The Research Paper – Introduction
and Counterargument Paragraphs
Research Paper Introduction
• An introduction is the initial part of a research
paper and the part that a reader is likely to read
first.
• Definitions, key terms and other important
information required for understanding the
paper are presented here.
• Every research paper needs context so that
readers can understand why you have created it,
but it can be the hardest part of paper to write.
So, it is essential that you take your time and
make sure that you get it right.
What to include in the introduction?
• Introduce your topic.
• Create some context and background.
• State your rationale and/or why your research is important.
• Justify why you chose to focus on your particular area and not any other area.
• State your hypothesis and then what you plan to argue / what you plan to convince the reader
of (=thesis). Make it as clear as you possibly can for the reader.
• I highly recommend that you include the counterclaim in the introduction.
Example: Authoritarian parents affect their children’s personal identity as they cause them to
have low self esteem and anxiety, they are less likely to form healthy relationships, they tend to
be dependent to their parents hence are career unready. Although children with authoritarian
parents act good, the demands of their parents usually cause problems with school and
socialization.
Counterarguments
• When you counterargue, you consider a possible
argument against your thesis or some aspect of your
reasoning.
• Why do you need a counterargument?
Criteria state “considers multiple perspectives”
• It allows you to anticipate doubts and preemptive
objections that a skeptical reader might have; it
presents you as the kind of person who weighs
alternatives before arguing for one, who confronts
difficulties instead of failing to consider them, who is
more interested in discovering the truth than winning
a point.
• Not every objection is worth entertaining, of course,
and you shouldn't include one just to include one. But
some imagining of other views, or of resistance to
one's own, occurs in most good essays.
Counterargument in an essay has two stages: you
turn against your argument to challenge it and then
you turn back to re-affirm it. You first imagine a
Two stages: skeptical reader, or cite an actual source, who might
resist your argument by pointing out:
The Turn • a problem with your demonstration, e.g., that a
Against and different conclusion could be drawn from the same
facts, a key assumption is unwarranted, a key term
The Turn is used unfairly, certain evidence is ignored or
played down;
Back • one or more disadvantages or practical drawbacks
to what you propose;
• an alternative explanation or proposal that makes
more sense.
Your return to your own argument—which
you announce with a however, nevertheless or
still—must likewise involve careful reasoning,
not a flippant (or nervous) dismissal. In
reasoning about the proposed
counterargument, you may:
• refute it, showing why it is mistaken—an
The Turn apparent but not real problem;
Back • acknowledge its validity or plausibility, but
suggest why on balance it's relatively less
important or less likely than what you
propose, and thus doesn't overturn it;
• concede its force and complicate your idea
accordingly—restate your thesis in a more
exact, qualified, or nuanced way that takes
account of the objection.
Where to put the counterargument
• as part of your introduction—before you propose your thesis—where the existence of a
different view is the motive for your essay, the reason it needs writing;
• as a section or paragraph just after your introduction, in which you lay out the expected
reaction or standard position before turning away to develop your own;
• as a quick move within a paragraph, where you imagine a counterargument not to your
main idea but to the sub-idea that the paragraph is arguing or is about to argue;
• as a section or paragraph just before the conclusion of your essay, in which you imagine
what someone might object to what you have argued.
• But watch that you don't overdo it. A turn into counterargument here and there will
sharpen and energize your essay, but too many such turns will have the reverse effect by
obscuring your main idea or suggesting that you're ambivalent.
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introduction
introduction
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Resources
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argument
argument