Countering

Harris' description of countering is similar to his definition of forwarding. I believe they achieve the same purpose, but they use almost opposite techniques to achieve their goals. The purpose of countering is to advance arguments and your own ideas by using other people's pieces of works. Instead of looking at terms and ideas that are explained well that could be used for your advantage, you look at terms and ideas that could be explained more thoroughly and in a way debate against those and use those for your own means. One point that Harris emphasizes is important for countering is to make sure you are not just putting down other writers. There is not as much point to just proving people wrong and showing people that they are wrong. By delving deeper into the issue and looking at why it is flawed and looking at alternatives, you can begin to make new conclusions that might be useful. Plus bashing other readers tends to make people a lot of enemies and not respect your ideals even if they are insightful. I think a prime example is Chris Hedges.

There is an article about the Fort Hood Shooting that uses countering fairly well. The initial thoughts were that the man accused of the shootings was a terrorist carrying out the mission of a suicide bomber. However, in the article, it explains how that may be true, but it offers evidence that proves that may not be the reason and why they think so. They leave the possibility open for the original verdict, but propose an alternative that may be true. Countering is an effective tool that writers can use for making their paper better. So long as you do not focus too much on the other paper as your own.