How to Destroy Your Opponent's Argument: 

Write a Strong Rebuttal

• FIRST: Articulate the opposing point of view very clearly.  What’s their position?

• SECOND:  Map their evidence and see what the pattern is:

  • Anecdotal:  cute stories or case histories?

  • Analogous: pretty metaphors or logical comparisons and precedents?

  • Testimonial: eyewitness or expert testimony? Are the experts paid to say that?

  • Quantitative: determinative (measurable) or stochastic (predictions & projections)?

  • Ethos: do they use ethics or ignore ethics?

  • Pathos: do they use pathos to compensate for lack of quantitative data?

  • Logos: is their position illogical, self-defeating, lacking in “common sense?”

  • Kairos: is their position relevant in a timely way, or an archaic response based on old data?

  • Do you detect any cognitive biases in their argument?

  • Do they substitute appeals or logical fallacies for real evidence?

  • Do they substitute a frame or metaphor for real evidence?

• THIRD:  What is their most dominant type of evidence? Try to invalidate your opponent’s position by systematically challenging both the dominant and the minor types of evidence.

• Do they rely too heavily on anecdotal evidence?

• Do they offer quantitative proof?

• Do they only use stochastic data rather than determinative?  Why?

• Does your quantitative evidence disprove theirs?

• Try to invalidate their position by showing that their position is inethical (attack their lack of ethos).

• Try to invalidate their position by showing that their position is illogical and will have bad consequences (attack their lack of logic).

• Try to invalidate the opposing position by demonstrating how they substitute pathos appeals for quantitative data.

• Try to invalidate their position by showing that they may be ignoring the facts because of financial interest or some other interesting (such as political) they expect to gain from.