The naysayer is the voice of your opposition. By definition, a naysayer is one who denies, refuses, or opposes, or is skeptical or cynical about a specific topic.

When constructing or reading an argument, it is important to be aware of opposing views or skeptical attitudes regarding the subject. When you identify the attitudes and beliefs of the naysayer, you will be able to strengthen your own argument.

Take this argument, for example: In order to graduate college, all students must participate in 100 hours of community service.

Since this is an argument, there will be those who agree with this idea and those who disagree. Take, for example, if this was your argument, you would need to consider all the points you should include to support your thesis, but you should also consider what opposing views your audience will have. You will need to be specific as to what their views actually are, not just that they disagree with you.

If you remember from last week, audience for argument is always the opposition, regardless of their specific qualities like age, economic class, or education level. Since your audience will automatically disagree with your thesis, you must consider exactly what they believe is opposed to your argument.

For every thesis, there is an antithesis, which is the statement's direct opposite. For example, the thesis: In order to graduate college, students must participate in 100 hours of community service would have the antithesis of Students should not have to participate in 100 hours of community service in order to graduate. The antithesis is always the opposite view.

Imagine for a moment you take the position of mandated volunteer service for college students. You will research and support this thesis in order to convince the naysayers, but you will need to at both sides of the issue. Before you begin writing, list support for your side of the issue, and list support for the other side of the issue:

Yes for Volunteer Service (Thesis) No for Volunteer Service (Antithesis)
1. Could give students additional experience in the 1. Students with jobs and families may struggle to
workplace find the time to volunteer
2. Students could forge a new career 2. Students may lose the essence of volunteering
by being forced to volunteer their time
3. Students can use service on resume 3. Transportation to service may be unavailable
expensive

By looking at both sides of the issue, you will be prepared to support your own thesis and be able to counter the naysayer who disagrees with your position. You could provide significant rebuttal to the naysayer's points, thus, elevating your argument and persuading your naysayer to think differently.