Ordering an Argument for a Reader
IntroducedConcede first, press second
- Concede before you press and you address a reader who now believes you are fair.
- Press first and concede afterwards, and the concession reads as retreat.
- Same two paragraphs, opposite effects — because the audience changed in between.
Concede first and you sound fair; concede last and it may sound as if you found the receipt after the sale.
A concession is most effective when placed...
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The reader who then reads your claim has already decided you are fair.
Choosing a comparison for this audience
- Before using an analogy, ask what it requires the reader to already accept.
- If that thing is exactly what they dispute, the comparison concedes the argument.
- A safe comparison borrows something the audience holds and your opponent does not contest.
Order an argument for a resistant reader: find the contradiction, concede what is fair, then show why the claim survives
Anticipate where a reader will refuse
Mentioning an objection is not answering it, and the fourth step is the difference.
An analogy is safe as long as it is vivid.
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It must borrow something the reader accepts; if it borrows what they dispute, it concedes the argument.
Managing how you are perceived
- Your syntax and diction are building a picture of you while you argue.
- Measured language reads as someone who has weighed the case; emphatic language reads as someone compensating.
- The picture you build is part of the evidence a reader uses to decide whether to believe you.
Match each choice to the picture it builds of the writer.
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The picture you build is part of the evidence a reader uses on you.
A concession after the fact reads as retreat. The same sentence placed before your strongest paragraph earns credibility and placed after it looks like backing down — because the audience that reads it is not the same audience in the two cases.
Describe an opposing position in terms its ____ would accept.
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Loaded description costs credibility silently with any reader who does not share the bias.
Bias and credibility
- Word choice that reflects a bias costs credibility with any reader who does not share it.
- The cost is silent: they do not argue back, they simply weigh everything else less.
- So the safe rule is to describe positions in terms their holders would accept.
Select all the checks in this lesson's audience pass.
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Length is not an audience question.
An audience pass
- Find each comparison and ask what it requires the reader to accept.
- Find each loaded word and ask whether the reader you want holds that view already.
- Find your concession and ask whether it comes before or after the paragraph it was meant to protect.
"The cost objection is right as far as it goes" placed before the case says: I have weighed this. Placed after the case, the same sentence says: I could not answer that. The words did not change; the reader had.
Concede before you press — the audience that reads your claim will already have decided whether you are fair. Choose comparisons that borrow something the reader accepts, keep diction measured, and describe opposing positions in terms their holders would accept.
Write from a club that costs 200
- The club costs 200, which the writer accepts, and then argues for a cheaper Thursday slot.
- Say which move comes first.
You agree that the club costs 200 and you still want a cheaper Thursday slot. Which move comes first, the concession or the pressure, and why?
Fairness is established before the push.
What should the writer admit before asking for the cheaper slot?
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The concession makes the later pressure readable as fair.