Productive Counterargument
Prompt:The Productive Counterargument engages in mutually productive deliberation on a local issue. State your argument in direct response to an opposing view. Your goal is to listen rhetorically to other positions (what do they believe--and why?), civilly engage with an opposing view (you may need to concede some points), and influence a skeptical audience to understand your position.
Process:Identify a problem or issue that merits your taking a stand and identify one published position that differs from your own. As part of yourproposal, provide a copy (or link) of the existing argument you would like to refute. Explain your exigence and purpose for addressing this topic, and identify an audience you can address.
As you aredrafting, introduce the issue and explain the argument to which you are responding in your introduction. Conclude your introduction with a clear thesis statement that articulates your counterargument. Then, in the body paragraphs, craft strong topic sentences that refute relevant points of the initial argument and advance a position of your own. To support your position, you should have sufficient evidence (from credible sources) that is properly integrated, cited, and developed through your own reasoning.
After drafting, you will switch drafts with a classmate and conduct apeer evaluation; their feedback will inform your revisions. Edit and proofread your work before submitting the final draft.
The one-page cover letter should explain your rhetorical decision-making; for this paper, it should include: (1) the common ground you have established with your rhetorical audience, and (2) how you have used the available means of persuasion to assert the validity of your position to that audience.
Style:In addition to a correctly used introductory or parenthetical expression set off by commas and a correctly integrated and punctuated quotation, you will be asked to include coordinating and subordinating conjunctions (at least one of each).
Format:Your final draft should be 4-5 pages (double-spaced, TNR font, 1” margins). When citing your outside source(s), follow MLA format (seeNHGCh. 19 and/or the PSU Libraries’ Citation Research Guide: http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/mlacitation).
Criteria for Evaluation:Your essay should
- respond to an existing argument with a rhetorically effective counterargument, driven by a
clear thesis statement and topic sentences, and addressing a specific rhetorical audience;
- use research that is credible, appropriate, and properly cited following MLA guidelines
- employ an introductory or parenthetical expression set off by commas, a correctly integrated and
punctuated quotation, and subordinating and coordinating conjunctions (at least one each).