February 23

AGENDA:

1. Thesis - take out your argument

What's your point and why should I care? Anticipate the objections to your thesis or argument. There is nothing wrong with a reader disagreeing with your point of view on a topic, but if you hope to persuade at least some of them with your research, you will also need to satisfy the objections some of these readers might have.

If you are having a hard time coming up with any oppositions to your working thesis, you probably have to do more work on shaping and forming your working thesis into a more arguable position.

It might seem illogical, but directly acknowledging and addressing positions that are different from the one you are holding in your research paper can actually make your position stronger. When you take on the antithesis in your paper, it shows you have thought carefully about the issue at hand and you acknowledge that there is no clear or easy "right" answer.

There are many different ways you might incorporate the antithesis into your research paper to make you own thesis stronger and to address the concerns of those readers who might oppose your point of view. For now, focus on three basic strategies: directly refuting your opposition, weighing your position against the opposition, and making concessions.

Be careful using qualifying terms. "Year round school can be good and can be bad for students" and "While there are good reasons for year round school, there are also good reasons to think twice about changing our system." No real position has been taken.

Three columns - 1) one side your argument and reasons; 2) the antithetical argument and reasons; 3) list of how to counter the antithetical argument

Turn in your argument with your three columns and objections and counters to those objections


HW: New vocab on Friday - check out quiz let.com and vocab on blog