I found this chapter helpful. In high school when we would write essays I would always have a hard time arguing my point. I would find a source that would go against what I thought, but then I would have a hard time trying to figure out how to counteract that claim.

My senior year my English teacher pushed us to find a claim that went against our own in almost every essay we wrote. This chapter gives good examples and templates that would have been helpful then, but will also be helpful now.

I also liked the example from Katha Pollitt’s paper on page 8. I liked that when she was trying to go against having flags and her daughter saying they should she ended it with, “In a way we’re both right.” When I read argument essays they always try to get the upper hand and knock someone else opinion down, but she thought that both arguments were valid. Normally you try to get people on your side, but her’s just makes you think about both sides.