By K. Tran
How fixated are you that school is the road to personal success a hundred percent of the time? Would you consider a person who dropped out of high school or college a failure? Do you think a drop-out’s point of view matters? Well, you should hear what a drop-out has to say. Consider Bill Gates, a self-made billionaire drop-out, as an inspirational example compared to a homeless person with an engineering degree. This is one of the many examples where having a well-rounded perspective matters, which is a critical skill in writing. In the book, The Craft of Research, the authors emphasize the need to consider perspectives that differ from yours because sometimes the other viewpoints could invalidate your argument. The authors explained, “No matter how rich your evidence, readers are likely to think of exceptions and counterexamples that they believe undermine your argument.” If you do not address possible alternatives to your argument, your readers are likely to dismantle it before you even put down your pen.
I, too, sometimes neglect to respond to different alternatives and counterarguments because it is too burdensome to consider. However, it could be a wonderful addition if one of your evidence could counter the counterargument. For example, let’s say you argue that eating chocolate is unhealthy because it contains a lot of sugar that may cause diabetes. Then, someone may argue that dark chocolate is known to be healthy because of its antioxidants. You may state the claim that dark chocolate is also unhealthy because some are made with processed sugars. And you can also suggest blueberries as a source of antioxidants to invalidate the reader’s counter-argument. Going through this process makes your argument stronger because it shows you don’t have a biased view and that you can hold your ground against all the alternatives and counters to dismiss your argument. This skill can make you effective at winning arguments or persuading others which are essential for certain occupations later in life. Well not that far in life (look at the meme below).