Types of Claims: Establishing Purpose and Organization

1. Types of Claims: Establishing Purpose and Organization Claims of Fact Claims of Value Claims of Policy

2. Claims of Fact Claims of Value Claims of Policy Three Types of Claims • Virtually all arguments can be categorized according to one of three types of claims. • Claims can be identified by discovering the question the argument answers. • As we browse the types, notice how the questions all invite different purposes and different points of view. • They all lead to argument.

3. Claims of Fact: • Did it happen? • Does it exist? • Is it true? • Is it a fact?

4. Fact Claim • When you insist a paper was turned in on time even if the professor cannot find it, or that you were not exceeding the speed limit when a police officer claims that you were, you are making claims of fact.

5. Claims of Fact • Claims of fact entail the hazard that the factual map is constantly being redrawn. New data could always force us to reconsider out conclusions. • Claims of fact are often qualified by such terms as generally or as a rule. • To be valid, claims of fact MUST include sufficient & appropriate data.

6. Claims of Fact • Claims of fact must rely upon reliable authorities or they are worthless. Especially in the age of the Internet, one must use a credible source, building ethos. • Claims of fact must recognize the difference between facts and inferences.

7. Defending a Claim of Fact: • Be sure that the claim is clearly stated. • Define terms that may be controversial or ambiguous. • Make sure your evidence is sufficient, accurate, recent, typical, and comes from reliable authorities. • Make clear when conclusions are inferences or interpretations, not facts. • Arrange your evidence in order to emphasize what is most important.

8. Fact Claims: • Women are as effective as men in combat. • The ozone layer is becoming depleted. • Increasing population threatens the environment. • Bigfoot exists in remote areas. • As a rule, men need women to civilize them.

9. Examples of Claims of Fact: • Generally, public secondary schools in America are not adequately preparing students for college. • Revised to omit “not”: • Generally, public secondary schools are inadequately preparing students for college. • As used in the United States, the death penalty is ineffective and impractical.

10. BDCHS Student Exemplar: • Although many believe that the proper way to handle problems of injustice and suffering are through peaceful protests and negotiations, and others simply choosing the path of indifference, one finds it necessary to choose action over words when faced with overwhelming amounts of victims enduring harm and death, when negotiations are tried and failed, and when injustice threatens to spread and increase exponentially.

11. Fact Claims • Note that all these claims are statements of fact, but not everyone would agree with them. • They are all controversial. • The facts in these claims need to be proved as either absolutely or most likely true in order to be acceptable to an audience. • However, remember the need to write with authority.

12. Claims of Policy: • What should we do about it? • How should we act? • What should our future policy be? • How can we solve this problem? • What concrete course of action should we pursue to solve the problem?

13. Policy Claims • When you claim that all new students should attend orientation or that all students who graduate should participate in graduation ceremonies, you are making claims of policy. • A claim of policy often describes a problem and then suggests ways to solve it.

14. Claims of Policy: • argue that certain conditions should exist. • advocate adoption of policies or course of action because problems arose that call for action. • almost always “should” or “ought to” or “must” are included in the claim.

15. Defending Claims of Policy: • Make your proposal clear. Clearly define terms. • Establish a need for change. • Consider the opposing arguments. • Devote the major part of your essay to proving your proposal is an answer to the opposing arguments. • Support with solid data – but also consider including moral and/or common sense reasons

16. Policy Claims: Examples • America should stop spending so much on prisons and start spending more on education. • Children in low-income families should receive medical insurance from the government. • Social security should be distributed on the basis of need rather than as an entitlement.

17. Policy Claims: Examples • Every person in the United States should have access to health care. • Film-makers and recording groups should make objectionable language and subject matter known to prospective consumers. • Fetal tissue research should not be funded by the United States government. (Revise to omit “not”??) • “Recovered memory” should be disallowed as evidence in American courts.

18. BDCHS Student Exemplar • While the "disgust factor" is certainly something to be reckoned with, insects should become an essential part of the American diet, due to their high nutritional content and inexpensive farming costs.

19. Claims of Value: • Is it good or bad? • How bad? • How good? • Of what worth is it? • Is it moral or immoral? • Who thinks so? • What do those people value? • What values or criteria should I use to determine its goodness or badness?

20. Value Claims • When you claim that sororities and fraternities are the best extracurricular organizations for college students to join, you are making a claim of value. • Claims of value, as their name implies, aim at establishing whether the item being discussed is either good or bad, valuable or not valuable, desirable or not desirable.

21. Claims of Value: • make a judgment • express disapproval and/or approval • attempt to prove that some action, belief, or condition is right or wrong, good or bad, etc. • can be a simple expression of taste, preferences, and prejudices. • can be defended or attached on the basis of standards. • YOU have to arrive at reasonable standards that reasonable readers will accept.

22. Defending a Claim of Value: • Make clear that the values or principles you are defending should have priority on a scale of values over completing values or principles others might defend. • Suggest that adherence to the values you are defending will bring about good results. • Since values are abstract, you should use real-world examples and illustrations to clarify meaning and make distinctions. • Use the testimony of other to prove that knowledgeable or highly regarded people share your values.

23. Value Claims • It is often necessary to establish criteria for goodness or badness in these arguments and then to apply them to the subject to show why something should be regarded as either good or bad.

24. Value Claims: Examples • Public schools are better than private schools. • Science Fiction novels are moreinteresting to read than romance novels. • Dogs make the bestpets. • Mercy Killing is immoral. • Computers are a valuable addition to modern society. • Viewing television is a wasteful activity. • Fetal tissue research is wrong.

25. Value Claims: Examples • Contributions of homemakers are as valuable as those of professional women • Animal rights are as important as human rights

26. Mixed Claims • In argument writing, one type of claim may predominate, but other types may also be present as supporting arguments or sub claims. • It is not always easy to establish the predominant claim in an argument, but close reading will usually reveal a predominant type, with one or more other types serving as supporting claims.

27. Mixed Claims • For example, a value claim that the media does harm by prying into the private lives of public figures may establish the fact that this is a pervasive practice, may define what should be public and what should be private information, and may suggest future policy for dealing with this problem.

28. Mixed Claim • All may occur in the same article. • By identifying the dominant claim, you also identify the main purpose of the argument. • When planning and writing arguments, you will more easily focus on the main purpose for your argument when you have established the predominant claim and have identified its type. • You can use other types of claims as supporting claims if you need to.

29. Mixed Claim • When you know your purpose, you can then plan appropriate organization and support for your paper, depending on the type of claim that dominates your paper.

30. Recognize Counterargument in Controlling Claims • Example without Counterargument: • Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention. • Example with Counterargument: • While Dukakis’“soft-on-crime” image hurt his chances in the 1988 election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat. (Kind of Claim? Why?) • (Include “while” or “although” to begin counter…)

31. Identify the Kind of Claim. Justify. • Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body mass, it poses a potential danger to customers. • Although many believe people should be able to make their own choices, because half of all American elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.

32. Lines of Reasoning: OJ Simpson Guilty or Not Guilty? • Claim of Fact: • OJ Simpson is guilty of killing his wife. • Claim of Policy: • OJ Simpson should be executed for killing his wife. • Claim of Value: • OJ Simpson is guilty of first-degree murder.

33. Six-Step Thesis Formation Method • Six-Step Thesis Formation Method

34. Your Turn – On Edsby, Type Your Answer in the Comment Box in the Assignment Topics: • Is online learning as good as face-to-face learning? • Doctored Photos: OK or Not? • Does technology make us more alone? • Using the 6 Step Method, choose a topic from above and write three claims: • Fact • Policy • Value • Write a claim: should America use capital punishment?

35. Links to Works Cited • http://www.scsk12.org/scs/subject-areas/research_paper/claim.htm • Harvard Writing Center: Developing-Thesis • Indiana University: thesis_statements