CPRL 224

Templates:

How to use them, when to use them, why use them

Many Canadians assume that …………….

Many Canadians believe that …………………

On the one hand, ……….. . On the other hand, ……………….. .

I agree that ………….. .

This is not to say that …………… .

Author X contradicts herself. At the same time that she argues …………., she also implies …………..

She argues ………………, and I agree because ……………..

Her argument that …………… is supported by new research showing that …………….

Templates are rhetorical patterns, rhetorical structures, that allow you to summarize, to respond, to introduce a quotation, to support your argument or point of view with evidence, to shift between general, over-arching claims and smaller-scale, supporting claims, to introduce an on-going debate, to introduce something implied or assumed, and many more such forms of dialogic communications. They allow you to frame an argument, a position, a point of view, while acknowledging the arguments of others. Furthermore, they provide clarity and coherence.

Conventional wisdom has it that …………………

Common sense seems to dictate that ……………

It is often said that ………………

I have always believed that …………….

When I was a child, I used to think that ……………….Although I should know better by now , I cannot help thinking that ……………….

One implication of Mr.’s treatment of ………………. Is that ………………
Although Ms. Y doesn’t say so directly, she apparently assumes that ……………….

While they rarely admit as much, ……………. Often take for granted that …………..

When it comes to the topic of …………., most of us will readily agree that …………. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of ……………. Whereas some are convinced that …………., others maintain that ………………

Templates: when to use them

Public Relations activities come in many forms. They range from the ubiquitous