Exercises — Week 32: Week 32 — Rebuttal Strategy and Steelmanning
2 hands-on tasks. Do them in order; each one feeds the Canvas item it names.
40 min · written
1. Steelman and Rebuttal
- Take a claim from any argument you have written this semester.
- Write the steelmanned version of the primary opposing argument: four to six sentences constructing the opposing case as powerfully as you can. Pass the steelman test — could the opposing side recognize this as their position?
- Write a six-to-eight-sentence rebuttal using one of the four strategies (refute, undercut, absorb, or qualify). Label the strategy used.
- Write one sentence assessing whether your rebuttal successfully defeats the steelmanned version, and why.
Turn in / bring: Steelmanned opposing argument, labeled rebuttal using a named strategy, and one-sentence self-assessment.
25 min · analysis
2. Warrant Undercutting Analysis
- Find a published argument whose rebuttal of an opposing view challenges the warrant connecting the opposing evidence to the opposing claim — rather than disputing the evidence itself.
- Write two sentences: (1) naming the opposing claim and the evidence the opposing side offers; (2) explaining specifically how the writer challenges the warrant rather than the evidence.
Turn in / bring: Two-sentence warrant-undercutting analysis.