A critical part of developing and supporting your argument is identifying opposing claims, or counterarguments. You might assume that calling attention to competing positions in your essay will weaken your argument. Nothing is further from the truth. Identifying opposing claims provides opportunities to test and strengthen your reasons and evidence by comparing them with those put forth by other writers. Considering counterarguments also allows you to anticipate questions and concerns your readers are likely to bring to your essay. And later, as you are writing your draft, your responses to these opposing claims provide a basis for clearly explaining to your readers why your argument is superior to others.

Remember that you’re making an argument about your issue because people disagree about how to address it. If reasonable alternatives to your argument didn’t exist, there would be no need for an argument in the first place. As a writer contributing to an ongoing conversation, you have a responsibility to indicate that you’re aware of what has been said and who has said it. More important, you have a responsibility to consider carefully how your argument improves on the arguments made by other members of the conversation.

To identify opposing claims, review the sources you encountered as you learned about your issue. Identify the most compelling arguments you found, and ask how the reasons and evidence offered to support them compare to yours. Then ask whether you can think of reasonable alternative positions that haven’t been addressed in the sources you’ve consulted. Finally, talk with others about your issue, and ask them what they think about it.

For each reason you expect to use in support of your overall claim, create a list of opposing points of view, briefly describing each one and noting where you found it. To determine whether you’re making the best possible argument, consider each of these opposing claims in turn. Take notes on your response to each one, considering both its merits and its faults. Use what you’ve learned to reflect on and refine your overall claim and the reasons and evidence you’ve identified to support it. Later, you can use what you’ve learned to address counterarguments in your essay.