This document contains notes from an English class on rhetorical devices and essay writing techniques. It discusses counterarguments, conclusions, and the rhetorical strategies of aphorism and chiasmus. For counterarguments, it explains that addressing opposing views strengthens one's own argument. For conclusions, it provides tips on wrapping up an essay effectively. It then defines and provides examples of aphorisms and chiasmus, including how to recognize and write these condensed or inverted structures. Students are prompted to practice these forms in relation to their character analysis assignment.

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2. AGENDA
• Vocabulary Test #3
• Review: Essay #1
• Counterarguments
• Conclusions
• Rhetorical Strategies: Aphorism and Chiasmus
• In-Class Writing: Counterarguments, Conclusions,
Aphorism, Chiasmus

3. Take 20 minutes
Use a piece of notebook paper for your answers

4. Review
• Characterization
• At least six different methods
• The prompt
• One of five: or you have blended two or more
• Directed Summary
• Working Thesis
• Outline
• Paragraph practice: Quotations with explanations
• An analogy or two

5. The
Counterargument

6. What is a Counterargument?
A counterargument is an
argument, with factual
evidence or other kinds of
support, that challenges
either your thesis or a
major argument for it.

7. What is the purpose of identifying
counterarguments?
By identifying counterarguments to your ideas, and seeing
whether you can respond to them adequately, you test
the persuasiveness of the ideas. Some writers avoid
thinking about counterarguments, because they fear that
mentioning them will weaken their own arguments.
They're wrong. Even if you don't mention arguments that
might plausibly be used against your own argument, you
can be certain that your readers will think of them, and
discount your argument accordingly. A good response to
a counterargument is often the most persuasive part of
your own argument.

8. How do I think through arguments
and counterarguments?
• 1. You come up with a thesis that expresses your view of the
evidence and of the conclusions that should be drawn from it.
• 2. You clearly identify your evidence and arguments in your
own mind.
• 3. You seek evidence or logic on the other side, evidence or
logic that might undermine your thesis; you anticipate what
critics might say to attack your case.
• 4. You state the opposing argument or arguments, and you
show that they don't succeed in refuting your own
arguments.

9. Where to Put a Counterargument
Counterargument can appear anywhere in the essay. Try it in several places and see
where it fits best:
1. as part of your introduction—before you propose your thesis—where the
existence of a different view is the motive for your essay, the reason it needs
writing.
2. as a section or paragraph just after your introduction, in which you lay out the
expected reaction or standard position before turning away to develop your
own.
3. as a quick move within a paragraph, where you imagine a counterargument not
to your main idea but to the sub-idea that the paragraph is arguing or is about to
argue.
4. as a section or paragraph just before the conclusion of your essay, in which you
imagine what someone might object to what you have argued.
But watch that you do not overdo it. A turn into counterargument here and there
will sharpen and energize your essay, but too many such turns will have the reverse
effect by obscuring your main idea or suggesting that you are ambivalent.

10. Do you need a counterargument?
1. Is there an obvious argument against your thesis?
2. Is there a different conclusion could be drawn from the
same facts?
3. Do you make a key assumption with which others
might disagree?
4. Do you use a term that someone else might define a
different way?
5. Do you ignore certain evidence that others might
believe you need to address?
6. Is there an alternative explanation or proposal that
some might more readily believe?

11. A Counterargument
• Address alternative opinions your readers might have regarding
your character.
• Think about instances when your character appears to act in a way
that could be perceived as contrary to your thesis. Explain why you
don’t see the behavior as contrary.
• Explain behaviors that are out of the ordinary or out of line with
your thesis by analyzing text to show extenuating circumstances.
Consider the arguing exercises we have
done in class. How might you address
your peers’ questions and comments
without the obvious question/answer
format?

12. Conclusion
Gotta have it!

13. Strategies for Writing a Conclusion
Conclusions are often the most difficult part of an
essay to write, and many writers feel that they have
nothing left to say after having written the paper. A
writer needs to keep in mind that the conclusion is
often what a reader remembers best. Your conclusion
should be the best part of your paper.
A conclusion should
• stress the importance of the thesis statement,
• give the essay a sense of completeness, and
• leave a final impression on the reader.

14. Strategies to Avoid
• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,”
“in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in
speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the
rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of
the paper.

15. The Conclusion
 You can discuss how this character fits into
the work as a whole.
 You might address how the work would be
changed if your character were gone.
 You can apply insights about this character
to a real-world situation. Do we grow as
readers from interacting with your
character?
 You might SUBTLY remind the reader of
your central idea and thesis.

16. Rhetorical
Strategies:
Aphorism and
Chiasmus
Learning to recognize them
Learning to write them

17. Aphorism
• An aphorism is a
saying—a concise
statement of a
principle—that has
been accepted (or we
want to be accepted)
as true.
• Familiar example
• “A penny saved is a
penny earned”
• There is no fool like an
old fool”

18. Aphorisms
•Such statements have important
qualities:
• The are pithy: they say a great deal in a
few words.
• They appear to contain wisdom: they
are delivered as truth and they have
the ring of other aphorisms we accept
as true.

21. Writing Aphorisms:
Method One
• There is the ‘spontaneous combustion’ method, in which the
aphorism flares out fully formed at unexpected moments, sending
the writer scrabbling for napkins, envelopes or any other scrap of
paper on which to write it down. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec was a great
practitioner of this method:
 No snowflake in an avalanche
ever feels responsible.
Thanks to author and journalist James Geary for the
information and examples of aphorisms:
http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/how-to-write-an-aphorism/

22. Method Two
• Then there is the “deliberate
composition: method as practiced by
the likes of La Rochefoucauld. He would
attend a swanky salon, discuss all
manner of subjects, such as love and
friendship, then retire for hours to his
room where he would produce several
sheets of prose, all of which he would
eventually distill down to one or two
sharp, shining sentences:
 In the adversity of even our best
friends we always find something
not wholly displeasing.

23. Method Three
• And then there are the ‘accidental
aphorists,’ those writers who never
intend to compose aphorisms but
just can’t help themselves—
aphorisms occur naturally within
longer stretches of text, such as
essays, novels, or poems. Ralph
Waldo Emerson was a classic
accidental aphorist:
 What is a weed? A plant whose
virtues have yet to be discovered.

24. Rules to Consider
•Keep it short (after all, only a fool
gives a speech in a burning house),
•Definitive (no ifs, ands, or buts),
•Philosophical (it should make you
think), and give it a twist.

25. Not fancy, just
thoughtful
• What is a bastard? A man whose
birth right overshadows his human
rights.
• Bravery conquers fear; otherwise,
it is stupidity.
• If Arya cannot save herself, she
cannot hope to be saved.

26. Give it a try: Choose a word and write a
short, pointed statement expressing a
truth, doctrine, or principle.
• Power
• Execution
• Death
• Betrayal
• Prostitution
• Hostage
• Bastard
• Winter
• Brave
• Fear
• Throne
• Honor
Example: Marriage
A lottery in which men
stake their liberty and
women their happiness.
-- Madame DiRieux
One long conversation,
checkered by disputes.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

27. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
defines chiasmus as, "A grammatical
figure by which the order of words in one
of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the
other.” This may involve a repetition of
the same words ("Pleasure's a sin, and
sometimes sin's a pleasure" —Byron) or
just a reversed parallel between two
corresponding pairs of ideas.
Chiasmus
"to mark with an
X.”

28. Simple Grammatical
Chiasmus
A reversed order of the grammar in two or more clauses in a
sentence will yield a chiasmus.
Consider the example of a parallel sentence:
“He knowingly led and we blindly followed”
Inverting into chiasmus:
“He knowingly led and we followed blindly”

29. Parallelism: The code breakers worked constantly but succeeded rarely.
Chiasmus: The code breakers worked constantly but rarely succeeded.
Chiasmus is effective for bringing two elements close together for
contrast or emphasis, as you can see with the adverbs constantly and
rarely in the example above. The chiastic structure places them
almost next to each other for greater contrast than would be
provided by a strictly parallel structure.
From Writing with Clarity and style: Chapter 1 by Robert A. Harris

30. Another useful effect of chiasmus results from the natural
emphasis given to the end of a sentence. Note in the
example below how the word forgotten receives greater
stress when it appears as the last word of the sentence.
Example
verb adverb verb adverb
Parallelism: What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly.
verb adverb adverb verb
Chiasmus: What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten.

31. In addition to contrast and emphasis, chiasmus can add beauty to
sentences with no sacrifice of clarity. Reversing the order of independent
and subordinate clauses is one way to do this.
From Writing with Clarity and style: Chapter 1 by Robert A. Harris

32. Try converting these two from
parallelism to chiasmus
• Parallelism: Arya trains Nymeria daily and plays
with her happily
• Parallelism: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall,
he seems happy enough, but when the arms
master treats him badly, he becomes
frustrated and angry.

33. Here are two possibilities
• Parallelism: Arya trains Nymeria daily and plays with
her happily
• Chiasmus: Arya trains Nymeria daily and happily plays
with her
• Parallelism: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall, he
seems happy enough, but when the arms master
treats him badly, he gets frustrated and angry.
• Chiasmus: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall, he
seems happy enough, but he gets frustrated and
angry when the arms master treats him badly.

34. Try it!
• Write a couple of sentences
using chiasmus instead of
parallelism.
• Try writing new sentences.
• Look for some sentences in
your writing that will lend
themselves to chiasmus.

35. A Little
Trickier Kind
of Chiasmus

36. • One of the most fascinating features of chiasmus is this
"marking with an X" notion (word reversal). Take Mae
West's signature line, "It's not the men in my life, it's the
life in my men." By laying out the two clauses parallel to
each other, it's possible to draw two lines connecting the
key words:
It's not the men in my life
X
it's the life in my men.
Thanks to author and psychologist Dr. Mardy Grothe for the information and
examples of chiasmus http://www.drmardy.com/chiasmus/definition.shtml

37. Word Reversal Chiasmus
Home is where the great are small
X
and the small are great
One should eat to live
X
not live to eat

38. The ABBA Method
One other interesting way to view chiastic quotes is the
ABBA method. Let's go back to the Mae West quote. If
you assign the letters A and B to the first appearance of
the key words and A' and B' (read "A prime" and "B
prime") to their second appearance, they follow what is
referred to as an ABBA pattern:
A It's not the men
B in my life
B' it's the life
A' in my men

39. Chiasmus can also be achieved by reversing
more than two key words. This observation
from the 18th century English writer, Charles
Caleb Colton, is a good example:
"How strange it is that we of the present day
are constantly praising
that past age which our fathers abused,
and as constantly abusing that present age,
which our children will praise.”

40. Word Reversal
Laid out schematically, it looks like this:
A How strange it is that we of the present day
are constantly praising
B that past age
C which our fathers abused,
C' and as constantly abusing
B' that present age,
A' which our children will praise

41. Another good example comes from
Genesis 9:6:

42. Phrase Reversal
• "Lust is what makes you keep wanting to
do it,
even when you have no desire to be with
each other.
Love is what makes you keep wanting to be
with each other,
even when you have no desire to do it."
• — Judith Viorst

43. More Examples
• "We do not stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing." --
Benjamin Franklin
• "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of
absence." -- Carl Sagan
• “All for one and one for all” --Alexandre Dumas
• "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on
me."
(advertising jingle for Band-Aid bandages)

44. Review and Practice: Try to use words
and phrases that link to your character
• Word Reversal:
• One should eat to live not live to eat
• Home is where the great are small and the small are great
• Phrase Reversal:
• "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." --
Carl Sagan
• “All for one and one for all” --Alexandre Dumas
• "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me."

45. Even Trickier
Chiasmus!

46. Letter Reversal
• "A magician is a person who pulls rabbits
out of hats.
An experimental psychologist is a person
who pulls habits out of rats.”
• "a doe and fawn" hide from "their foe at
dawn."

47. Sound Reversal
•"I'd rather have a bottle in front
of me
Than a frontal lobotomy."
— Randy Hanzlick, title of song

48. Reversal of Homonyms
• "Why do we drive on a parkway
and park on a driveway?”
— Richard Lederer
• "Here's champagne for our real friends
and real pain for our sham friends.”
— Edwardian Toast

49. Number Reversal
• "A lawyer starts life giving $500 worth of law
for $5 and ends giving $5 worth for $500.”
— Benjamin H. Brewster
• "Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-
year-old girl.
Walter has always wanted to go that way,
but he's going to settle for a 17-footer with a
70-year-old.
— Betsy Maxwell Cronkite, wife of Walter
Cronkite.

50. Review and Practice: Try to use words
and phrases that link to your character
• Letter Reversal: "A magician is a person who pulls rabbits out of hats.
An experimental psychologist is a person who pulls habits out of
rats.”
• Sound Reversal: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me
Than a frontal lobotomy.”
• Reversal of Homonyms: "Why do we drive on a parkway
and park on a driveway?”
• Number Reversal: "Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old
girl. Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he's going to
settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old.

51. Homework
•Read A Game of Thrones
through page 700
•Post # 12: Counterargument
•Post #13: Conclusion
•Post #14: Examples of aphorism
and chiasmus