state a precise claim, distinguish it from a fairly stated opposing claim, and write a concession paragraph that strengthens rather than weakens my own argument.
Workbook: page 13 of your Unit 2 Student Workbook (this is the Stage 1 organizer: draft it here, then submit it online). Draft on paper first; anything scored is submitted online in this lesson.
Instruction
Unit 1 asked for analysis: here is what the text does, and here is the effect. Unit 2 asks for argument, and the difference is that argument has an opponent. An argumentative essay that never states the opposing position is not an argument; it is a position paper that hopes nobody was listening.
A precise claim. Precision here means the claim is narrow enough that evidence could settle it. Compare:
- Stevenson explores the duality of human nature. Not a claim. Everyone agrees.
- Stevenson suggests evil comes from society. A claim, but vague — which society, doing what, to whom?
- Stevenson locates the origin of Hyde not in Jekyll’s chemistry but in the professional respectability that required Jekyll’s duplicity before the first draft was ever mixed. Precise. It names a cause, rejects a rival cause, and points at a specific passage.
A counterclaim is not a strawman. This is where most ninth-grade arguments fail, and the failure is easy to spot: the writer states the other side in its weakest possible form, defeats it in one sentence, and moves on. A reader who holds that position is not persuaded; they are insulted. W.9-10.1.b asks you to supply evidence for the counterclaim and to name what is genuinely strong in it.
So the test for your counterclaim paragraph is uncomfortable and simple: would someone who actually holds this view recognize it as their view?
The shape of a concession paragraph. Four moves, in order:
- State it fairly. The strongest case for the biological reading is Jekyll’s own: he describes the draft as separating components he insists were always present, and says plainly that “man is not truly one, but truly two.”
- Concede what is true. That sentence is the novella’s most explicit statement about human nature, and no reading can simply set it aside.
- Turn. But it is a sentence written by a man composing his own last account, in a form nobody can cross-examine.
- Re-anchor in your claim. The same chapter records that Jekyll stood “committed to a profound duplicity of life” before any chemistry — which places the division in his social position, not his biology.
Notice that the concession did not weaken the argument. It made the argument look like the product of someone who had read the other side, which is the only version a reader trusts.
Vocabulary of concession, with the punctuation. Admittedly, granted, it is true that, while X, Y. Remember from Unit 1 that however, nevertheless and therefore are conjunctive adverbs: a semicolon before, a comma after, or start a new sentence.
What you submit today. Not an essay. A claim, a fairly stated counterclaim with its own evidence, and the four-move plan for the paragraph that answers it. If, while writing the counterclaim, you find yourself half-convinced, say so in the organizer — switching sides at Stage 1 is a success, not a setback.
📖 Before this lesson, read: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Chapters 5-8
The reading opens over the lesson; close it to come back to exactly where you were.
Reading: Mentor concession (Douglass, 1852), a model concession paragraph, and criteria
Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852), Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F&action=render); Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Standard Ebooks (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/robert-louis-stevenson/the-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde/text/single-page); all retrieved 26 Sept. 2026 · SLS original; quoted passages are public domain (Douglass, 1852; Stevenson, 1886)
Study the mentor and the model before you draft your Stage 1 organizer.
Sources. Mentor: Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (delivered at Rochester, New York, 5 July 1852), text from Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F), retrieved 2026-09-26. Quotation bank: Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Project Gutenberg #43, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43, retrieved 2026-09-26. The models, the revision and the criteria are SLS original.
1. A mentor: a concession that makes an argument stronger
Douglass’s claim is that the Fourth of July is not the slave’s day. His audience is a crowd of proud citizens who will hear that as an insult. Before he says it, he grants everything true in their view of the founders. Read the three passages and mark the four moves: state the other side’s case fairly; concede what is true; show the limit of what you concede; return to your claim.
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too—great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now.
Moves. (1) State fairly: the signers “were brave men,” “statesmen, patriots and heroes.” (2) Concede: he will “unite with you to honor their memory.” (3) Limit: their courage is “not the highest form of human excellence,” which prepares his turn. (4) Return: “My business … is with the present.” Notice that the concession makes the listener more, not less, willing to hear the claim. A reader who holds the opposite view would recognize the crowd’s pride in it, and that is the test from the lesson.
2. Student model: a concession paragraph on Hyde (SLS original)
Written for this lesson; not a real student’s work. The claim is that Hyde is manufactured by respectability.
The strongest case for the biological reading is Jekyll’s own: he says the drug separated parts of himself that were always there, and that “man is not truly one, but truly two” (Stevenson, ch. 10). That is the novella’s most explicit statement about human nature, and no reading of Hyde can simply set it aside. It is also the statement least open to testing, because its author is dead and no one else was present for the years in which he chose to take the draft. Notice what the sentence claims: that there are two natures. It does not say who arranged for them to live apart. For that, the same paragraph names a cause: he “concealed” his pleasures because he wished to “wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public” (Stevenson, ch. 10). The biological reading explains why there was something to split; my reading explains why it was split.
3. Before and after (SLS original)
| Move | Before (strawman) | After (fair) |
|---|---|---|
| State the counterclaim | Some people think Hyde is just biology, but that is obviously wrong because Jekyll clearly says he was hiding things. | The strongest case for the biological reading is Jekyll’s own: he says the drug separated parts of himself that were always there. |
| Concede | (none) | That is the novella’s most explicit statement about human nature, and no reading of Hyde can simply set it aside. |
What changed. The first version gives the opposing view a sentence, then dismisses it. A reader who holds that view would feel insulted. The second version quotes the best evidence, admits its force, and only then turns. The test: would someone who actually holds the view recognize it as theirs?
4. Quotations by narrative layer, for your Stage 1 organizer
Your organizer needs four quotations for your own case, drawn from at least two of the three layers (Utterson’s narration, Lanyon’s letter, Jekyll’s statement). Cite by chapter: (Stevenson, ch. 10). All are copied from the text.
Layer 1, Utterson’s narration (ch. 1).
“I incline to Cain’s heresy,” he used to say quaintly: “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.”
“I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name. No sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”
Layer 2, Lanyon’s letter (ch. 9).
What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it;
Layer 3, Jekyll’s statement (ch. 10).
Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.
that man is not truly one, but truly two.
Though so profound a double-dealer, I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame,
5. Criteria for Stage 1 (what the organizer will be scored on)
- Claim. One sentence, narrow enough that evidence could settle it. It names a cause and rejects a rival cause.
- Counterclaim. Stated so that someone who holds it would recognize it, with one supporting quotation.
- Concession paragraph. The four moves in note form, in order: state, concede, limit, return.
- Evidence. Four exact quotations with citations, from at least two of the three layers.
For the checks. The precise claim in the quiz is the one that “locates the origin of Hyde in the professional respectability” because it names a cause, rejects a rival and points to a passage. In the fill-in, the semicolon goes before however, and a comma follows it.
Formative check
Work through these before moving on. They are not graded — they tell you, and your teacher, whether the standard below has landed yet.
Which of these is a precise claim suitable for the Unit 2 essay?
The safest way to handle the opposing view is to state it briefly in its weakest form so that it is easy to refute.
Jekyll’s statement is the novella’s most explicit claim about human nature however, it is also the least testable, because its author cannot be questioned.
Submit your Stage 1 organizer: (1) your precise claim in one sentence; (2) the counterclaim, stated so that someone holding it would recognize it, with one quotation supporting it; (3) the four moves of your concession paragraph in note form; (4) four quotations for your own case, drawn from at least two of the three narrative layers, with citations.
How confident are you that you can state an opposing view so fairly that someone who holds it would recognize it as their own?
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Chapters 5-8
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Chapters 5-8 so far Bridge summary — not the primary text
A recap of what you have already read, written for this course, so the reading check below does not require re-opening every earlier popover.
Utterson receives, through Jekyll’s half-open laboratory door, a forged-looking note in Hyde’s hand that his own clerk notices slants the same way as Jekyll’s (Chapter 5); Dr. Lanyon breaks with Jekyll over “unscientific balderdash” and dies soon after, leaving a sealed letter (Chapter 6); Jekyll’s terrified face appears at his window and he shuts it without a word (Chapter 7); and Poole, convinced the voice in the laboratory is not his master’s, brings Utterson to break down the door, where they find Hyde’s body in Jekyll’s clothes, along with a letter for Utterson (Chapter 8).