Writing Techniques: Counter Argument and Organization

The two writing techniques we talked about this week were counterarguments and organization.

For counterarguments I think that the most effective way to counter an argument would be to; First, acknowledge the argument as politely as possible. No one is going to listen to you if all you do is beat down something that may be their opinion. Second, tell why your argument is better than the counter. Again, no rudeness should be involved in this; every time a derogatory comment is made, another listener/reader is lost. And third, disprove the argument. There is a reason you are making your own argument and you should be able to stay true to that argument no matter what others say about it.

As for organization. My ENGL 251 teacher told my class that your first draft should be “crummy.” Then, as you revise, you should be able to organize your thoughts better. The organization of your paper should make sense. Each new thought should follow the next in a reasonable order. Without a clear organization the reader will lose interest because it’s harder to understand. A good way I’ve found to have good organization is to make an outline. I an very much a Roman numeral outline maker, and it really does help me figure out how I’m going to organize, not just my paper, but the paragraphs and sections within my paper.