Four steps out loud
Read out your law and your four consequences. Your partner’s only job is to say, after the fourth, and the strongest objection to that is…
Whatever they say is what today is about answering.
Eight words and phrases that build a conditional argument. Match each to what it does.
Two arguments for the same change
Argument one
If they made the buses free, more people would use them. Cars would come off the road. The air would be better and the city would be quieter. It would be good for everybody.
Argument two
If they made the buses free, more people would use them — which would mean the service would have to grow, and quickly, or it would get worse before it got better.
Even if it did get worse for a year, I would still do it. The alternative is another decade of pretending that a two-pound fare is what is keeping people in their cars.
As long as the money for extra drivers is committed at the same time, it works. Otherwise you get a free service nobody wants to use, which is worse than a paid one that runs.
And either way we will find out something we do not currently know, which is whether the fare was ever the problem.
Five questions comparing the two. Both argue for the same thing.
1. Argument one lists four consequences. What does it never do?
2. Even if it did get worse for a year, I would still do it. What is even if doing?
3. As long as the money for extra drivers is committed… What does this add?
4. Otherwise you get a free service nobody wants to use. Rewrite that with if.
5. Which argument is harder to disagree with, and why?
Four moves beyond the plain conditional
Conceding, requiring, compressing, closing
| Move | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Concede | Even if + condition, main clause | Even if it got worse for a year, I would still do it. |
| Require | As long as / provided that + condition | As long as the drivers are funded, it works. |
| Compress a negative | Otherwise + result | …, otherwise you get a service nobody uses. |
| Close both branches | Either way + result | Either way we find out whether the fare was the problem. |
| Draw the consequence | which would mean | …more people would use them, which would mean the service would have to grow. |
| Name the cost of inaction | The alternative is… | The alternative is another decade of pretending. |
Talking about consequences
Tap each. These are the words that turn a list of conditionals into a chain somebody can follow.
Four sentences have been removed from this argument. Put each back where the move belongs.
If the city banned cars from the four central streets, the shops on them would lose trade for about two years. [1] Nobody who has looked at this seriously disputes it.
[2] The question is whether two hard years buy something worth having, and in every comparable city they have.
As long as the deliveries are still allowed before ten, the practical objections mostly go away. [3]
Either way the council will be blamed. [4]
Conceding on purpose
One to four words per gap. Each move from the table appears once.
If they closed the road, the traffic would move to Rua Nova, about four thousand cars a day past a primary school. they widened Rua Nova first, I would not support it. the school gets a proper crossing and a twenty limit, it is manageable. you are simply moving the problem onto children. somebody will be angry about this, so they may as well be angry about the version that works.
Eight sentences. Some use the wrong connector; some have a form error.
1. Even if they built more housing, prices will fall.
2. As long as they will fund the drivers, it works.
3. Otherwise if the money is not committed, nobody uses it.
4. Either way, it depends on the funding.
5. Which would mean that the school would lost a fifth of its intake.
6. Provided that they would agree, we could start in March.
7. The alternative is to do nothing, which is also a choice.
8. Even if it rained, we would still go.
Six moves of a conditional argument. Put them in the order that makes it hard to disagree with.
Argue against yourself first
Task card · Speaking · Groups of three · 3 minutes each
Your law from homework. You argue for it — but you have to make the strongest objection yourself before anybody else can.
Three minutes, with the concession arriving before the objection does.
- Open with the change and follow it two consequences deep.
- Then say the strongest thing against it, in full, without softening it.
- Answer it with even if…
- Attach one requirement with as long as and say what happens otherwise.
- Close with either way.
The others in your group have one job. When you finish, they try to give you an objection you did not already answer. If they can, that one goes into your piece.
From the arguments
Four sentences from the task. Fix each.
1. Even if it would cost more, I would still support it.
2. As long as they will pay for it, it is fine.
3. Otherwise, if they do not fund it, it fails.
4. Either way, it might work or it might not.
Concede first
Three questions.
1. What does even if do?
2. Otherwise is —
3. Why say the strongest objection to your own argument?
Before next lesson. Take the objection your group found that you had not answered, and write an even if answer to it.
Next lesson you speak for four minutes on your law, and the concession is the part that has to be there.