Argumentative Writing || Stating Your Claim — Transcript

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1. 0:00In the last video, we introduced
2. 0:01argumentative writing. And in this one,
3. 0:03we'll talk about the most core part of
4. 0:05it, the part [music] called the claim.
5. 0:08The claim is your main argument or the
6. 0:10point that you're trying to make in your
7. 0:11argumentative essay. In every argument,
8. 0:14you must take a position. You have to
9. 0:16pick a side. Point one for today's
10. 0:19discussion is that your claim at its
11. 0:21most basic is just the side that you
12. 0:24pick to take in an argument. Let's say
13. 0:27that I am tasked with writing this
14. 0:29topic. Is it a good idea to ban cell
15. 0:31phone use by students in [music] US high
16. 0:34schools? Okay. So, let's say that I
17. 0:37don't personally think it's a good idea
18. 0:39to completely ban cell phone use from
19. 0:41high schoolers. So, the start [music] of
20. 0:43my claim may be cell phones should not
21. 0:46be banned in US high schools. In that
22. 0:50claim, I clearly state my point and I'm
23. 0:52pretty firm about it, which I'll talk a
24. 0:54little bit more on later, but for now,
25. 0:56just note that I clearly stated my point
26. 0:59and that's my claim.
27. 1:01For my second point in this video, your
28. 1:03claim should be able to be argued or
29. 1:06proven with evidence.
30. 1:08So, can you back up your claim, your
31. 1:11position [music] with facts, details,
32. 1:13statistics, and other data to prove that
33. 1:15your site is correct? If so, you
34. 1:18probably have a solid and supportable
35. 1:20claim. Let's look at a few examples to
36. 1:22kind of illustrate this. Example one,
37. 1:24[music] cell phones should not be banned
38. 1:26in US high schools is a good opener for
39. 1:28a claim. It's a good start. It's clear.
40. 1:30It states your position. Looking at
41. 1:33another example, though, for this
42. 1:35example, it says, "Cell phones are small
43. 1:38genies imbued with powerful magical
44. 1:40energy." That one's obviously not going
45. 1:42to work for a variety of reasons. It's
46. 1:44mainly that it's just wildly off topic
47. 1:46and just completely untrue. I'm not
48. 1:48going to be able to back that up with
49. 1:50facts and evidence. For the next
50. 1:52example, cell phones are cool. I love my
51. 1:55phone.
52. 1:57This is also not a good claim or a good
53. 1:59opener for a variety of reasons. It's
54. 2:01too general and it doesn't actually
55. 2:03state a real position. You may think
56. 2:06phones are great, but at the same time
57. 2:08think that they should not be banned
58. 2:10from schools. It's not clear enough.
59. 2:13Yeah, you can back up the fact that
60. 2:14phones are cool and you could give some
61. 2:17evidence to, I guess, support the fact
62. 2:18that they're cool, but we're not even
63. 2:20really arguing or not if phones are
64. 2:21cool. We're trying to decide whether
65. 2:23they should be allowed in high schools
66. 2:26by students or not. There's a couple
67. 2:27other things you need to pay attention
68. 2:28to with claims, they can't just be
69. 2:30outright statements [music] or facts.
70. 2:32So, if I put my claim as cell phones can
71. 2:35call and text people,
72. 2:37that's not really arguing aside. It's
73. 2:39not really stating a position. It's just
74. 2:41stating a random fact about cell phones.
75. 2:43Let's roll back just a little bit to the
76. 2:45original claim that I had. The claim I
77. 2:47put for this argument on cell phones was
78. 2:51that cell phones should not be banned in
79. 2:53US high schools. Notice how I didn't put
80. 2:56something like I think that cell [music]
81. 2:59phones should not be banned in US high
82. 3:01schools. And I didn't put I believe that
83. 3:03cell phones should not be banned in US
84. 3:05high schools. Instead, I just outright
85. 3:07stated cell phones should not be banned
86. 3:09in US high schools. The reason why I
87. 3:11didn't put something like I believe
88. 3:13[music] or I think is that when you are
89. 3:15stating a claim, you want to be very,
90. 3:18very firm about it. You don't want your
91. 3:20audience to think that you're not sure
92. 3:22about your position. Stating something
93. 3:24like, I think cell phones should not be
94. 3:26banned, may imply to them that you're
95. 3:28unsure about the side that you're
96. 3:30taking. another example of a claim
97. 3:32that's messed up by this. If I say cell
98. 3:34[music] phones should probably not be
99. 3:35banned in US high schools, then it
100. 3:38messes up my claim because the probably
101. 3:40makes it seem like I'm not completely
102. 3:42sure on my position. This is kind of an
103. 3:45old school way of looking at this, but
104. 3:48it's one that you want to pay attention
105. 3:49to. A lot of teachers and professors may
106. 3:52honestly not care if you put something
107. 3:53like that in, but I'm of the belief that
108. 3:55you need to have a very firm position
109. 3:57right up front so that there can't be
110. 3:59any argument and so that whoever is
111. 4:01reading your argumentative essay knows
112. 4:03what side you're taking for sure. There
113. 4:06can sometimes be some differences in the
114. 4:08words that a teacher or professor uses
115. 4:10for the word claim. So claim and the
116. 4:14word argument generally refer to the
117. 4:16same thing in argumentative writing.
118. 4:18It's the position that you're taking in
119. 4:20an essay. For example, in a discussion
120. 4:22on your argumentative essay, you may be
121. 4:24asked to state your claim or you may be
122. 4:27asked to state your counter claim, which
123. 4:28is something we'll talk about later. But
124. 4:30you also may be asked to state your
125. 4:32argument [music] or to state what your
126. 4:33counterargument is. Both of these are
127. 4:36kind of interchangeable. Argument and
128. 4:38claim work [music] each different way,
129. 4:40and counter claim and counterargument
130. 4:42both mean the same thing, too. To
131. 4:43further add to this, you may also be
132. 4:45asked by a teacher or professor to state
133. 4:47your thesis or the thesis of your paper.
134. 4:50And thesis is another term that kind of
135. 4:51gets wrapped into this. It's more of a
136. 4:53general writing term that usually is
137. 4:56what your paper is about. So, if someone
138. 4:59[music] asks you what your thesis is,
139. 5:01it's essentially the point that you're
140. 5:02trying to make or the purpose of your
141. 5:04paper. In an argumentative essay, since
142. 5:07that's the type of writing that we're
143. 5:08looking at today, your thesis is going
144. 5:10to be the position that you take in your
145. 5:13paper. It's essentially another way to
146. 5:15say the claim or what your essay is
147. 5:17focused on, the position you're taking,
148. 5:20supporting, and trying to prove with
149. 5:22evidence. Here's a couple questions from
150. 5:24an assignment that we'll do on class
151. 5:25kind of looking at this. So, question,
152. 5:28what is a thesis? answer. It's the main
153. 5:31claim or argument that an essay is
154. 5:33centered around. Another question from
155. 5:35class, what is the term for the main
156. 5:37argument or point that an essay is
157. 5:40trying to prove?
158. 5:42Answer, it would be the thesis. Now, we
159. 5:44need to build on that by previewing
160. 5:46something called the thesis statement.
161. 5:48Point number five is that the thesis
162. 5:50statement is referring specifically to
163. 5:52the statement or the sentence you write
164. 5:55in the opening paragraph where you state
165. 5:57your position or where you make your
166. 5:59claim. Your thesis should be explicitly
167. 6:02stated somewhere in the first paragraph
168. 6:04of your paper. So most people will write
169. 6:06what we call the thesis statement as the
170. 6:09last sentence [music] of the first
171. 6:11paragraph or the last sentence of the
172. 6:13introductory paragraph. So, if our claim
173. 6:16is our position, our thesis statement is
174. 6:18basically where we are stating our
175. 6:20claim. It's where we're stating our
176. 6:22position. Point number six is that your
177. 6:24thesis statement should have a specific
178. 6:27structure to it as well. Let's look at a
179. 6:29quick example of what a thesis statement
180. 6:31may look like. This thesis statement
181. 6:33says, "High schools should not ban
182. 6:34students from bringing devices to
183. 6:36school. They are useful for students to
184. 6:38have for parent communication. They can
185. 6:40be used for personal safety and they can
186. 6:42be helpful for school projects.
187. 6:44In this example, I state my claim. High
188. 6:47schools should not ban students from
189. 6:48bringing devices to school and I give a
190. 6:51preview of the evidence to come. They
191. 6:53are useful for students to have for
192. 6:54parent communication. They can be used
193. 6:56for personal safety and they can be
194. 6:58helpful for school projects. And this
195. 7:01brings us to our final point. This point
196. 7:03is that the thesis statement also gives
197. 7:05a preview of the debate to come and the
198. 7:08structure of my argumentative essay as a
199. 7:10whole. I open with my position or my
200. 7:13claim and the next three sections or the
201. 7:15next paragraphs to come will each go
202. 7:18into those different points, the three
203. 7:20points that I stated to support my
204. 7:22argument. Now, if this seems like a lot,
205. 7:25it's totally okay. We'll talk a lot more
206. 7:27about thesis statements as we go into
207. 7:29our discussion on the introductory
208. 7:31paragraph. For now, just remember that
209. 7:33[music] your claim is the position that
210. 7:35you are taking in your argumentative
211. 7:38essay.
212. 7:39The thesis statement is the written
213. 7:42words that [music] express what you will
214. 7:44prove. It's the sentence that
215. 7:46illustrates your claim and it gives a
216. 7:48preview of why your side why your
217. 7:51position [music] will be right. If this
218. 7:54seems like a fair amount of stuff to
219. 7:55wrap your head around today, that's
220. 7:57okay. In the upcoming discussions we're
221. 8:00have we'll have, we'll look a lot more
222. 8:02deeply into examples of what your
223. 8:04[music] claim and your thesis statement
224. 8:07look like. So that way you'll be able to
225. 8:08open up your paper directly stating what
226. 8:11side you're on and [music] why your side
227. 8:13is correct.