I don’t define X as you do. To me, X means . . .”

8. Deciding What to Acknowledge • A Goldilocks moment: • acknowledge too many and you distract readers from the core of your argument; acknowledge too few and you seem indifferent to or even ignorant of your readers.

9. Selecting Alternatives to Respond To • 1. Consider the priorities • 2. Look for alternatives that let you repeat a part of your argument. • 3. Acknowledge alternatives that may particularly appeal to your readers, but only if you can respond without seeming to be dismissive.

10. Acknowledging Questions You Can’t Answer • If you discover a flaw that you cannot fix or explain away, you can try to redefine your problem or rebuild your argument to avoid it. • But if you cannot, ...

11. Our advice may seem naive, but it is useful: • Openly acknowledge the problem and respond that • the rest of your argument more than balances the flaw; • while the flaw is serious, further research would show a way around it; • while the flaw makes it impossible to accept your claim fully, your argument offers important insight into the question and suggests what a better answer would need.

12. Responses as Subordinate Arguments • You have to respond to your imagined readers’ most thoughtful alternatives and objections with an argument. • When you respond to alternatives with reasons and evidence for rejecting them, you “thicken” your argument, making it increasingly rich and complex, enhancing your credibility. • A Goldilocks choice: not too much, not too little.

13. The Vocabulary of Acknowledgment and Response • Acknowledging • despite, regardless of, or notwithstanding • although, while, and even though • Responding • but, however, or on the other hand

14. Thank you! • Questions?