PERSUASIVE PATTERN: 49. Create the counterargument (persuasive paper)

49. Create the Counterargument (persuasive paper):

this is an essential skill for all persuasive essay writers, but it is also the mark of a fine writer who is analyzing a single text. The goal of essay writing is not to create a fortress of evidence that makes your claims incontrovertible; the goal is to enter into a conversation about a text or topic. Even if you have never read an opposing view to your claims, you can anticipate an opposing view and great writers converse with that opposing view in their arguments. The first step is to summarize-without criticism-what the opposing view is. The starters below will help you do so.

For example, in the paragraph below the “counterargument starters” are in bold:

Many critics believe Eve is vain and therefore was predestined to fall by God, but her obsession with her first view image is a natural fascination that is mistaken as vanity. The reader can make a parallel with Eve and Narcissus, a Greek God in love with himself. In his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton describes Eve’s reaction as she looks into a pool of water at herself. Milton writes:

A shape within the wat’ry gleam appeared

Bending to look on me, I startled back,

It startled back but please I soon returned,

Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks

Of sympathy and love; there I had fixed

Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire

(IV, 460-465)

(context): At this point in the epic poem, the reader has encountered the powerful, persuasive, and compelling Satan for 3,000 lines, and this is our first view of our parents-Adam and Eve. (condense): In this passage Eve is encountering her image for the first time. (counter argument): In discussions of this text, whether or not God predestined Eve to fall so that He could pardon Adam and Eve after the fall and thereby maintain power over them and their progeny has been a controversial issue. (concede): It is true that Milton refers to Eve’s gaze at her self as loving, pining and desirous. (converse): While Milton’s use of the word “vain” to describe Eve’s gaze at her image leads the reader to believe Eve is self-centered and susceptible to evil, it does not necessarily follow that Eve is vain and hopeless in her defense against Satan’s flattery. It is my view that the narcissistic interpretation of Eve is false. In his criticism of Paradise Lost, “Discovery As Form in Paradise Lost,” Stanley Eugene Fish explains how the reader tends to only see the surface of the situation. He writes, “On the surface, the account of Eve’s infatuation with her reflected image…seems to deny the freedom of the unfallen will by circumscribing our first parents…Yet in each instance Milton provides evidence that makes it possible for the reader to disengage these incidents from the Fall.” (Fish, 530) It is impossible that Prelapsarian Eve is conceited or vain, because God created Adam and Eve as perfect human beings. We must remember the description of Adam and Eve as “(t)he image of their glorious Maker shone, / Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure” (IV, 293-294) Eve and Adam can’t have these characteristics because God created them with perfection. Eve has never seen what she looks like, and is simply interested in the image she sees. Anyone in this situation would be curious, and somewhat complacent if they had never before seen themselves. So, Eve was capable of remaining obedient to God.

SUMMARIZING CONVENTIONAL VIEW STARTERS:

-A dominant view of this passage is ________________________________.

-In the critical essay “ ,” the author argues that _____________________________________.

-In our class discussion, it was asserted that _________________________.

-In discussions of this text, a controversial issue has been_________________________.

-My teacher has argued that _________________________________________.

-Although my teachers have never directly said so, many given the impression that they believe that ______________________________________.

-Many critics believe that ___________________________________________.

-It is common to believe that _____________________________________.

-Americans today contend that ____________________________________.

-Common sense has it that ___________________________________________.

-It has often been said that _________________________________________.

-One would think that ______________________________________________.

-Many people assume that because __________________________________, then _____________________________________________.

SUMMARIZING WHO EXPRESSES THE OPPOSITE VIEW:

-Many religious people / atheists / feminists / conservatives / liberals / independents / children / adolescents / adults / … object that _____________________________________________________.

-Although not all religious people / atheists / feminists / conservatives / liberals / independents / children / adolescents / adults / …think alike, some will disagree with my claim that _________________________.

USING QUESTIONS TO SUMMARIZE THE OPPOSITE VIEW:

-Is it really true that _______________________________? Some believe that ______________________________.

-Does my analysis prove that _______________________________? Some could say that __________________________________________.