Write the MOST EFFECTIVE Concessions Paragraphs for Argument, Synthesis, & Research Essays

Summary

In this engaging video by the Garden of English, viewers are encouraged to subscribe to never miss expert advice on crafting effective essays, particularly focusing on writing persuasive concession paragraphs. The video delves into the nuances of admitting counterarguments partially to strengthen overall arguments, using an AP Lang synthesis essay as an example. Tips are provided on how to structure these tricky paragraphs, ensuring they contribute to a coherent and compelling essay, while also improving writing sophistication.

Highlights

• 85.5% of viewers aren't subscribed - hit that button! 🔔
• Admitting the complexity of topics through concessions strengthens essays. 💪
• Using 'while' or 'although' helps structure concessionary thesis statements. ✍️
• Effective concessions point out the merit but stress your main argument. 💬
• Models of concession paragraphs illustrate practical application. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Subscribe for insightful writing tips! 👍
• Concession paragraphs acknowledge opposing views in a nuanced way. 🌟
• Using subordinating conjunctions can help balance your arguments. ⚖️
• Cite evidence properly to support your concession. 📝
• Transition smoothly from conceding to strengthening your argument. 🔄

Overview

In this video, viewers are encouraged to step up their essay-writing game by mastering the art of concession paragraphs. These tricky parts of an argument or synthesis essay require a balance of admitting some validity in opposing views without undermining your main stance. By subscribing to the Garden of English, you ensure access to tips that enhance both high school and college-level writing.

The speaker offers a deep dive into crafting persuasive essays by incorporating nuanced concession paragraphs. Using a real student's work on educational technology, viewers learn how to articulate opposing views with subtlety and sophistication. From thesis setup to body paragraph crafting, the video provides a comprehensive guide, perfect for AP Lang students aiming to up their writing strategy.

More than just acknowledging the other side, the video illustrates how concession paragraphs can improve the overall sophistication of an essay. By using subordinating conjunctions and transitional phrases, students can smooth the shift from concession to argument reinforcement. The Garden of English advocates for the power of practice, urging students to refine these skills for academic success.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Importance of Subscribing The chapter titled 'Introduction and Importance of Subscribing' opens with a discussion about the low percentage of subscribers among the viewers, specifically 85.5%, which is worse than before. The narrator, presumably the content creator, addresses this issue and suggests a simple solution: viewers can subscribe by clicking the Subscribe button below the video or on the skull in the bottom right corner. The ease of this solution is emphasized, and it is suggested to be effective. The segment also introduces the content as part of the 'Garden of English' series, with the host named Frus.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Concept of Concessions in Essays The chapter humorously begins by encouraging viewers to subscribe for ongoing guidance. It then transitions into a reflective exercise, asking readers to ponder whether the world revolves around them, eventually leading to a humorous conclusion that it doesn't. This serves as a preamble to discussing the idea of being open to other perspectives, an important concept in learning about essay concessions.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Explaining Concessions and Common Mistakes The chapter discusses the importance of understanding that the world doesn't revolve around a single individual and emphasizes the presence of diverse perspectives and positions held by others. It then links this understanding to writing, stating that addressing these various perspectives in synthesis essays, argument essays, or any research paper enhances the persuasiveness and sophistication of one's writing. The chapter suggests incorporating and responding to different viewpoints to strengthen arguments.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Detailed Analysis of a Good Concession Example In this chapter, the concept of addressing counterarguments in writing is explored, particularly within argument and synthesis essays. The author introduces three techniques: conceding a position, offering a rebuttal, and refuting a position. The focus is primarily on providing tips for including concessions effectively. For additional information on rebuttal and refutation methods, readers are directed to Unit 9 of 'The Garden of English's Exam Prep Guide for AP Lang Students,' with links provided for further exploration.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Transitioning from Concession to Argument The chapter provides an overview of AP Language preparation resources, emphasizing access to videos, notes, guides, and practice materials. It encourages utilizing a free trial to gain full access to AP Lang unit one resources. The chapter introduces the concept of concession in writing, explaining that it involves acknowledging a differing viewpoint in the context of an argument.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Additional Resources and Encouragement to Practice The chapter "Additional Resources and Encouragement to Practice" delves into the importance of recognizing the complexities and nuances in debates and arguments, particularly when concessions are involved. Conceding in a debate means acknowledging that the opposing viewpoint might have validity, thereby demonstrating understanding and empathy towards different perspectives. This chapter emphasizes the difficulty in writing concession paragraphs as students often struggle to maintain neutrality and end up arguing one side. The text suggests that mastering the art of making concessions is crucial for comprehensive argumentation. It challenges students to practice this skill and provides additional resources to strengthen their argumentative abilities.

Write the MOST EFFECTIVE Concessions Paragraphs for Argument, Synthesis, & Research Essays Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hello you again what 85.5% of my viewers are not subscribers H that's even worse than last time wait what can fix that viewers just need to click the Subscribe button below the video or the skull in the bottom right hand corner well that sounds easy enough are you sure it will work all right well I'll tell him this is the garden of English I'm frus and I'm here
• 00:30 - 01:00 to help you whether you're a new viewer or a returning one you should click that subscribe button so that you never miss any Gard of English advice it will help you now and it will help you in college I want you to take some time for just a minute and reflect with me and I need you to be honest with yourself does the world revolve around you now if you're feeling really truthful you should have probably just answered no and that's obvious because the world revolves around me nah I'm just kidding but in all seriousness if you're watching this
• 01:00 - 01:30 video chances are you know the world doesn't revolve around you and you know that there's a vast world full of other people that surround you this of course means that there are innumerable varieties of other people's perspectives and positions that others take about topics that you are often required to consider especially when writing arguments well when you write a synthesis essay argument essay or any type of research paper one of the ways to make sure that you're writing is more persuasive and sophisticated is by addressing the positions and perspectives That Others May hold when you incorporate and respond to the
• 01:30 - 02:00 positions of others in your own work this is called addressing the counterargument now there are three ways to do this you can concede a position you can offer a rebuttal to a position and you can refute a position today I'm going to offer you some tips for including concessions when writing your argument and synthesis essays and if you're specifically looking for more information about rebuttal and reputations you can check out unit 9 of the garden of english's exam prep guide for AP Lang students there's a link to it right here and there's a link in the description right below this video this
• 02:00 - 02:30 prep guide offers exclusive videos and practice that will walk you through all of the content that you need to know to earn a high grade in your AP Lan class and score well on your APL exam and if you just sign up for the free trial you'll have access to all of the unit one videos notes guides multiple choice practice answer guides and multiple choice rationals now before we can talk about adding a concession paragraph into one of your papers you need to know what a concession is to concede a point in an argument just means that you're going to admit that someone who holds a different position than you about whatever topic
• 02:30 - 03:00 you're talking about might actually be correct to an extent you're not entirely convinced of the other side's position but by conceding you're willing to admit that there is some complexity and Nuance in arguing about the topic that's being debated and you're willing to show that you are seemingly understanding and empathetic toward the positions and perspectives of the other side so now that you know what a concession is let me tell you that they are some of the hardest paragraphs to write the reason why is because so often when students attempt to they end up just arguing how
• 03:00 - 03:30 the other position is entirely correct rather than only partly correct and then when the students continue their papers attempting to argue their own initial positions they thoroughly interrupt their own lines of reasoning since they made the initial claims proved those claims wrong and then tried to prove those claims right again make up your mind essentially the papers read like giant contradictions the thesis says one thing the ill-written well-intentioned concession paragraph says another and then the following paragraph supports the initial thesis the whole thing is mess you don't want to be a mess so let
• 03:30 - 04:00 me show you how to clean this up thank you in order to model how to write a solid concession into an argument I'm going to rely on the publicly released 2010 APL synthesis prompt about educational technology I'm also going to be relying on an essay produced by a former student of mine named Ali anama she was an excellent student and an even more awesome person though the model work will be in relation to a synthesis prompt I can assure you that you can use the same tips to generate concessions in response to argument prompt as well I
• 04:00 - 04:30 guarantee it the 2010 prompt asks students to develop their positions on what factors a school should consider before using particular Technologies in the curriculum and instruction now a student could just respond to this prompt by writing that a school should consider a b and c when considering using educational Tech in their school system it's a simple thesis and I think there's plenty more that could be done but this thesis would do the trick to earn the thesis point on exam day but this thesis does not introduce a line of reasoning that sets up the paper to include a concession so I'm going to
• 04:30 - 05:00 show Ali's thesis that does establish a concessionary line of reasoning and then I'm going to highlight what she did when writing it so you can model your writing after hers okay check out her thesis in response to what schools should consider before implementing edtech into their curriculum Ali writes while computers and other information Technologies may have the potential to be extremely useful in a classroom setting due to their ability to increase accessibility and Foster communication School administrators must consider the negative effect educational Technologies
• 05:00 - 05:30 may have on students with short attention spans and on the quality of face-to-face interactions because such Tech isn't really all that it's cracked up to be here's what you need to notice about her thesis Ally starts her thesis with the subordinating conjunction while this is important for two reasons first a subordinating conjunction establishes what is called a dependent clause this means that there's one part of the sentence that relies on the second part of the sentence to make sense because of this the first clause in her sentence
• 05:30 - 06:00 from the words while through communication is automatically not as strong as the second clause in her sentence that's from school administrators through the end of the sentence so just the structure of her thesis makes the concessionary part of the sentence seem less important than her actual claim that technology is more detrimental for Education than beneficial if you're trying to write a concessionary thesis you will want to start your thesis with the word while the word although or the phrase even though now I also need you to notice how in the first Clause she uses the phrase
• 06:00 - 06:30 have the potential and in the second Clause of the thesis she uses the word must even though the thesis concedes a point to the other side Ally qualifies the opposing observation as only being potentially useful yet she contrasts this by strengthening her own position by speaking about it in absolute terms this highlights how convicted she is about her own view that she wants to support throughout the majority of her paper the thesis also projects that the first paragraph of the essay will concede how technology can be useful
• 06:30 - 07:00 because it increases accessibility and fosters communication but those positive outcomes are not more important to consider than how detrimental technology can be we have [Music] technology once the writer concedes she'll need to prove that her considerations overrule the truth that Tech can be somewhat beneficial so let's see how Ally does this in her first body paragraph that I'm about to show you on your screen when this paragraph pops up make sure you pause the screen so you can read the paragraph in full also know
• 07:00 - 07:30 though that I have Ali's complete essay in the video document found right below this video in the description and it's next to the link to revise which is a study app that you need to check out because it provides short video content to help you with your SATs AP exams College admissions and it even connects you with a community of others to help you study for these exams all right here's alie's first body paragraph where she actually [Music] concedes the first reason this concessionary paragraph works so well is
• 07:30 - 08:00 because Ally includes some concessionary language in the topic sentence notice how she remarks it's easy for just about anyone to admit and she follows this with the point that she wishes to concede and the truth is that even I know that it's easy to admit that computers do increase accessibility and communication she then goes on to prove this true by seamlessly including evidence to support well the truth of her Point she also cites that evidence as she concedes she even provides proper reasoning for how the evidence that she
• 08:00 - 08:30 provided supports the claim that she's conceding but she doesn't stop there nope most students when they try to write a concessionary paragraph stop there but you don't want to what allly does next is absolutely necessary and important when writing a concessionary paragraph you need to notice how she included the word however in her commentary to show that though she recognizes the Merit of the other side's argument I understand there's something that argument misses this is where the
• 08:30 - 09:00 concession now begins to shift to expose what Ali views as the limitation of the truth to the other side's argument and she does a decent job reasoning out why though the other side is correct it's only correct in a limited Manner and she doesn't stop there notice how in the last sentence she continues to set up a contrast between the opposing view and her own when she uses the phrase even though and she ties her observations in this paragraph to the very beginning of her next paragraph's topic sentence which which will be about the other
• 09:00 - 09:30 consequences of introducing technology into education let me show you what her next topic sentence looks like it's about to pop up on your screen often when children's lives continue to be consumed by technology there is a significantly greater potential for their cognitive processing abilities to decrease the third body paragraph also details another negative consequence and the topic sentence for that paragraph looks like this similarly the more time children spend using technology the more the quality of their personal interactions with others decreases I
• 09:30 - 10:00 encourage you to read her whole essay that's Linked In the description it's really solid but it's the thesis and first paragraph that I wanted to point out to you all she sets up the line of reasoning in her thesis to include a concession she includes concessionary language in her first topic sentence she highlights the limitations of the argument she's conceding by including the word however and the phrase even though in the commentary of her body paragraph and she then uses her final sentence of her first body paragraph to shift towards bolstering the actual argument that she projected in her
• 10:00 - 10:30 thesis now there are some other words and phrases that you can include in your papers when you want to concede so I'm going to share them with you on the screen here are some words and phrases that you can put in your topic sentences to help you begin the concessionary process and here are some words that you can include in your commentary when shifting from conceding to arguing your point [Music] if you want to learn more about writing
• 10:30 - 11:00 concessions I'd encourage you to check out the new Amsco textbook for writing for the AP English Language exam it goes into even more detail and this text covers synthesis rhetorical analysis and argument you could check out this text since it's also linked in the description now that you've seen a model for a concession and I provided you with some tips you need to practice writing concession paragraphs so that you can increase the complexity of your research papers your synthesis essays and your arguments as you go through your academic career and after you practice
• 11:00 - 11:30 you can check out more ways to add sophistication to your writing by watching the videos that are about to pop up right on your screen [Music]