Comm210 Final Exam Review Notes
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Comm 210 - Critical Thinking
Review for Final Exam - DYER
CHAPTER 2: CLAIMS * WHAT IS A CLAIM? * main thesis or conclusion of a text * Major conclusion of a piece of writing that the author is trying to persuade you to accept * Not an example, a definition, or a statistic * A broader issue, addressed at a greater level of abstraction than evidence
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AN ARTICLE = Claim + (Evidence + Examples + Reasoning to support the claim) * FINDING CLAIMS: (explicitly or implicitly stated) for these cue words in a text as they might indicate that the author is about to make a claim: * Therefore, * Thus, * In summary, * I believed that, * Clearly, * In short, * The data show that, * As a result, * In fact,
…and synonyms of these words.
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IT IS IMPORTANT TO ENSURE THAT YOUR STATEMENT OF THE CLAIM IS ‘FAIR’,
THAT YOU HAVE NOT DISTORTED THE AUTHOR’S MEANING.
Claim can be difficult to spot sometimes, here is an example:
The statistics estimated that 39% of the software computers were not legally purchased.
The claim would be: Pirated merchandise is a big problem for manufacturing firms.
The anecdotes and statistics are ONLY evidence to support the claim.
There are two types of claims: uncontested claims and contestable claims.
* UNCONTESTED (UNPROBLEMATIC) CLAIMS: → claims that we accept without challenging them.
Examples:
* Claims that are consistent with our own experiences and observations, things that we have actually seen, heard, or touched (e.g.: there is traffic on the roads between 4pm and 6 pm.) Similarly, we accept claims that relate to subjective experiences (e.g.: golf is my favourite sport) (empirical) * Claims which appear to be facts that are independent of interpretation (e.g.: Québec is larger than Nova Scotia).
Comm 210 - Critical Thinking
Review for Final Exam - DYER
CHAPTER 2: CLAIMS * WHAT IS A CLAIM? * main thesis or conclusion of a text * Major conclusion of a piece of writing that the author is trying to persuade you to accept * Not an example, a definition, or a statistic * A broader issue, addressed at a greater level of abstraction than evidence
-------------------------------------------------
AN ARTICLE = Claim + (Evidence + Examples + Reasoning to support the claim) * FINDING CLAIMS: (explicitly or implicitly stated) for these cue words in a text as they might indicate that the author is about to make a claim: * Therefore, * Thus, * In summary, * I believed that, * Clearly, * In short, * The data show that, * As a result, * In fact,
…and synonyms of these words.
-------------------------------------------------
IT IS IMPORTANT TO ENSURE THAT YOUR STATEMENT OF THE CLAIM IS ‘FAIR’,
THAT YOU HAVE NOT DISTORTED THE AUTHOR’S MEANING.
Claim can be difficult to spot sometimes, here is an example:
The statistics estimated that 39% of the software computers were not legally purchased.
The claim would be: Pirated merchandise is a big problem for manufacturing firms.
The anecdotes and statistics are ONLY evidence to support the claim.
There are two types of claims: uncontested claims and contestable claims.
* UNCONTESTED (UNPROBLEMATIC) CLAIMS: → claims that we accept without challenging them.
Examples:
* Claims that are consistent with our own experiences and observations, things that we have actually seen, heard, or touched (e.g.: there is traffic on the roads between 4pm and 6 pm.) Similarly, we accept claims that relate to subjective experiences (e.g.: golf is my favourite sport) (empirical) * Claims which appear to be facts that are independent of interpretation (e.g.: Québec is larger than Nova Scotia).