Claim, Evidence & Reasoning, Counter Claim & Counter Attack

Claim Definition A statement essentially arguable but used as a primary point to support or prove an argument is called a claim. If somebody gives an argument to support his position, it is called making a claim. Different reasons are usually presented to prove why a certain claim should be accepted as logical (evidence & reasoning).

I believe that… Writing Prompt: Some schools require that each student to participate in community service. People at these schools argue that “mandatory volunteerism” is an important part of the educational experience and that there should be a rule requiring community involvement, in order to foster a sense of citizenship. Others argue that students should be free to decide whether or not they wish to participate in community service. Write an essay for a classroom instructor in which you take a position on whether participation in community service should be required. I believe that…

Trick to Writing a Claim I believe that…. I believe that every person born should have the same opportunity for success. Every person born should have the same opportunity for success.

Trick to Writing a Claim By using “I believe that..” at first, you were able to gather your thoughts and simply state what you believe. However, by taking “I believe that..” statement out, you have now developed a concrete claim that seems unbiased and well-researched.

Evidence & Reasoning Now that you have your claim, it is time to back up your claim with evidence & reasoning. This would be where you would go out and complete research by finding various articles that backed up your claim with logical appeals (facts) Luckily for you, these were provided for you already and this is where those articles come in to play.

Evidence & Reasoning What are some strong pieces of evidence that will make your reader believe your claim? Look at your sheet where you listed factual evidence from the various articles you were given and write the strongest 3 down.

Now we have evidence, time for reasoning… It is not enough to just simply list evidence to convince your reading that they should believe your claim. You also need to back that evidence up with reasoning. Reasoning is the explanation that connects your claim to the evidence that supports it. This simply means you need to explain to your audience why these pieces of evidence are important to your overall claim.

Example of Evidence & Reasoning If my claim was that students should be required to participate in community service in order to graduate, this could be a piece of evidence and reasoning that I use… Evidence: Most teenagers have a lot of energy and are eager to try new things. Reasoning: Community service could be something for teenagers to use all their excess energy on. They would not only be helping the community, but they would also be using their excess energy to try new things.

Reasoning Look at your 3 pieces of evidence that you have down on your paper and write 2-3 sentences for each piece of evidence explaining to your audience why they are important to your overall claim. Side note: please do not write “This is important because…” for every piece of reasoning. 

Counter Claims Since there are two sides to every arguments, it is important that you address the other side of the argument within your paper. You may think that this will make your argument weaker since you are bringing information into your paper that does not support your claim, but it will all make sense in the end.

Counter Claims Introducing a counter claim into your paper actually makes your paper stronger because it shows that you have a well-rounded and well-educated take on the argument. Basically, you aren’t someone who is so one sided that they are opposed to hearing other views, which makes you sound like a reasonable person, someone that others can trust.

Now, the Counter Attack But you aren’t just included a counter claim to seem reasonable, you are including a counter claim to then counter attack that claim. By stating an counter claim and then counter attacking that claim, you end up making your own claim stronger.

Example of a counter claim and counter attack Counter Claim: Adding community service requirements would stress high school students out since they already have busy schedules. Counter Attack: However, this is actually making their time management skills stronger and helping them prepare for life after high school where they will have to juggle many things at once.

Your Turn… Find a counter argument to your claim and then counter attack!!!

Claim, Evidence & Reasoning, Counter Claim & Counter Attack On this paper you should have the following for your argumentative essay… Claim Evidence & Reasoning Counter Claim Counter Attack