In the last writing class we looked at claims and found that there are at least three different kinds of claims:
- Factual claims
- Value claims
- Policy claims
These three different claims require different kinds of evidence and it is important that you recognise which kind of claim you are making in an essay so you can make sure that the evidence you supply is appropriate. If you are making a factual claim you will need to supply factual evidence and you will need to evaluate the reliability or trustworthiness of that evidence. If you are making a value claim, in order to make an argument, you will have to begin by supplying other criteria by which to judge the values you are arguing for. If you are making a policy claim, you will have to combine agruments about values (which outcomes are desirable?) with arguments about facts (what policies will in practice produce the desired outcomes?).
In tomorrow’s class we will discuss what makes a good claim. You can see material for last week’s class and for tomorrow’s at:
http://courses.washington.edu/spcmu/334/claim.html