What is the author’s purpose? what is the author’s claim?

Presentation on theme: "Claim, purpose, and informational texts. What is a claim? Claim: The main argument of a piece of writing. Defines the goals of the writing and is supported."— Presentation transcript:

1 Claim, purpose, and informational texts

2 What is a claim? Claim: The main argument of a piece of writing. Defines the goals of the writing and is supported by evidence, quotations, argumentation, expert opinion, statistics, and telling details. Must be argumentative. When you make a claim, you are arguing for a certain interpretation or understanding of your subject. Specific. It makes a focused argument It is NOT an opinion!!! Let’s practice- what’s the author’s claim here: Read “Right Size, Right Goals…” http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/08/03/ can-fast-food-redeem-itself http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/08/03/ can-fast-food-redeem-itself

3 What is author’s purpose? An author’s purpose is the reason an author decides to write about a specific topic. Then, once a topic is selected, the author must decide whether his purpose for writing is to inform, persuade, entertain, or explain his ideas to the reader. Let’s practice (next slide)

4 Author’s Purpose Most raisins sold in America are grown in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Vines are planted in straight rows and tied to posts and wires. After about three years, the vines produce grapes that can be eaten or turned into raisins. During the harvest, cutters use a special tool to cut bunches of grapes from the vine. After they are cut, the grapes are placed on special paper trays. They are left in the sun for up to three weeks. When the raisins are dry, they are carefully bundled and examined by sorters. Then, they are packaged in boxes and sent out to stores. The author wrote this passage in order to – A) persuade the reader to eat more raisins B) inform the reader about how raisins are produced C) instruct the reader how to make homegrown raisins D) entertain the reader with a story about raisin farmers

5 Informational text features Authors include text features to help the reader better understand what they have read. Text features provide information that may not be written in the text itself. Text features can be found in textbooks, magazine articles, newspapers, reports, web pages, and other forms of nonfiction text.

6 Informational text features Non-fiction differs from fiction in a number of ways but one major way is the text features (see handout) that help the reader to better understand the text in a variety of ways  Print Features- TOC, glossary, preface, index, appendix…  Illustrations- photos, drawings, magnifications….  Organizational Aids- bold print, bullets, captions, sidebars…  Graphic Aids- diagrams, maps, figures, time-lines….

Each argumentative writing comes with a thesis statement that provides the main argument or idea to clear the stand of the thesis. Another word for the claim is demand and you can use it to understand the meaning of this word. This thesis statement is what we refer to as an author’s claim in your essay. This definition gives you a clue about what is a claim in writing.

It is an excellent starting point for your thesis because it gives the reader a reason to critically think about your work. Argumentative thesis claims are generally debatable. It creates interest in your audience and gives them a reason to read your essay.

The essay has several sub-arguments or claims. However, the central claim should strongly prove your position in the thesis. Most students don’t know how to write a claim yet it’s an important section in your essay. The next section provides a better definition on what is an author’s claim.

Contents

  1. What Is An Author’s Claim?
  2. What Should You Include in a Claim Paragraph?
  3. What Kind of a Claim Statement Should I Use?
  4. How to Put Your Claim in Writing
  5. Step-by-step Guide On Writing a Claim Statement
  6. What Is the Definition of a Claim Statement In An Essay?
  7. Examples of the Claim Statement in an Essay

A claim refers to a debatable argument that states a fact that is not merely a personal opinion. The primary focus of an author’s claim is supporting and proving the main idea. You will be claiming by arguing to prove your position.

A well-written claim statement will keep your readers interested. It creates questions in the minds of the reader and they will likely get the answers in your essay. Several arguments support your main idea and the reader will find some to be acceptable while others are not. However, all of them work towards the fulfillment of the reader’s expectations.

Here are some examples of the author’s claim statements:

  • Science indicates that veterans who use medical marijuana have lower chances of reporting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  • More college students and teens who use smartphones and social media networks have reported that cyberbullying keeps getting worse by the day.

What Should You Include in a Claim Paragraph?

Your authors claim paragraph should have the following:

  • A hook to make the introductory paragraph more appealing and irresistible.
  • Summarize your texts, and unless you do that, the reader might not be interested to learn more about what you are about to say.
  • State the writer’s claims in a story or text to have a gist of what they will learn from the whole paper.

What Kind of a Claim Statement Should I Use?

It is good to understand the various types of claims so that you don’t confuse yourself. Some of them include opposing claims, value claims, and definitive claims among others. You need to choose the most appropriate claim type that will support the main idea in your thesis. The main types of claim statements include:

    1. Cause and effect

You use this claim to discuss an effect with supportive arguments that describe the cause of the issue. You should write the strongest and central claim that had a particular effect. For instance, you may discuss a particular decision or certain laws that have affected people’s behavior or a particular class in the community significantly. One of the best cause and effect claim examples would read “GST implementation has made significant contributions to India’s economic growth.” The claim synonym is demand and it needs to reflect the cause-and-effect relationship.

    1. The claim of policies or solutions

In this author’s claim, you will either be opposing or supporting a policy. In most cases, you use it in mass-level solutions or policies essays. The claim of solution or policy will provide a strong reason to oppose and doesn’t have to be biased or personal. An excellent example of such a claim can read “We should reduce the consumption of oil and increase the use of renewable energy instead of looking for more oil fields.”

    1. Definitive or factual claims

When the writer presents a definition or fact together with a strong argument in his or her claim statement, we refer to it as a claim of fact. You can use it in researching essays where you discover or establish a fact and then put forward a very strong argument that your reader cannot afford to ignore. These claims argue over a definition of something or some settled fact. One of the best claim examples under this category can be “Presence of life on earth the world requires greenhouse gases but the over-remittance has increased the temperatures on the surface of the earth leading to global warming.”

  1. The claim of value

The claim will argue over how valuable something is and how you can value certain things. It is more applicable when you are writing an essay that studies something that people ignore most of the time. It can be a specific societal concern or policy issue. A good example of a claim of value would read as follows “We need to have more concern about forest areas that are being decreased instead of only paying attention to industrialization.”

How to Put Your Claim in Writing

The claim statement will determine whether the person will continue to read your essay or not. The process is complex and you need to follow certain rules. Here are some tips from professional writers that will help you to write a perfect author claim:

The first step is to choose a topic that interests you and explore it. You can easily write an author’s claim if you have an interesting topic. Once you have a topic, narrow it to a specific subject and then make an argument on it. There are several aspects of the topic and you need to choose one that will prove your claim.

The next step is to set a question and then answer it in the thesis. A thesis is a question or problem. Therefore, the author’s claim definition will not be complete without providing an answer. The central claim forms the theme of your essay. You could ask something like “why should human beings use online shopping to meet their daily needs?”

The last element of the author’s claim definition is defining a goal for your essay. The claim statement you write depends on the primary objective of your paper. If you write an argumentative essay, the thing that you write may try to change the opinion of the reader.

Step-by-step Guide On Writing a Claim Statement

A writer’s claim statement should come at the end of the introductory paragraph. From the claim statement, the reader should notice the author’s point and know what your essay is all about. Note that the nature and type of your claim will vary based on the type of essay you are writing. Here’s how you do it:

    1. Begin With a Question 

Your assignment should naturally have a question. You can come up with your own if it lacks one. Think about what you are trying to find out or what you would like to decide about the topic of discussion.

Again, your author’s claim statement doesn’t have to be in the form of a question. But the main idea is to help you come up with something interesting for your readers. We all know that internet users usually are looking for answers on the web.

    1. Give Your Initial Answer

Once you have a question, it is wise to research it. Based on your findings, it is possible to have a tentative answer to your question. Up to now, things should be a little simpler. Researching and writing your answer will be a more straightforward process.

Suppose your essay is argumentative; your essay claim answer should take one side and stick to it throughout the paper. For instance, you might want to say something like, “on education, the internet has had more positive than negative implications.” Be careful not to make a conclusive statement. At least make it open-ended so that you have more things to write about the topic.

  1. Develop the Answer

The previous one was just an initial answer. Now you have to come up with something more substantial. At this stage, you want to figure out why you have chosen that answer and how you can convince your readers to agree with you.

Be sure to give your essay claim answer in more detail as you keep researching. That way, you will have a writer’s claim that covers more than just your idea of the topic and touches on the entire argument. Well, this might sound like a lot of work, but you only need to have a great understanding of the topic in question.

What Is the Definition of a Claim Statement In An Essay?

From the claim definition literature, a claim statement in an essay lets you portray the primary idea of the text like you are arguing. You will then go ahead to support your claim with logical evidence in the rest of the essay. In your essay writing, it is vital to have a robust claim.

Claim statements are more like thesis statements. Try to think of a claim in writing essays as an opinion that you can only support using proven facts derived from trusted sources. You can either use primary or secondary sources to justify your author’s claim in the most professional manner possible.

Examples of the Claim Statement in an Essay

Ready to look at an example of an essay claim? Writing the main claim shouldn’t take so much of your time. Here are some of the best claim statement examples to help you understand what writing a claim is all about:

  • Every boy in the school owns a new smartphone.
  • The economy will get better thanks to the influx of digital money into the market.
  • Local municipalities should fund libraries heavily because they are an essential resource for communities.

From the author’s claim definition and as you can see above, these claim examples will need some facts to justify. If you were to write any of the claims without evidence in your essay, they would become mere speculations. A good claim evokes the readers’ curiosity and gives you enough room to put in the necessary details and facts.

There we go! We hope this piece’s claim statement definition, examples, and explanation enables you to learn more about writing different types of claims in an essay to help improve the quality of your writing If you think this is not enough and want more professional and useful help, you can always turn to our writers, who are ready to help you write an author’s claim. Good luck!

What is author claim?

Author's claim is honorable presentation of an author that he makes in his writing – to some person or his memory, group of people, establishment or even abstract idea. As it is seen from one epigram of Martialis, such statements were known back in Roman times.

What is the author's claim about the topic?

A thesis statement is the basic stand that an author takes, the opinion that he expresses, and the major point that he wishes to make about his subject.

What is the claim of the author's argument?

A claim statement is a type of thesis statement in which you present the main idea of what you are writing in the form of an argument. Think of claims like a thesis statement in the form of an argument. Claims are matters of opinion, but they are stated as if they are facts and backed up with evidence.