English 101 Argument/Persuasive Element Concession/Rebuttal Paragraph A concession/rebuttal (counterargument) paragraph needs to be composed of a concession point that looks at an opposing viewpoint and your rebuttal of that point. It is important to maintain a professional and empathetic voice throughout this section. Remember it will be the strength of ideas that will sway your audience, not the snippiness in your voice. Here are some things to remember when creating and completing this element of your research essay. 1. Transitions – Remember that you are changing tasks when you begin to look at an opposing viewpoint. The previous section was filled with support points that clarified your stance. You need to alert your audience to the change of purpose as you enter your concession. A proper transition should only be a sentence or two, but it will clearly signal to your audience that you are doing something different. Keep in mind that you are not only transitioning out of support and into the concession, but also out of the rebuttal and into another support paragraph or conclusion. 2. Concession – For a strong concession/rebuttal section, it is important that you identify an opposition view point that you can empathize with or at least find validity in. This is important because a strong concession will spend time clarifying, in an even handed manner, what this point is and why it is compelling. Keep in mind that a good concession point convinces your audience that you have looked at all perspectives on the issue, and that you have done so with care and diligence. This strengthens your position in the audiences’ mind and makes them more likely to agree with you in the end. It is important to avoid a list of concession points and focus in on one specific point the opposition may have to your argument. 3. Rebuttal – This section should take your opposition to task. Analyze why this opposition point is weak and is ultimately not strong enough to sway your opinion. Try to be specific in this section and not fall into expressing grand generalities. In the same way that your concession point is narrow and specific, you want to be sure that your refutation is aimed at picking apart this specific point. Be careful of the rebuttal sounding too much like a conclusion or recap of your major support points. Continue to be mindful of your tone and don’t go overboard cutting the opposition down, but you do want to be on the offensive. Example Concession/Rebuttal Paragraph: Though the problems with doctor-assisted suicide are many, there are proponents of legalization of assisted suicide. Those in favor of legalizing doctor assisted suicide will point to medical cases where a patient has been deemed terminally ill, and argue that these patients should have the ability to end their suffering on their terms. It is true that many patients who are terminally ill suffer for lengths of time while their body holds onto life. It can be very painful for l ...

1. English 101
Argument/Persuasive Element
Concession/Rebuttal Paragraph
A concession/rebuttal (counterargument) paragraph needs to be
composed of a concession point that looks at an opposing
viewpoint and your rebuttal of that point. It is important to
maintain a professional and empathetic voice throughout this
section. Remember it will be the strength of ideas that will sway
your audience, not the snippiness in your voice. Here are some
things to remember when creating and completing this element
of your research essay.
1. Transitions – Remember that you are changing tasks when
you begin to look at an opposing viewpoint. The previous
section was filled with support points that clarified your stance.
You need to alert your audience to the change of purpose as you
enter your concession. A proper transition should only be a
sentence or two, but it will clearly signal to your audience that
you are doing something different. Keep in mind that you are
not only transitioning out of support and into the concession,
but also out of the rebuttal and into another support paragraph
or conclusion.
2. Concession – For a strong concession/rebuttal section, it is
important that you identify an opposition view point that you
can empathize with or at least find validity in. This is important
because a strong concession will spend time clarifying, in an
even handed manner, what this point is and why it is
compelling. Keep in mind that a good concession point
convinces your audience that you have looked at all
perspectives on the issue, and that you have done so with care
and diligence. This strengthens your position in the audiences’
mind and makes them more likely to agree with you in the end.

2. It is important to avoid a list of concession points and focus in
on one specific point the opposition may have to your argument.
3. Rebuttal – This section should take your opposition to task.
Analyze why this opposition point is weak and is ultimately not
strong enough to sway your opinion. Try to be specific in this
section and not fall into expressing grand generalities. In the
same way that your concession point is narrow and specific, you
want to be sure that your refutation is aimed at picking apart
this specific point. Be careful of the rebuttal sounding too much
like a conclusion or recap of your major support points.
Continue to be mindful of your tone and don’t go overboard
cutting the opposition down, but you do want to be on the
offensive.
Example Concession/Rebuttal Paragraph:
Though the problems with doctor-assisted suicide are many,
there are proponents of legalization of assisted suicide. Those in
favor of legalizing doctor assisted suicide will point to medical
cases where a patient has been deemed terminally ill, and argue
that these patients should have the ability to end their suffering
on their terms. It is true that many patients who are terminally
ill suffer for lengths of time while their body holds onto life. It
can be very painful for loved ones to have to watch their parent,
partner, or child go through this. The process of death can be
very ugly and bring people to question what is right and wrong
in terms ending a life with assistance from a doctor. While it is
easy to find compassion in this perspective, it creates some
major problems if doctor assisted suicide was legalized to end
patient suffering. We would be changing the role doctor’s have
been trained to play. Doctor’s take an oath to do all they are
capable of to save a life. If assisted suicide was legalize doctors
would be forced to end life. They would be put in the position
of having to decide who can die. Not only does this compromise

3. the morality of a doctor, but it opens the door to many legal
issues hospitals would have to face. Families and loved ones of
a patient whose life was terminated may take legal action if they
were not behind the decision. Hospitals and doctors sole focus
should be on maintaining health, not ending life.
When outlining a C/R paragraph, please consider the following
format:
1. (CP) – Here I will present a full sentence that captures the
Concession Point (opposition point of view).
· Jot in some info to show how I will explain/validate/develop
this idea
(RP) – Here I will present a full sentence that captures my
Rebuttal Point (refutation to the opposition).
· Jot in some info to show how I will explain/develop my
rebuttal.
English 101
Annotated Bib Ex
Database Article
A single annotated bibliography entry will contain three parts:
source info, summary, and analysis of use. Here is a little more
info on those three sections. There is an example entry on the
back side:
Works Cited Entry (Citation): Often can be copied/pasted if the
source is found through the library and/or databases. If you do
not have a citation, please share title and author of source, and
share a link to it if you have that.
Summarize the article: This should be a short paragraph (7-10

4. sentences) relating what the article is about. Annotated
bibliographies are for your use, so the summary should focus on
what you found to be the important or key ideas. It can be a
little ‘less formal than an ‘academic summary’ featured in an
assignment. The goal is to complete a summary that will help
you recall and organize sources for larger research projects.
Assess the article’s usefulness: Like the summary this should be
a short paragraph (7-10 sentences). After the summary, measure
and think about how you might use this article in your own
work or essay. Assessment can be broad (The essay looks at
how violence in video games continues to escalate. I could
easily employ descriptions of programs as support for how the
depiction of violence has become extreme) and/or specific
(quote on page 3 par. 6, perfect for my paragraph on how
extreme violence is being consumed by children as young as
toddlers).
Example Annotated Bibliography Entry
International Communication Association. "Increased time on
Facebook Could Lead Women to Negative Body Images."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 April 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140410083503.htm>.
This source from Science Daily talks about the connection
between time spent on Facebook and a negative body image.

5. The article claims that with more time on Facebook, it allows a
girl to analyze and obsess over friend's bodies and compare
them to her own. This relates to that with more time on
Facebook, women are more worried about appearance.
Appearance incorporates physical, clothes, and makeup. With
the endless obsessing over other people's photos, it causes
women to obsess over their body type and ends up making them
feel very negative about it. This can lead women to eating
disorders and unhealthy relationship with food.
This source will be useful because it is directly related to
women, and has to do with social media. I would like to know if
this is true for other types of social media as well. Social media
is a big driver in popular culture because it is the main way of
communication for most young ages. social media is how idea
are spread and things go viral. In some cases this can be
positive, but in many ways, something offensive gets spread
around and it affects many young girls. This article also makes
me want to do more research about how health of women is
affected by popular
EXAMPLE OUTLINE FOR ESSAY III
Thesis: To battle religious intolerance and blind hate towards
religions in America, religious illiteracy needs to be addressed
in schools. Learning Faith, a student run organization, could
educate the school community about the truth about religions,
contend against misconceptions and stereotypes, and prove that
learning about another faith is beneficial to one’s life.
P1: Religious intolerance and discrimination is a regular
occurrence in America, from mindless bullying at school to hate
crimes towards groups.
I: There are many religions being practiced in the United States,

6. however, society is becoming more liberal, too. Religious
people are sometimes discriminated based on their faith and
what they practice, especially those in the smaller groups of
faith.
E: “Experiences Religious Minorities in Public School Settings”
- A study done showed how junior high and high school
students of religious minority (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and
Universalist Unitarian) were being bullied at school. Both
classmates and teachers bullied through speech, intimidation,
discrimination, exclusion, and physical attack. “According to
FBI hate crimes statistics, there were 1,400 antireligious hate
crime incidents in the United States in the year 2011” (Phillips).
S: Religious intolerance and discrimination is still going on and
desperately needs to be addressed. Innocent believers are being
physically and emotionally hurt every day.
P2: Religious illiteracy - the lack of knowledge on common
religions - is a main cause for religious intolerance.
I: If one isn’t taught the basics of different religions, they are
unaware of what others believe, practice, and especially the
reasoning behind it. The religions can seem logically wrong or
absurd at first, and non-believers could judge and discriminate.
E: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -
and Doesn’t - “...in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when
an Indian American man was shot and killed at an Arizona gas
station by a vigilante who believed the man’s turban marked
him as a Muslim...who was actually a Sikh” (Canegi 16). If
people were educated about the difference between a Muslim
and a Sikh (and also why all Muslims aren’t terrorists), then the
senseless death could have been avoided.
S: When people are educated about religions and the “absurd”
ideas are clarified, they understand believers and their
practices. Educated non-believers wouldn’t discriminate, and
believers wouldn’t have to fear of being judged.
P3: Stereotypes and misconceptions is an effect of religious

7. illiteracy, leading into intolerance.
I: Because of the lack of knowledge about different faiths,
people can be quick to judge and misconceptions arise. The
media often feeds one viewpoint - most of the time negative -
while the true or consistent viewpoint is hidden away. This
leads to stereotypes of religions based on tiny extremist group
of the faith and leads to more intolerance.
E: “Experience Religious Minorities in Public School Settings”
- “...several Catholic participants were told, ‘You don’t believe
in Jesus. You pray to Mary and statues. You’ll burn in Hell!’”
(Hubert). (Worship of Mary, saints, and statues is a common
misconception of the Catholic Church). Common stereotypes are
that Muslims are terrorists and Christians hate gays.
S: If people were more religiously literate, they would not
believe in the misconceptions and stereotypes of religions.
Believers would not have to worry about being associated with
the extremists in their religion.
P4: Learning Faith is an organization that uses the Internet and
social media to educate people about religions.
I: Using engaging material, Learning Faith can teach about
different faiths of the world. For instance, infographics (images
with statistics, diagrams, and symbols) can show the basics of a
religion and then compare and contrast with other religions.
E: “Teaching for Religious Literacy” - while the source is about
how to teach religion in schools (which is also a great solution),
it gives ideas on how to educate the religious illiterate. Some
points are someone has to teach the students they have, not the
ones they wish they had and to reveal the assumptions that
society often has (Jorge 116).
S: An engaging organization that can draw social media
users to learn about religions could educate more about others’
faiths.
P5: Learning more about a different faith can positively impact
oneself.

8. I: By learning about other people’s faith, not only does one’s
knowledge about religions grow, but one can learn how to
approach another kindly and respectfully. Abetter sense of
religious tolerance and community in society.
E: “Interfaith Calling” - A Catholic girl started to learn about
and immerse herself in the Muslim faith. Through her
experiences, she made close Muslim friends, learned why
Muslims believe in their faith, and learned how to have the
same passion for her own faith as Muslims do for their own
(Leonard).
S: Learning from another faith can benefit one’s life and
maybe their own faith.