What’s Your Point?

Identifying Claims
 Learning Objective

• To identify claims explicitly or implicitly

made in a written text
Key Understanding
 Knowledge in analyzing the different types of
claim of a written composition will help you
identify the position, intention, or message of the
writer.

Key Questions
 How do you define claim?
 How do the different types of claim differ from
each other?
 What Is Claim?
Is the point of the writer consisting of his ideas, potions, and
arguments on a certain subject written on the intro or the first few
statements.
 A sentence that summarizes the most important
thing that the writer wants to say as a result of
his/her thinking, reading, or writing

 The writers point or position regarding the chosen

topic in a text
 The central argument or thesis statement of a text

 The point that the writer tries to prove in the text by

providing details, explanations, and other types of
evidence
 Usually found in the introduction or in the first few
paragraphs of the text
 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF FACT

 State a quantifiable assertion, or a measurable topic

 Assert that something has existed, exists, or will

exist based on data

 Rely on reliable sources or systematic procedures

to be validated

 Usually answer a “what” question

 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF FACT

The following questions are useful in determining

whether something is a claim of fact:

• Is this issue related to a possible cause or effect?

• Is this statement true or false? How can its

truthfulness be verified?

• Is this claim controversial or debatable?

 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF VALUE

 Assert something that can be qualified

 Consist of arguments about moral, philosophical, or

aesthetic topics, which try to prove that some
values are more or less desirable compared to
others

 Make judgments based on certain standards, on

whether something is right or wrong, good or bad,
or something similar
 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF VALUE
The following questions may be asked to discover
explanations on how problems, situations, or issues
ought to be valued:
• Which claims endorse what is good or right?

• What qualities should be considered good? Why is

that so?
• Which of these values contend with others? Which
ones are more important and why? Whose
standards are used?
• What are some concrete examples of such values?
 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF POLICY

 Posit that specific actions should be chosen as

solutions to a particular problem

 Begin with “should,” “ought to,” or “must”

 Defend actionable plans

 Usually answer “how” questions

 Types of Claim
CLAIMS OF POLICY
The following questions may be may be useful in
evaluating a claim of policy:
• Does the claim suggest a specific remedy to solve
the problem?
• Is the policy clearly defined?

• Is the need for the policy established?

• Is the policy the best one available? For whom?
According to whose standards?
• How does the policy solve the problem?