Devil's Advocate: Rebutting the Opposition

A terrific arguing tool is the rebuttal. Refuting opposition arguments naturally strengthens your side. In order to refute arguments effectively, you must anticipate the other side's best points and point out the flaws in those arguments. In this activity, we are going to see how well you can defend yourself against opposition arguments.

I will put you in groups of two. Then, each of you in turn will present the thesis of your funding proposal. It is up to your partner to form objections to that argument. Each of these objections should be written down. After each objection, you defend your thesis by refuting that objection (write a brief summary of how you did so on the paper as well). Each person should come up with at least two legitimate objections for the other’s thesis before moving on to the next one.

Any legitimate objections above and beyond the minimum two are worth one point extra credit each for the person who comes up with them.

This is called "Devil's Advocate" because you are taking a side you might not necessarily agree with in order to find holes in any given argument. It's all about being able to put yourself in other people's shoes.

At the end of class, I will take up your answers.