Types of Claims: Establishing Purpose and Organization

1
Types of Claims Establishing Purpose and
Organization

• Claims of Fact
• Claims of Definition
• Claims of Cause
• Claims of Value
• Claims of Policy

2
Five Types of Claims

• Virtually all arguments can be categorized
  according to one of five types of claims.
• Claims can be identified by discovering the
  question the argument answers.

3
Claims of Fact

• Did it happen?
• Does it exist?
• Is it true?
• Is it a fact?

4
Claims of Definition

• What is it?
• How should we define it?
• What is it like?
• How should it be classified?
• How should we interpret it?
• How does its usual meaning change in a particular
  context?

5
Claims of Cause

• What caused it?
• Where did it come from?
• Why did it happen?
• What are the effects?
• What will probably be the results over the short
  and the long term?

6
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?

7
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?

8
Questions

• Notice how these questions all invite different
  purposes and different points of view.
• They all lead to argument.

9
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.

10
Fact Claims

• These are central to court room debate since
  lawyers argue about what happened in order to
  prove innocence or guilt.
• Historians also argue about what happened as they
  sort through historical evidence to try to
  establish historical fact.

11
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.
• Men need women to civilize them.

12
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 probably true in order to be
  acceptable to an audience.

13
Fact Claims Practice

• The claim for this article appears in the first
  sentence and is underlined.
• Read Debunking the Digital Divide by Robert
  Samuelson.

14
Fact Claims Practice

• It may turn out that the digital divide - - one
  of the most fashionable political slogans of
  recent years - - is largely fiction. As you will
  recall, the argument went well beyond the
  unsurprising notion that the rich would own more
  computers than the poor. The disturbing part of
  the theory was that society was dividing itself
  into groups of technology haves and have nots
  and that this segregation would, in turn, worsen
  already large economic inequalities. Its this
  argument thats either untrue or wildly
  exaggerated.

15
Practice

• The previous excerpt is the first paragraph in an
  article in which the author argues that the
  digital divide, a concept that predicted
  computer use would be unevenly distributed
  between the rich and the poor, did not, in fact,
  take place and that the opposite has occurred.
• This article claims to disprove one fact and
  establish a more accurate one in its place.

16
Chronological Organization

• Traces what has occurred over a period of time,
  usually in the order in which it occurred, can be
  used to develop claims of fact.
• The history of the increase in population might
  be provided be used to organize a fact paper.
• The claim above about the digital divide could be
  developed by adding several reasons for looking
  at actual computer use in a new way.

17
Chronological Order

• The claim of fact is itself is often stated at or
  near the beginning of the argument unless there
  is a psychological advantage for stating it at
  the end.
• Most authors make claims of fact clear from the
  outset, revealing early what they seek to
  establish.

18
Chronological Order

• Factual support, as you might guess, is
  especially appropriate for claims of fact.
• Such support includes both past and present
  facts, statistics, real examples, and quotations
  from reliable authorities.
• When reliable authorities are used, the
  quotations are usually based on fact and less on
  opinion.

19
Definition Claims

• The entire argument can center around the
  definition of a term.
• When you argue that an athlete who receives
  compensation for playing a sport is
  professional, and thereby looses amateur
  status, you are making a claim of definition.

20
Definition Claims

• We are considering definition claims that
  dominate the argument as a whole.
• Definition is also used as a type of support,
  often at the beginning, to establish the meaning
  of one or more key words.

21
Definition Claims Examples

• Marriage as an institution needs to be redefined
  to include modern variations on the traditional
  family.
• Some so-called art exhibits could more accurately
  be described as pornography exhibits.
• The fetus is a human being, not just a group of
  cells.

22
Definition Claims Examples

• Wars in this century can all be defined as just
  rather than unjust wars.
• Sexual harassment is defined in terms of behavior
  and not sexual desire.
• Note that arguments introduced by these claims
  will focus on the definitions of family, art,
  fetus, just war, and sexual harassment.

23
Definition Claims

• Youll now read a claim of definition that
  appears in an article written by a scientist who
  was assigned to a bioethics panel to consider the
  future of cloning.
• Read Zygotes and People Arent Quite the Same
  by Michael S. Gazzaniga from your Packet.

24
Cause Claims

• When you claim that staying up late at a party
  caused you to fail your exam the next day or that
  your paper is late because the library closed too
  early, you are making claims of cause.
• People often disagree about what causes something
  to happen, and they also disagree about the
  effects.

25
Clause Claims ExamplesThe cause-effect
relationship is at issue in these statements

• Overeating causes disease and early death
• A healthy economy causes people to have faith in
  their political leaders
• Sending infants to day care results in
  psychological problems later in life
• Inadequate funding for AIDS research will result
  in a disastrous worldwide epidemic
• Crime is caused by lack of family values

26
Cause Claims

• Read the excerpt from an article about
  conflicting views on whether antidepressants
  cause dangerous side effects in children.
• The Claim is underlined
• Read Antidepressants Two Countries, Two Views
  by Sally Satel, M.D.

27
Cause Claims

• An organizational strategy commonly used for
  cause papers is to describe causes and then
  effects.
• Clear-cutting would be described as a cause that
  would lead to the ultimate destruction of the
  forests, which would be the effect.

28
Cause Claims

• Effects may be described and then the cause or
  causes.
• The effects of censorship may be described before
  the public efforts that resulted in that
  censorship.
• You may also encounter refutation of other actual
  or possible causes or effects.

29
Cause Claims

• The type of support for establishing a
  cause-and-effect relationship is factual data,
  including examples and statistics that are used
  to prove a cause or an effect.
• Various types of comparison, including parallel
  cases in past history to show that the cause of
  one event could also be the cause of another
  similar even.

30
Cause Claims

• Signs of certain causes and effects can also be
  used as well as hypothetical examples that
  project possible results.

31
Value Claims

• When you claim that sororities and fraternities
  are the best extracurricular organizations for
  college students to yoin, 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.

32
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.

33
Value Claims Examples

• Public school are better than private schools
• Science Fiction novels are more intereesting to
  read than romance novels
• Dogs make the best pets
• Mercy Killing is immoral
• Computers are a valuable addition to modern
  society
• Viewing television is a wasteful activity

34
Value Claims Examples

• Contributions of homemakers are as valuable as
  those of professional women
• Animal rights are as important as human rights

35
Value Claims

• Read Big and Bad by Malcolm Gladwell.
• This excerpt is drawn from an article about
  sport-utility vehicles .
• You can guess from the title that this author
  will be making a value judgment about these
  automobiles.
• The Claim is Underlined

36
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.

37
Policy Claims Examples

• We 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

38
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 sonsumers

39
Policy Claims

• Deciding what to do in the face of problems has
  always been one of the major purposes of
  argument.
• Read the Reflections from a Life Behind Bars
  Build Colleges, Not Prisons by James Gilligan,
  the former director of mental health for a major
  prison system, describes the problems created by
  prisons and describes his solution for these
  problems.

40
Mixed Claims

• In argument 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 the other types serving as
  subclaims.

41
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,
  may examine the causes or more likely the effects
  of this type of reporting, and may suggest future
  policy for dealing with this problem.

42
Mixed Claim

• All may occur in the same article.
• Still, the dominant claim is one of value, that
  this practice of news writers is bad.
• By identifying the dominant claim, you also
  identify the main purpose of the argument.

43
Mixed Claim

• When planning and writing argument, 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 subclaims if
  you need to.

44
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.

45
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• As you read and write argument, you will also
  notice that claims follow a predictable sequence
  when they originate in real-life situations.
• In fact, argument appears most vigorous in
  dramatic, life and death, situations or when a
  persons character is called into question.

46
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• We see claims and rebuttals, many kinds of
  support, and every conceivable organizational
  strategy in these instances.

47
Claims and Arguments in Real Life

• For example, as juvenile crime in this country
  increased in recent years, the issues that
  emerged included these
• What is causing young people to commit crimes?
• What can be done to protect the family unit?
• Is the educational system adequate?
• Should the criminal justice system treat young
  offenders differently from older criminals?

48
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• Is the educational system adequate?
• Should the criminal justice system treat young
  offenders differently from older criminals?
• Does racial discrimination contribute to juvenile
  crime?
• How can we make inner cities more livable?
• How can we improve social programs?

49
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• Such real-life situations, particularly when they
  are life-threatening as juvenile crime often is,
  not only generate issues they also usually
  generate many arguments.
• Interestingly, the types of arguments usually
  appear in a fairly predictable order.
• The first arguments made in response to a new
  issue-generating situation usually involve claims
  of fact and defintions.

50
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• People first have to come to terms with the fact
  that something significant has happened.
• They need to define what happened so that they
  can understand it better.

51
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• The next group of arguments that appear after
  fact and definition often inquire into cause.
• People need to figure out why the event happened.
  

52
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• Multiple causes are often considered and debated.
• Next, people begin to evaluate the goodness and
  badness of what has happened.
• It is usually after all of these other matters
  have been dealt with that people turn their
  attention to future policy and how to solve the
  problems.

53
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• The issues and claims that emerged from the
  9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade
  Center in New York City follow this pattern.
• Again, people were caught off guard, and the
  first questions that emerged as people watched
  their television sets were questions of fact.

54
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• What is happening?
• Is this a Bomb?
• Are we being attacked?
• Definition arguments followed.
• The issue was how to define what had happened,
  which would help determine the countrys response.

55
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• The president and his advisers defined the
  situation as a act of terrorism and then declared
  a war on terrorism.

56
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• Causal Arguments engaged people for a long time
  after he initial event.
• Possible caused of the attacks included the
  presence of evil in the world, the terrorists
  desire for power, religious conflict, the uneven
  opportunities between developed and developing
  nations, hatred of America, even biblical
  prophecy.

57
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• At the same time many value arguments appeared in
  the media.
• The questions were, How bad is this? and Can
  any good be discovered?
• Pictures of grieving survivors and te excavation
  of work at Ground Zero, along with obituaries of
  the dead, forcefully demonstrated the bad effects.

58
Claims and Argument in Real Life

• Some good was found in the heroic efforts of
  passengers on one of the planes who attacked the
  terrorists and died with them, as well as in the
  selfless efforts of New York Police officers and
  fire fighters, many of whom died in the rescue
  effort in the buildings.

59
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Readers of argument find the list of the five
  types of claims and the questions that accompany
  then useful for identifying the claim and the
  main purpose in an argument to
• Establish fact
• To define
• To establish cause
• To assign value
• To propose a solution

60
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Claims and claim questions can also help readers
  identify minor purposes in an argument, those
  that are developed as subclaims.
• When a reader is able to discover the overall
  purpose of an argument, it is much easier to make
  predictions and to follow the argument.

61
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Writers of argument find the list of the five
  types of claims and the questions that accompany
  them useful for analyzing
• Analyzing an issue
• Writing a claim about it
• Identifying both the controlling purpose for a
  paper
• Additional ideas that can be developed in the
  paper.

62
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Example
• Should high schools be safer places?
• Write the claim questions about this issue and
  write a paragraph in response to each of them
• Is it a fact that high schools are unsafe places?
• How should we define unsafe?
• What causes a lack of safety in high schools and
  what are the effects?
• Is a lack of safety good or bad?

63
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Example contd
• What criteria could be established to judge the
  goodness or badness of safety in high schools?
• What can be done to make high schools safer
  places?
• Finally, the author reads the paragraphs and
  selects the one that is most promising to form
  the major claim and purpose in the paper.

64
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• For example, suppose the author decides to write
  a policy paper, and the claim becomes Parents,
  students, teachers, and administrators all need
  to cooperate to make high schools safer places.
• To show how this can be done becomes the main
  purpose of the paper.

65
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• The information generated by asking the other
  claim questions, however, can also be used in the
  paper to provide reasons and evidence.
• The claim questions, used in this way as part of
  the prewriting process, can generate considerable
  information and ideas for a paper.

66
Some Other Preliminary Questions to Help you
Develop your Claim

• The following questions can help you clarify and
  develop your claim.
• Is the Claim Narrow and Focused?
• Issue area the environment
• Specific related issue What problems are
  associated with nuclear energy?
• Aspects of the issue What should be done with
  nuclear waste? How hazardous is nuclear energy,
  and how can we control the hazards?
• What are the alternatives to nuclear energy?

67
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• In selecting a narrowed issue to write about, you
  may want to focus on only one of the three
  aspects of the nuclear energy problem.
• Claim Solar power is better than nuclear energy
• Revised claim Solar power is better than nuclear
  energy for certain specified purposed

68
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Which Controversial Words in you Claim will you
  Need to Define?
• Example you would need to be clear about what
  you mean by television violence, censorship, and
  free speech rights.

69
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Can you Learn Enough to Cover the Claim Fully?
• If the information for an effective paper is
  unavailable or too complicated, write another
  claim, one that you know more about and can
  research more successfully.
• Or narrow the claim further to an aspect that you
  can understand and develop.

70
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• How Can you Make Your Claim Both Interesting and
  Compelling to Yourself and Your Audience?
• Develop a fresh perspective on your issue when
  writing your claim.
• Example claim public education should be
  changed.

71
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• You discover a couple of new aspects of the
  issue
• Parents should be able to choose their childs
  school
• Competition among schools might lead to
  improvement
• Contractors can take over schools and manage them
  to improve and make a profit.

72
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• New Claim Competition among school, like
  competition in business, leads to improvement

73
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• At What Point are you and the Audience Entering
  the Conversation on the Issue?
• Consider Audience
• If you and the audience are new to the issue you
  might decide to include claims of fact and
  definition.

74
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• If your audience understands the issue to some
  extent but needs more analysis, include claims of
  cause or value.
• If you and your audience have adequate background
  on the issue, you may want to write a policy
  claim and try to solve the problems associated
  with it.

75
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions For
Reading and Writing Argument

• Issues and Audiences are dynamic.
• As soon as audiences engage with issues, both
  begin to change.
• You must be constantly aware of the current
  status of the issue and the audiences current
  stand on it.