Refutation - essay writing lesson 4

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Lesson goals: 

- Check a paragraph for its PEELness

- Learn what a counterargument & refutation is and how to use it in your essay. 

How many reasons do you need in your thesis statement to make it strong?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4

A paragraph handed in by one of you:

Point

Teenagers have it harder than their parents.

Evidence
Having to go to school causes stress while parents can stay home and teenagers have to go to school where they are very restricted with wat they can do.

Explanation
Stress because of school is caused because the  fact that teachers aren’t very easily reachable. Parents can stay home which seems very relaxed. Having to go to school isn’t nice either, because you have to wear a mask and you have to keep your distance.

Link
All of this makes it harder for teenagers than for their parents.

Point
Teenagers have it harder than their parents.

Evidence
Having to go to school causes stress while parents can stay home and teenagers have to go to school where they are very restricted with wat they can do.

Explanation
Stress because of school is caused because the  fact that teachers aren’t very easily reachable. Parents can stay home which seems very relaxed. Having to go to school isn’t nice either, because you have to wear a mask and you have to keep your distance.

Link
All of this makes it harder for teenagers than for their parents.

Point
Teenagers have it harder than their parents.

Evidence
Having to go to school causes stress while parents can stay home and teenagers have to go to school where they are very restricted with wat they can do.
--> Stay true to your argument!

Explanation
Stress because of school is caused because the  fact that teachers aren’t very easily reachable.
--> The above is about NOT going to school. Does that match the Evidence?
Parents can stay home which seems very relaxed. Having to go to school isn’t nice either, because you have to wear a mask and you have to keep your distance.

Link
All of this makes it harder for teenagers than for their parents.

Suggestion on how to make paragraph more consistent:

P - Teenagers have it harder than their parents.

Ev - Having to go to school causes stress while parents can stay home and teenagers have to go to school where they are very restricted with wat they can do.
(suggestion: Having to go to school under these dangerous situations causes students to be stressed.)

Ex - Stress because of school is caused because the  fact that teachers aren’t very easily reachable. Parents can stay home which seems very relaxed. Having to go to school isn’t nice either, because you have to wear a mask and you have to keep your distance.
(suggestion: Stressful situations occur when students feel they cannot really connect with their teachers because of social distancing. Furthermore, they cannot interact with their fellow students as they used to and must wear a face mask when leaving their seats.)

L - All of this makes it harder for teenagers than for their parents.
(suggestion: Surely, parents do not have to deal with these hardships as they are in fact kept out of schools as much as possible and can work from home)

So, stick with your argument at all times. Unless you are using a counterargument in order to refute it.

The counterargument

Counterargument = an argument / reason that works against the main argument of your essay. 

When you have provided a counterargument, you need to then disprove / refute the argument to show why it is not as strong as your main argument.

The counterargument should be a way to strengthen your own claim, not make your readers doubt you!

Counterargument & refutation

• In your argumentative essay, you give 3 arguments in favour of your thesis, and your can strengthen your claim by also providing 1 counterargument.
• You must always refute your counterargument (provide a reason why this counterargument is, in fact, not true or weak).

Counterargument paragraph:

1. Make your point - that supports your argument. 
2. Provide counterargument.
3. Refute the counterargument (show that it is NOT a good (enough) argument) and provide example. 
4. Explain why this example disproves the counterargument.
5. Link back to your argument / the next paragraph. 

Linking words to introduce counterargument:

• However
• Nevertheless
• On the other hand
• One could argue ..., but ...
• Although it is true that ..., it would be wrong to claim that ...

COUNTERARGUMENT EXAMPLE: Mobile phones should not be banned in the class room because....

Phones can be extremely distracting for students and they can have a negative effect on their concentration levels. However, that does not mean that phone use should be banned in class in general. For example, teachers often create educational activities such as Kahoot! quizzes for their students as well as using them for research purposes without the students having to leave the classroom. These examples show that the use of mobile phones in the classroom improve the learning of students and allow them to access many more educational activities than if they did not have their mobile phones in the classroom. Banning mobile phones in the classroom would therefore have very negative consequences for students and teachers. 

Counter argument  - refute counterargument -  example to disprove - explanation to disprove - link

How to think of a counterargument?

- Think of the pros and cons of your thesis statement

- Look at the pros and cons list to see which argument you can use against (to counter) your own argument. 

School uniforms

Assignment

Take 5 minutes to come up with as many pros & cons of having a school uniform as you can.

Pros:

Cons:

Assignment: 

Let's return to: Students have a harder time than their parents:
- Come up with cons (counterarguments)
- Pick one and refute it.

Let's look at one more example for 'Teenagers have a harder time than their parents because.. (reason 1, 2 & 3)

Example:

Face masks are holding back teenagers' development as they are detrimental to proper communication since they cover at least half of the face.

One could argue though that parents have to wear face masks too, but they are adults and not held back by them as much as teenagers are.  Parents, while growing up, were never impeded by masks when they were shopping, dating, socialising, overcoming insecurites, or basically, when they were on the very brink of starting their adult lives. They, being the grownups, should be able to deal with this more easily, having already gone through this phase. Teenagers cannot be expected to adapt as easily as their parents do, as they are just at the beginning of it. They need to see each others' faces in order to communicate with each other and learn how to deal with life's challenges.

Point - counterargument - refute counterargument - example to disprove - explanation to disprove - link

Tips!

- Do not write "I think..." - it reduces the strength of your argument. 

- Use full words instead of contractions; don't = do not 

- Use formal language to lift the tone of your essay; want = would like 

(home)work

Write a list of counterarguments

Practise writing a refutation using one of those counterarguments

Next time: we will start a new subject for this term: your introduction to critical reading