4.6 Concessions and Counter Arguments: Practice
Learning Objectives
- Identify concessions and counterarguments
- Practice writing concessions and counterarguments
Concession Statement Practice
Read the following paragraphs, in order to determine when the author makes concessions to his own argument.
Which sentences offer clear concessions to the author’s own argument? There is one clear concession offered in each paragraph.
Select the highlighted part of a sentence to try and identify the correct concession.
Let’s try another. Select the highlighted part of a sentence to try and identify the correct concession.
In both cases, the authors offer the concession – what an opponent of his argument would state – and then the authors counter that concession with their own point, a first step towards counter-arguing.
Concession and Counterargument Practice
Look at the following statements. In the first example, you are given the objection. The goal is to be able to structure the objection into a concession, and once you’ve done that, your next step is to reasonably counter it. You’ve been given an example to start. Your goal, in terms of structure, is to follow this pattern:
- [Some might argue/It seems logical to argue that] add your possible Objection and Rationale for that Objection.
- [However], add your Assertion offered as a counter-point.
Example 1:
The first example is done for you.
Possible Objection: Video games cause children to shoot people
Your Assertion: Violent media existed before video games
Concession and Counter-Argument: Some might argue that video games cause children to shoot people. After all, youth violence appears to be on the rise in today’s world. However, violent media existed before video games, and in order to blame video games, we would have to ignore the historical outrage at things like movies, comic books, rock and roll, and Dungeons and Dragons.
Example 2:
In this second scenario, you are given your assertion. This is slightly more difficult, but the goal here is to come up with a reasonable concession and then use the objection to structure a concession and the assertion to structure a reasonable counter. You’ve been given an example to start:
Your Assertion: Requiring students to dress professionally restricts personal freedom.
Possible Objection: A mandatory dress code would encourage post-secondary students to take their education more seriously.
Concession and Counter-Argument: Although it seems logical to argue that a mandatory dress code would encourage post-secondary students to take their education more seriously, requiring students to dress professionally restricts their personal freedom. Furthermore, post-secondary institutions like Fanshawe College are not professional workplaces, and many students learn more effectively when they dress comfortably.
