Download Refuting and Attacking Student Name: Refuting an Argument: Briefly

Refuting and Attacking
Student Name: _________________________________________________
Refuting an Argument:
 Briefly ______________ your opponent’s argument:
“In the first claim, my opponent argues that health care is a precondition for political
participation.”
 _______________ your response to each argument.
 There are both _________________ and ___________________________ arguments
when refuting.
Refuting with Defensive Arguments:
 Counter-Claim: countering the truth of the original argument by giving counter
___________________ or examples.
o Resolution Example: Capital punishment deters future crime.
o Counter-Claim Example: Capital punishment does not deter crime because
people still are convicted of capital crimes.
 Nit-picking/pimping: using nit-picky questions or responses, used to
________________ the opponent’s time and trick them into spending time on an
argument not really going to be used to win the debate.
o Resolution Example: Capital punishment deters future crime.
o Nit-picking/Pimping Example: This argument has no warrant. This argument has
no impact.
 Mitigate: to diminish or reduce the ____________ of the argument; accepts that the
argument is true but suggests that the impact is not as _______________ as claimed.
o Resolution Example: Capital punishment deters future crime.
o Mitigation Example: Evidence for and against deterrence exists. Since it is
inconclusive, we can not be certain of the deterrent effect.
 Taking out the argument: ___________________ or ______________ another
argument
o Resolution Example: Capital punishment deters future crime.
o Taking out the argument Example: Conclusive evidence suggests that capital
punishment does not have a deterrent effect because criminals are not rational so
they don’t think about the consequences of their actions.
Refuting with Offensive Arguments:
 Link-turn:suggests that the claim does not connect to the impact but rather the claim
connects to another impact that would prove the ______________________________
side.
 Resolution Example: Capital punishment deters future crime.
 Link-turn Example: Evidence suggests that when murderers are witnessed that
they kill any remaining witnesses because they would already receive the highest
punishment. Capital punishment creates an incentive to finish the job.
 Impact-turn:suggests that the impact argued by one debater to be detrimental was
actually ________________.
 Claim Example: Universal health care would cause the economy to collapse,
resulting in war.
 Impact-turn Example: The economic decline as a result of Universal health care
would dampen the desire to go to war.
 Double-turn:it is a mistake for a debater to argue both _____________ and
________________ turns against the same argument, so this works against the debater
using them both
 Double-turn Example: If the link turn was that the affirmative solves a problem
and an impact turn was that the problem is actually a benefit, then the affirmative
can say that they stop a good thing from happening.