IXL | Evaluate counterclaims | 10th grade language arts

Consider this claim:

East Coast beaches are more suitable for playing in the sand and sea than West Coast beaches are.

Now consider how someone might argue against this. Which sentence presents the stronger and more reasonable counterclaim to the above claim?

West Coast beaches get more sunshine and are less likely to experience bad weather like thunderstorms, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

Most West Coast beaches are free, but many of the most popular East Coast beaches require beachgoers to pay fees.

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Learn with an example

question

Consider this claim:

A "staycation"—a stay-at-home vacation from school or work—is more fun and relaxing than a typical vacation away from home.

Now consider how someone might argue against this. Which sentence presents the stronger and more reasonable counterclaim to the above claim?

If you stay at home instead of going away, you could easily end up spending your "vacation" doing chores.

There are plenty of charming, out-of-the-way places that you can easily get to by car if you don't want to fly somewhere.

key idea

When you're writing an argument, you want to consider how someone might argue against your claim. Arguments against your claim are called counterclaims, or counterarguments. Acknowledging counterclaims makes you appear more fair and balanced as a writer, and refuting counterclaims strengthens your argument.

You don't need to address every possible counterclaim that you can think of while writing. Instead, you should decide which counterclaims are the strongest and address those. Strong counterclaims directly address a claim without making any exaggerations; they provide logical reasons why someone might object to the claim. For instance, consider the following claim:

Super strength would make a better superpower than being able to fly.

This would be a strong counterclaim:

green checkmark, While super strength would only be useful occasionally, flying would make your daily life easier.

In contrast, these would not be strong counterclaims:

red X symbol, Many popular superheroes in movies and on television are able to fly.

This counterclaim does not directly address the claim. The claim is about which superpower is better, not which superpowers are used by popular superheroes.

red X symbol, Super strength would cause you to hurt everyone around you, since you would always hug or shake hands too hard.

This counterclaim is an exaggeration. Having super strength would not necessarily cause you to harm everyone by always giving crushing hugs and handshakes.

red X symbol, With the ability to fly, you would have to wear special goggles to protect your eyes.

This counterclaim uses faulty reasoning. It actually presents a reason why being able to fly is worse, not better, than super strength.

solution

Consider the claim:

A "staycation"—a stay-at-home vacation from school or work—is more fun and relaxing than a typical vacation away from home.

This is a strong counterclaim since it offers a reasonable challenge to the claim:

green checkmark, If you stay at home instead of going away, you could easily end up spending your "vacation" doing chores.

This is not a strong counterclaim:

red X symbol, There are plenty of charming, out-of-the-way places that you can easily get to by car if you don't want to fly somewhere.

This counterclaim does not directly address the claim. The claim is about whether staycations are better than traveling, not about whether driving is better than flying.

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O.4Identify counterclaims

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