IXL | Evaluate counterclaims | 11th grade language arts

Consider this claim:

Because of their high visibility within society, celebrities have a responsibility to be positive role models.

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

If celebrities were expected to be role models, no one would want to be a celebrity anymore because it would be too much pressure.

Celebrities are just people who have their own problems like anyone else, so it is unfair to expect them to behave better than other people do.

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

Consider this claim:

The United States should convert to the metric system, as almost all other countries have.

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

It would be tremendously expensive to convert to the metric system, so converting would spell financial disaster for the United States.

It would be too time-consuming and disruptive to convert to the metric system, given the sheer breadth of things that would have to be changed.

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:

The United States should convert to the metric system, as almost all other countries have.

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

green checkmark, It would be too time-consuming and disruptive to convert to the metric system, given the sheer breadth of things that would have to be changed.

This is not a strong counterclaim:

red X symbol, It would be tremendously expensive to convert to the metric system, so converting would spell financial disaster for the United States.

This counterclaim is an exaggeration. It is unreasonable to believe that converting to the metric system would mean financial disaster for the U.S.

$Confetti$

Excellent!

Now entering the Challenge Zone—are you ready?

Questions
answeredQuestions

Time
elapsedTime

hr	min	sec
00	00	06

SmartScore
out of 100
IXL's SmartScore is a dynamic measure of progress towards mastery, rather than a percentage grade. It tracks your skill level as you tackle progressively more difficult questions. Consistently answer questions correctly to reach excellence (90), or conquer the Challenge Zone to achieve mastery (100)! Learn more

Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? This can help:

K.5Evaluate counterclaims

Excellent! You got that right!

Jumping to level 1 of 1

Excellent!