Reading and Writing

• A claim is a statement about something, which could, in theory, be supported with evidence.
• Evidence is the concrete facts used to support the claim.
• There are three steps in evaluating claims in a text:

  I. Identify the author's purpose

  II. Determine the rhetoric reasoning

  III. Determine the fallacious reasoning
• Identify the author's purpose - You need to understand thoroughly why the author wrote the piece. You have to determine the motivation behind the writing.
• Determine the rhetoric reasoning - Give it a thorough read. When you are done reading and comprehending the text, you an start looking for the rhetoric reasoning for evaluation.
• The rhetoric reasoning means all the claims and evidence are logical, credible, and give some sort of emotions. These claims are true and have credible sources.
• Determine the fallacious reasoning - It is also possible for the authors to use fallacious reasoning sometimes. This mostly happens when the author is desperate to make the argument strong and credible.
• Evaluating Evidence in a Claim

  1. Sufficient Evidence
  2. Relevant Evidence
  3. Representative Evidence
• Sufficient Evidence - Every fact an author provides might be accurate, and yet they might leave out crucial information needed to prove the claim. They might have insufficient evidence.
• Relevant Evidence - Here, we test whether the evidence is related or connected to the claim.
• Representative Evidence - Evidence represents, or gives us a complete and undistorted picture. The examples used are most typical and most representative.
• A claim must be arguable but stated as a fact. It must be debatable with inquiry and evidence; it is not a personal opinion or feeling.
• Explicit information is any idea that is obvious, apparent, and directly stated.
• Implicit information is understood but not stated. To find it, you will have to think about what you've read.
• Types of Claims

  1. Claim of Fact
  2. Claim of Value
  3. Claim of Policy
• Claim of Fact - asserts that a condition has existed, exists, or will exist.
• Claim of Value - makes a judgment (subjective); expresses approval or disapproval about something; attempts to show that something is wrong or right, moral or immoral, beautiful or ugly.
• Claim of Policy - argues that something SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be done, believed, banned, and argues for a course of action.