CONCLUSION
This follow-up assignment is designed for students whose grasp of relevant
arguments is good but who seem to have a problem coming to and fully supporting
an overall conclusion.
Your new assignment includes the requirement that you must come to a conclusion in your next stage. You must have a thesis and you must support it with reasons, and explain and refute at least one substantial argument against your position.
The
first thing to remember is that you just have to come to a conclusion for the
sake of this exercise. You don't have to believe the conclusion you come to.
The
second thing is that this conclusion is just about the overall import of the
evidence and arguments you happen to have. It's not a conclusion about the issue
as a whole because you haven't had time to study the issue as a whole. It's
just a conclusion about what thesis is best supported by the little bits of
evidence and argument that you are able to consider right now.
First,
figure out which side bears the reasonable burden of proof for
this issue (this can be tricky) and write a paragraph explaining
which it is and why. (Call this the "pro" side.) If you decide that neither side bears the burden of proof, say so in your paper and explain why.
Second, pick
the best argument you have found so far for the pro side, and write a paragraph
explaining that argument as clearly and completely as you can.
Third,
find out what the other ("con") side says against that argument, and/or
work out your own criticism(s) of that pro argument, and explain all the criticism(s)
as clearly and completely as you can.
Fourth, say whether or not
any criticism succeeds in defeating the pro argument, and explain why or
why not.
(If the argument is defeated, and you have time, do another
argument for the side that bears the burden of proof. And so on until you've
filled up a couple of pages.)
Finally, say whether or not any of the
pro arguments that you've examined survives all the criticism you've thrown against
it. If one does, then as far as this assignment is concerned, the pro side has
won. If no pro argument has survived the criticism, then as far as this
assignment is concerned, the con side has won. Explain your results, and
add any further comments you feel like adding.
If neither side bore the burden of proof, and each side ended up with what looks to you like a pretty good argument, you could end up concluding that you can't decide. In that case, your last paragraph should say you can't decide, and explain why.
Here's a model of what this might look like. odysseymodel.htm
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