Court of Analysis

The Jury

The Jury, like any jury, will vote as to whether the client is guilty or not guilty. However, in the court of analysis, the jury is supposed to be biased. While the prosecutors and defenders are preparing their case, you must create 4 collations of data that you plan to ask about: two to challenge the prosecutors, two to challenge the defenders. The grand high inquisitor (me) can call on you at any point to ask your questions(s).

Bur wait, I'm a judge

The Judge is in charge of making sure all of the above rules are followed. If a court member is not doing his or her duty, the judge will get them back on track.

In essence, the judge acts as an editor with a good sense of the demands of the genre

Court of Analysis

Counter Arguments

Some Templates

Counterarguments are a way to address the other side.

State the opposing argument fairly and thoroughly.

It is not sufficient to spend two pages confirming your thesis, and then pretend to introduce an opposing argument by writing, "Some people hold a different opinion; however, those people are stupid/racist/sexist/anarchists/left-wingers/right-wingers/fence-sitters/brainwashed."

For each opposing point you raise, you must either refute, concede, or acknowledge.

• Refutation: You present enough additional evidence to counter the opposing claim.
• Concession/Accommodation: a straddling point between refutation and acknowledgment in which you show how you can agree with a part of the argument but still adhere to your overall argument
• Acknowledgment: You admit that the opposing claim is valid; however, you demonstrate how it is possible to accept it without rejecting your whole argument.
• (adapted from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/argument/building.html)

• Although I grant that __________, I still maintain that __________.
• Proponents of X are right to argue that __________. But they exaggerate when they claim that __________.
• While it is true that __________, it does not necessarily follow that __________.
• On the one hand, I agree with X that __________. But on the other hand, I still insist that __________.

• I think X is mistaken because she overlooks __________.
• X’s claim that __________ rests upon the questionable assumption that __________.
• I disagree with X’s view that __________ because, as recent research has shown, __________.
• X contradicts himself. On the one hand, he argues __________. But on the other hand, he also says __________.
• By focusing on __________, X overlooks the deeper problem of __________.

Goals:

• Practice using data for a purpose
• Use templates to present information persuasively
• Anticipate and address counter-argument and assumptions

Prosecutors and Defenders: The Template

The Template

As a team, develop 2 separate arguments to support your claim (each should take 2-3 minutes to present). The team as a whole will be responsible for choosing and developing its evidence and writing notes, but one spokesperson will present each separate argument.

Each argument will begin with a statement explaining how the evidence about to be presented helps to accuse/defend the defendant (a topic sentence, built from an analytical question). The argument cannot spend more than minute describing the particular evidence. The bulk of each argument should be devoted to explaining why and how the chosen evidence helps to incriminate/exonerate the defendant. Ideally, the evidence and its interpretation should be interwoven rather than presented one after another (the body of the paragraph). Each argument must end with a summation of the main claims that have been made about the use of the evidence that has been presented (so what).

Paying attention to [collation X] shows that you are working under the assumption of _____ which is a problem because _____.

introduce one piece of data from collation

explain how it supports your point (answer analytcal Q about it))

introduce another piece oof data from collation

explain how it supports your point(ianswer analytcal Q about it)

Thus paying attention to [collation x] supports our claim by changing

[PRACTICE? ANALYSIS? OUR UNDERSTANDING? CAUSATION (SOME REVERSAL OF THE INITIAL BELIEF OF RELATION OF TWO THINGS)? ORDER (CHANGE IN THE INITIAL UNDERSTANDING OF WHEN THINGS HAPPEN)?]

by

[HERE YOU EXPLAIN THE CHANGE