What Are Claims in Writing?
Overview
If you are a university or college student, you may find yourself needing to write a paper, blog post, or article for a class that you have no idea how to start.
This article is here to help students explain the basics of writing so they know what claims are in their academic essay. It will also help them understand them better. You claim by arguing your evidence and reasoning for the claim.
Making an “I claim” statement is one way to ensure your argument holds its own as solid and convincing. The key aspect here is to make sure every sentence supports the main idea with evidence from your research or personal experience before concluding with a final claim paragraph that summarizes everything.
Claims Definition
Claims are persuasive statements that you make about your topic or product. They help to establish the credibility of your blog post and support the thesis statement that you wrote. If you want to include statistics in your writing, this is where they should be placed as well. To avoid making any false claims, always check with sources before publishing anything.
What is the Purpose of a Claim?
A claim tells your reader what it is that you are writing about. To put it simply, the claim is the main idea of your paper or blog post. What’s happening at this moment? Why should they care? You can’t answer these questions without a clear understanding of this simple sentence structure. A good way to ensure that your claims are clear is to brainstorm some keywords that you would use to describe your essay. Write them down, and then choose one of those words as your claim.
What Are the Types of Claim?
There are several types of claims that students can use for their academic papers or as a template to create their blog posts. Understanding these different categories will help you come up with more robust ideas for persuading your readers. Let’s take a look at the different types of claims and how they might apply to persuasive writing:
- Factual Claims/ Claim of Fact -This type of claim is an objective truth. For example, “Harvard’s acceptance rate of 5% in the fall of 2016.” A causal claim might be “Raising the minimum wage increases poverty rates.”
- Value Claim/ Value Judgement -This describes a positive or negative opinion about something or someone based on the author’s values.
- Descriptive Claim- This type of claim uses facts and descriptions to explain a product or service. It is where you describe your writing with words.
- Argumentative Claim- This type of claim use reasoning, logic, and examples to support its claims.
- Explanatory Claim- This type of claim uses facts, explanation, and reasoning to support its claims.
- Concluding Claim- This type of claim is your final message that wraps up all the content you’ve provided in your writing. It summarizes everything that has been said before it with a strong concluding sentence.
- Assertive Claim- This type of claim is a statement about how something should be done. It directly tells the reader what to do, and it’s usually followed by an explanation of why their actions would be beneficial.
What Are Claim Examples?
Now let’s take a look at some claim examples in writing so you can better understand how they function:
Example of Descriptive Claim: The beautiful city of New York City is located along the east coast, and its warm weather makes it a popular spot for tourists to visit.
Example of Argumentative Claim: When traveling to New York City, it is best to stay away from the sidewalks. This will help avoid many of the common dangers in this city, including pickpockets, lack of safety, and more crime-related activities.
Example of Explanatory Claim: New York City has some of the worst drivers in North America. Many accidents occur here daily because of careless driving.
Example of Concluding Claim: Driving in New York City is hazardous, so it is best to avoid the roads when traveling here on vacation or business trips.
Example of Assertive Claim: Everyone should wear a helmet when riding their bike. This simple safety equipment provides many benefits, including protecting your head, preventing injury, and more.
What is a Claim Statement?
A claim statement is an idea, belief, or fact put forward by the writer in an attempt to persuade readers to believe it too. It’s the main idea of your argument, often expressed in a single sentence.
What Are the Steps of Writing a Claim?
The steps in writing an effective claim are simple to follow when using this 5-step formula:
- Identify – Who is your audience? (i.e., parents, teachers)? What do they want to hear? (i.e., Most teens will need parental supervision while driving). What are their concerns? (i.e., How do I protect my child while they are out with friends?)
- Prove – Do your research and provide facts, statistics, and information supporting your claims. You can give this on your reference page, or you can summarize different studies, articles, or websites in the body of your paper. Stay away from offering opinions in this section.
- Avoid – Here is where you identify common misconceptions, myths, or stereotypes related to your subject. It is also the best place to provide evidence of why these are false. For instance, teens think they are invincible behind the wheel because they have not yet had an accident, then list statistics proving this statement is false. You can use data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for this example.
- Recommend – This is a great place to directly tell your audience what they should do about a particular issue or how to avoid problems that you have identified in the Avoid section of your claim. You can use direct language such as “you should” and “avoid” to get your point across here.
- Conclude – Wrap up the main points of your paper by restating why you wrote it in the first place. You can also use some creative language to leave a lasting impression on your reader, such as “So before allowing teens behind the wheel, remember this…”
What is a Strong Claim Example?
A strong claim has an objective point of view, backs up its points with evidence, and uses personalized experiences to show the strength of its claims. For instance, in the example of a persuasive essay, a weak claim might be one that does not have an objective point of view on the issue being discussed.
Strong claims have some data or evidence from credible sources to show that they are not just giving their opinion but something objective and reliable. Lastly, a strong claim should show how it applies to you. This may be done by giving relatable, personal examples of when this has happened or might happen.
How Do You Write a Claim Letter?
A claim letter is often used to tell someone that they are legally obligated to pay you back the money or return an item. They are also helpful if someone has damaged your property and it needs compensation. Here are some steps for writing a claim letter:
Identify the person who owes you money or has damaged something of yours. Get all relevant information about this person. These may include things like a phone number, address, and email address.
Give all relevant information about the damaged property or money owed to you in your letter. Make sure you include any receipts or other evidence that clearly shows the amount owed to you. Sign off by requesting payment for your expenses incurred through no fault of your own.
What Makes a Good Claim?
A good claim is concise and easy to understand. It leaves no room for misinterpretation of what you’re trying to express and why the reader should care about it. A good claim also includes specific examples of its argument rather than generalizations or assumptions.
What is the Claim Process?
The claim process is a scientific method that consists of the following: identifying the problem, developing a hypothesis, and lastly, testing it to see if it holds any merit.
What is an Argument?
To put it simply, an argument is a process of putting forward a claim to support a point of view. Without arguments, our papers are bland and one-sided. An argument consists of reasoning for why something is the case, which requires evidence to prove your claim. This process is what makes your paper well-rounded and exciting to read!
What Are 3 Basic Components of an Argumentative Essay?
To help you get started, we’ve provided a list of three main components that you should include in your essays.
A clearly stated claim statement: This is the “so what” or why to care about your topic. It tells us why it matters and how people could be affected by the argument.
Clear evidence-based reasoning: For each premise, there should be evidence that supports the conclusion. This is where you give your explanation for why your evidence matter.
A counterargument: It can be helpful to include a brief section that covers what may go wrong or refute what you are saying.
What is an Argument Structured Like?
An argument is structured like this: one part introduction, three parts premise, and one part conclusion. The introduction presents the conflict or disagreement that engages your reader’s interest. Each premise then explains a reason why your opponent is wrong and your argument is correct. The conclusion provides readers with a final point for consideration.
How to Write an Introductory Paragraph for an Argumentative Essay?
Step 1: Introduce your claim. It should include a brief description of the issue and its significance to the reader. It should also indicate why you’re writing the paper, such as who you’re writing it for and their views on this topic.
Step 2: State how you will be arguing your point in the body of the essay. You can do this by first stating your perspective, briefly summarizing the opposing view, and finally explaining how you will refute it.
Step 3: Provide evidence to support your claim as you conclude. This could be something like studies or statistics on the matter that back up what you say. It should also include information about the benefits of what you’re proposing.
Keep in mind that for argumentative essays, the claim statement is typically phrased in the negative. So it’s talking about what something isn’t, rather than what it is. For instance, instead of saying, “The world needs more recycling facilities,” the claim would be, “The world does not need more recycling facilities.”
How to Write Body Paragraph When You Are Making a Claim?
Writing body paragraphs can be tricky, but you must provide supporting details and examples to help strengthen your claim. The following is a list of tips for how to write persuasive essays:
- Ask yourself what purpose do you want to accomplish with your claim
- Think about the benefits of your cause and how it can improve lives.
- Think about reasons that would support your claim and why people should believe in it.
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Conclusion
Claims are one of the essential parts of any persuasive writing. They help writers make strong connections with their readers thus influencing their thoughts and feelings about a particular subject. When making a claim, it’s vital to give evidence for that claim. At Tutorsploit.com, we hope that this article has helped you better understand creating a claim and its importance in writing.
I‘m a freelance content and SEO writer with a passion for finding the perfect combination of words to capture attention and express a message. I create catchy, SEO-friendly content for websites, blogs, articles, and social media. My experience spans many industries, including health and wellness, technology, education, business, and lifestyle. My clients appreciate my ability to craft compelling stories that engage their target audience, but also help to improve their website’s search engine rankings. I’m also an avid learner and stay up to date on the latest SEO trends. I enjoy exploring new places and reading up on the latest marketing and SEO strategies in my free time.
