<p>I've been mainly doing self study for the SATs and a few sources that I have come across have said that they recomend stating the other side of the agrument in your second body paragraph, but then dfending against it to show why it is wrong. For example, if the qeustion was honesty is always the best policy, and you agreed, in your second body paragraph, you would put what somebody on the other side of the agrument might say and then write why that is the wrong point of view.
I was little wary about doing this when I frst heard. I'm taking the SATs this Saturday and was wondering if anyone had heard of doing this before, or if someone has done, if they could give me some feedback as to how they scored.</p>
<p>bump. anybody?</p>
<p>The idea is that if you want to write a really good argument, you need to acknowledge the other side of the debate, and then directly DISPROVE it, instead of only PROVING your own side. By both disproving the opposite side and proving your own side, your essay is supposed to be made stronger.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think this technique works pretty well for longer essays - like many in school essays, AP Language essays, and so on. I don't think it's necessary to address the other side of the argument in an SAT essay. You don't need to devote an entire paragraph to it. What I like to do is to mention the other side briefly in my conclusion paragraph, note that some part of it might be true in certain cases, but then argue .. "however..." and then go on to restate why my side of the argument is right :) A good place to mention the other side is in your intro or conclusion paragraph, especially if you are running out of things to say, haha. But in any case, it's definitely not necessary to do that to get a 12 essay, and you shouldn't spent too much time talking about the other side, or your readers might think you don't really know which side you support after all.</p>
<p>yeah amb3r's advice sounds great. I am also tempted to spend a paragraph discussing opposing viewpoints (which I did in the AP language essay) but it doesn't seem there is the time for such arguments in the SAT essay... seems what they want is whatever half-arsed argument you can come with and how well you can argue it... not necessarily how reliable or nuanced your argument is, I think.</p>
<p>I usually dispute a lot. So, instead of accepting the prompt, I always argue against them. They are sometimes nonsensical under specific theme.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice</p>