Naysayer-Subject/Adjuncts

Graff and Birkenstein talk in these chapters about inserting a naysayer into your writing. Basically trying to jump anyone to the punch who may not agree with what you have written or what your argument is. In this way it is possible to disarm some of the people who would disagree with you. They give us more templates to use in order to properly insert a naysayer. They also suggest that we let other arguments be known so that we as writers are saying that we are aware of the other arguments but that we still believe what we are writing, our argument, is the right argument. This is there main subject, however they warn us against the adjunct of this subject.

The adjunct of this subject is that there are those who will believe the counter-argument more than they will believe your argument. They give the example of Benjamin Franklin who converted to Deism because in reading arguments against Deism, he found himself believing the counter-argument more than the argument for. That is one thing we need to be careful of. Of course there are many counter-arguments that will be very influential so we as writers need to be careful of what we use as a counter-argument to our arguments.