Acknowledgment and Response: Engaging with Opposing Viewpoints in Academic Writing, Exams of Reasoning

Download Acknowledgment and Response: Engaging with Opposing Viewpoints in Academic Writing and more Exams Reasoning in PDF only on Docsity! Title of Module: Acknowledgment and Response Collaborator’s Name: Marie Satya McDonough Outline of Module 1) What is acknowledgement and response? a. Why to acknowledge and respond to differing viewpoints b. in the final version of your essay c. while drafting 2) How to carry out acknowledgement and response a. acknowledging objections b. responding to them 3) Where to acknowledge and respond to other viewpoints a. at the beginning of the essay b. in the last body paragraph of the essay c. within body paragraphs Video 1: Acknowledgement and Response What is acknowledgment and response? By now, you might have been talking in class about how writing is a way of entering the conversation – of engaging with your readers and with other people who have also thought about the issues you’re thinking about. When you write an essay, you consider what other people have said before deciding how you’re going to take a stand – and you consider how the people reading your work might respond to your argument. Acknowledgment and response is the term we use to describe how you can explicitly identify, within your essay, how people have disagreed with you and how people might disagree with you, and explain why you’re still right. Some people call this two-part process, the acknowledgment of the possible or actual objection to your argument and your response to that objection, “counterargument” for short, and I’ll be using both terms in these videos. In this module, we’ll first go over why to acknowledge and respond to differing viewpoints; then we’ll talk about how to actually carry out both the acknowledgement and the response; and last, we’ll discuss different options for placing counterarguments within your essay. Why make a counterargument? There are some kinds of writing where you might want to downplay complexity and ignore disagreement. If you were writing a closing argument for a trial, for example, you might want to smooth over information that didn’t support your case. But academic writing generally embraces complications, because the goal is really to figure out what’s true – what the best thing to think or what the best thing to do might be. In order to do that, you have to consider other alternatives, possible objections, different definitions or values or interpretations, and respond to them thoughtfully. In your final essay, acknowledgement and response is critical for two reasons. - First, it allows you to anticipate and address your reader’s objections or doubts. That way, they don’t leave your essay still thinking about their objection, or thinking that you haven’t thought of it yourself, or that you have no answer to it. - Just as importantly, it presents you as a certain kind of person to your reader: someone who’d rather face a problem head-on than ignore it; someone who cares about discovering the truth, rather than simply arguing for a position regardless of its merits; someone who thinks about different possibilities before settling on an argument. Acknowledgement and response makes you seem like a more trustworthy writer, which in turns makes your essay more persuasive. But acknowledgment and response are also essential to the drafting process. Counterarguments allow you to test your ideas when you still have time to revise them. Often, imagining a good counterargument shows you a way to make your original claim more complex or nuanced. In my own writing, I know that the best essays I’ve written have come when there was a piece of evidence that just didn’t fit with my original argument – and I was forced to change and complicate my argument as a result. Video 2: How to Acknowledge and Respond to Other Viewpoints When you write an academic essay, you make an argument: you advance a claim and offer some reasons, supported by evidence, that suggest why the claim is true. When you counter-argue, you consider a possible argument against your claim or some aspect of your reasoning. Counterargument in an essay has two parts: first, you acknowledge how others might challenge or have challenged your argument, and second, you respond to those challenges and reaffirm your own argument. Acknowledging other points of view The acknowledgment part of acknowledgment and response takes two main forms. At the simplest level, you can imagine a skeptical reader who points out: - a problem with your argument, for example that you’re ignoring or minimizing crucial evidence that doesn’t fit with your claim, or that other people might define a key term differently than you’re defining it; - one or more disadvantages or practical drawbacks to what you propose; - or even, an alternative explanation or proposal that makes more sense. You introduce this counterargument with a signal phrase to cue your reader that you are now turning against your argument: - One might object here that... - It might seem that... - While it's true that... quite important to spend enough time on reaffirming your view: you want to leave your reader remembering your argument, not the objection to it. Last, you might be familiar with acknowledgment and response within a body paragraph of your essay. Usually, this takes the form of a quick gesture that anticipates an objection that your reader might have to the specific part of your argument or evidence being addressed in that paragraph. It occupies no more than a couple lines. It does not take your reader’s attention too far away from the arc of your own argument. Acknowledgment and Response in Introductions Opening your introduction by acknowledging other points of view is quite common in academic essays. That’s because academic writing is all about entering a conversation that already exists among scholars. Starting by discussing what others have said about your topic shows your readers that you’re aware of the conversation, and that you have a good sense of the impact your own contribution might make. When you begin your essay by acknowledging a point of view with which you will disagree, especially, or whose limitations you’re going to point out, the existence of that different point of view is what motivates the essay. Correcting it – showing your readers why it’s wrong and, in most cases, what they should think instead – becomes the reason why you’re writing the essay — and why your readers will want to read it. Conclusion All in all, acknowledgment and response is a key tool in academic writing. When done well, it preemptively addresses your readers’ concerns and convinces them that you’re operating in good faith – which makes your argument all the more persuasive. Adapted from: Colomb, Greg, and Jon D'Errico. Grounds for Argument. University of Virginia, groundsforargument.org. Accessed 18 October 2019. Graff, Gerald, et al. “They Say / I Say.” 3rd ed., W.W. Norton, 2015. Harvey, Gordon. “Counterargument.” Harvard College Writing Center, https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/counter-argument. Accessed 1 October 2019. Turabian, Kate L. Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. 5th ed., University of Chicago Press, 2019. Williams, Joseph M., and Colomb, Gregory C. A Guide to Teaching The Craft of Argument. Pearson, 2007. Notes and Additional Instructions for the module: Instructors might want to refer students to pp. 81-83 in Turabian or ch. 4, 5, and especially 6 in “They Say / I Say” for Acknowledgement and Response templates. The Grounds for Argument website is also an excellent resource for templates: see http://www.groundsforargument.org/drupal/AandR/sidebar/language.