Once your evidence is weighed, turn to the other side. A counterargument is the strongest case against your claim, stated fairly. Debaters call this steelmanning: building the other side’s best version before you answer it (see Steelman vs Strawman).
Key idea
State the strongest opposing view in terms its supporters would accept, then answer it. A fair counterargument makes your own case more convincing, not less.
Why it works
Your readers already know the main objections, and some of them hold those objections. If you skip them, readers assume you can’t answer them. If you state them fairly, you show good sense and goodwill (ethos), and you get to answer the objection on your own terms.
Phrases that introduce the other side
- Some parents argue that …
- A fair objection is that …
- Critics of the plan point out that …
- It is true that …, and this deserves an answer.
Worked example: Strongest or weakest?
Claim: the high school should start at 8:30. Which counterargument is the strongest to answer? (A) “Opponents just like making teenagers suffer.” (B) “A later start would push sports practices and after-school jobs later into the evening, and bus routes are shared with the elementary schools.” (C) “Teenagers would only waste the extra time.”
- A attacks the opponents’ motives; no supporter of the early start would accept it.
- C is a weak version that is easy to dismiss.
- B is what thoughtful opponents say: real costs to schedules and buses. It is the version its supporters would recognize.
Answer: B. Answer the strongest version; answering A or C would be a straw man.
Common mistake
Answering the weakest objection, a straw man, or leaving out the other side entirely. Check: would someone who disagrees with you read your summary of their view and say, “Yes, that’s what I think”? If not, rewrite it until they would. The Logic Ladder’s principle of charity is the same idea.