The RSCC
Online Writing Lab

Argumentation/Proposals: Anticipating Objections
and Making Concessions

When writing an argumentative research paper, it is helpful to include two important writing strategies: anticipating objections and making concessions.

 
Anticipating objections--When you anticipate objections to your argument or proposal, you are making an effort to see the others' viewpoints. By making an effort, I mean you actually state other viewpoints. You are also troubleshooting problems that you must overcome to write a thorough proposal or position paper.

 
Making concessions--When you make a concession, you actually give in to part of the other person's objections or views. You admit that he is half right, perhaps, or that he has a valid concern. Then you overcome that concern by logic and/or a solution.
If you cannot find any objections or concessions, then you are probably not writing an argumentative paper.

Rationale

Without anticipating objections and making concessions, you are making many statements about yourself that you may not be aware of. You may be saying, for instance, that you are narrow-minded, lazy, or opinionated. You could be, in fact, proving your own ignorance (or your lack of it) by what you leave in and what you leave out of a paper. Such a paper is revealing, and, as such, can be dangerous to your employment health.

Since one of the reasons for writing a position paper is to persuade another person to take your side, what you also do if you ignore other sides is to antagonize your readers and insult their intelligence. If your audience feels that you are not interested in their viewpoints, then there is no reason for them to continue reading your argument. If you are writing a proposal, your audience might dismiss the proposal altogether if it lacks these points. If you have not anticipated objections and made concessions, then you run the risk of seeming to have shallow ideas.

Making concessions and anticipating objections also gives you a built-in checklist to make sure that you have covered all the bases you need to in order to write a thorough proposal or position paper.

The practice also enlarges thinking, forcing writers to realize that they are only a small part of a very complex universe and that other points of view not only exist, but have validity.
 

Examples

You are writing a position paper about censorship. Begin with your introduction and thesis (position). Then write several paragraphs in which you discuss censorship and support your viewpoint. After discussing your viewpoint, write a single paragraph like the following:
While censorship is dangerous to a free society, some of the concerned citizens who are in favor of censorship may have valid points when they object that children should not be exposed to television violence. [Here you have made a concession and anticipated an objection in one sentence.] Indeed, often there is too much violence on television [Again, a concession, a point of agreement.] Perhaps the answer is for all networks to establish the same guidelines of self-censorship [Here I offer a partial solution most can agree on.] If the networks were more responsible and tried to avoid material that is in poor taste, governmental officials, religious groups, and concerned parents might not feel the need to be involved in their decisions at all.
Notice that in the above paragraph I did not call the opposition "ridiculous" or "absurd," which would automatically antagonize them. I called them "concerned citizens" because from their point of view, that's exactly what they are.

You are writing a proposal to your boss in order to show the merits of buying computer hardware instead of word-processing hardware for your office. Begin with an introduction and thesis (proposal). After writing several explanatory paragraphs about computers, complete with support, insert a different paragraph:
It is true, word-processors are less expensive than computers. [You meet the big objection dead on. The concession is your agreement.] However, we must also consider the cost of servicing and supplies, which are much higher for word-processors than they are for computers, making word processors less expensive only in the short run. Additionally, a computer is capable of many tasks, while a word-processor alone is not. As our business grows, we can easily expand our computer software to meet new needs, such as spreadsheet and desktop publishing capabilities.

Here is also your opportunity to actually compare costs; this shows you've really done your job thoroughly.


 Copyright 1988 Jennifer Jordan-Henley

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