CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE (Chaps. 7

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CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE(Chaps. 7 8)Booth,Colomb
and WilliamsThe Craft of Research
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Making Good Arguments

• No big differences every day life arguments
  research arguments
• Normal conversation
• confident of your knowledge
• person is there
• questioning,
• encouraging think hard on what and why you
  believe

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• Research argument
• answer Readers questions
• ask questions on their behalf
• they may include .
• Readers Questions Your answers
• What is your point? I claim that .
• What Evidence do you have? I offer as evidence
• What do you think your evidence
• supports your claim? I offer this
  general principle...
• Then just how strong is your claim? I limit it
  .

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• Your answers are your argument, offering
• claim
• evidence or ground supporting it
• warrant general principle explaining why your
  evidence is relevant to your claim
• qualification making your claim and evidence
  more precise
• Always state explicitly claim and supporting
  evidence
• Claim stating what you want your readers to
  believe

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• Evidence/grounds reasons why they should believe
• If either of these not present, you seem to offer
  pointless data or ungrounded opinion
• Expand arguments with two more elements warrants
  and qualifications.Overcome correct resistance
  from readers to change their minds
• Warrant general principle of an argument, an
  assumption/premise bridging the claim and
  supporting evidence, thus logically connecting
  them into a related pair

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• Warrant answers questions about the relevance of
  your claims
• Qualifications limit the certainty of your
  conditions or stipulate conditions in which your
  claim holds. Addresses readers potential
  objections (making you a cautions and thoughtful
  writer)
• Making a claim that is true only under certain
  conditions, you give the opportunity to your
  readers to qualify your arguments appropriately

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• When qualifying your argument, you acknowledge
  the obstacles that interrupt the movement between
  your evidence and claims.

warrant
Whenever you make a claim that is true under
certain conditions or assert a connection between
evidence and claim not 100 certain but only
probably true, you owe it to yourself and your
readers to qualify your argument appropriately!!
Evidence
Claim
Qualifications
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• Blood testing exampleVolunteer reads the device
  that test the blood sugar and says, You should be
  checked by your doctor claim because your
  reading is 200 evidence.
• . why 200 means we should see a doctor??..
• We are asking for a warrant, a principle
  justifying connecting the evidence 200 on this
  device, to a particular claim that we should see
  a doctor.
• Whenever someone has a reading of more than 120,
  its a sign that may have diabetes.
• Before we can evaluate a claim and its evidence,
  have to know how their scope is qualified Your
  reading is 200 evidence, so you should be checked
  claim, because that much glucose in the blood is
  a
• good qualification sign you may qualification
  have diabetes warrant unless, of course, you just
  ate something sugary qualification.
• The more complex and interesting your argument,
  the more qualifications you are likely to need,
  because complex and interesting claims are never
  100 true under all circumstances.

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• The way you manage claims, evidences, warrants
  and qualifications is important as readers judge
  not just your arguments but the quality of your
  mind (ideas)
• When making claims, give good reasons, and add
  qualifications.This way you acknowledge your
  readers desire to work with you in developing
  and testing new ideas.

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How to Make Strong Claims

• Main claim lies at heart of your report
• The part reflecting your personal contribution to
  your research
• Readers expect it to be
• substantive
• contestable
• explicit

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Substantive Claim...

• Readers demand you help them understand something
  important (take no notice/little interest in
  claims, about what you have done or what your
  paper will do)
• Meaning a claim is non-substantive if it needs
  no argument to support it ..

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Contestable Claim

• Thus, the World War II changed the course of
  history by allowing the Soviet Union to dominate
  Eastern Europe for almost half a century.
• All believe that no new information
• If what you tell readers does not change their
  minds in ways they care, wasting their time
• Only claims that change what they already believe
  will be contestable, hence significant

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Explicit Claim...

• Claim posed with sufficient detail and specific
  for readers to recognize central concepts that
  will be developed in the paper
• 1. Thus, the emancipation of Russian peasants was
  not a significant event.
• 2. Thus, the emancipation of Russian peasants was
  not a significant, because while their lives
  changed somewhat, their situation declined.
• 3. Thus, the emancipation of Russian peasants was
  not symbolic, because while they gained control
  over their daily affairs, their economic
  condition deteriorated so sharply that their new
  social status did not affect the material quality
  of their existence.

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• First claim has little substance
• The second is less vague, but has few specific
  concepts for readers to look for
• The third one is explicit, announces several
  concepts that the author should develop in its
  support symbolic, gain control, economic
  condition, deteriorate, new social status,
  material quality of existence
• Early statement of main claim should
• be done in a specific language
• produce feeling of coherence after reappearing
• avoid missing of important concepts

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How to Offer Reliable Evidences

• Most papers are devoted to supporting evidence

• If the readers reject your supporting evidence
  because they think it is weak, it has then fail
  one or more of six tests (judged not to be)
• accurate
• precise
• sufficient
• representative
• authoritative
• perspicuous

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• accuracy free of errors
• precision tangible margin of error (varies from
  field to field)
• sufficiencynumber of trials/experiments
  performed (varies from field to field)
• representativenessvariety of population from
  which they are drawn and about which you make
  your claim (field dependent)
• authorityauthority source citations (what
  counts??, field depend)
• perspicuitya way of avoiding quantitative data
  or direct quotations (readers should get a
  perception of evidence in your evidence)

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• Readers may also reject evidence because it is
  irrelevant or inappropriate
• All these criteria are not unique to research
  arguments

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. Way of Conclusion...

• Claim is much stronger than an Argument. This
  way, is not sufficient to make good arguments but
  one should rather attempt to claim the truth or
  falsity of his/her argument..
• Claim An Authoritative or Challenging request
• Argument Statement made or Fact presented in
  supporting or in opposition to a proposal or
  opinion
• An argument can be/is presented as an evidence
  to a claim

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