Evaluating Written Texts by

Analyzing Claims
“Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence’
~Carl Sagan
 Objectives
• To explain critical reading as looking for ways
of thinking;
• To identify claim of fact, policy, and value
explicitly or implicitly made in a written text;
and
• To write a 1000-word critique of a selected
text on the basis of its claim, context and
properties as a written material.
 Critical Reading Techniques

1. Keeping a reading journal

is meant as a personal expression
or one’s thoughts on experiences,
inspirations, accomplishments
failures, and the many discoveries
in everyday life.
 Critical Reading Techniques

1. Keeping a reading journal

A reading journal is similar to keeping a
diary, except you are writing your feelings
and ideas in reaction to your reading
assignment.
This process allows you to develop your
impressions of the text and connect them to
your personal experiences. This allows you
to better relate to the essay and understand
the author’s ideas.
 Critical Reading Techniques

2. Annotating the text

is simply making notes on your copy
of the reading.
This includes highlighting or
underlining important passages and
writing notes, comments, questions,
and reactions on the margins.
 Critical Reading Techniques
2. Annotating the text
By doing this, you are entering to a
dialogue with the author and not just
passively reading the text.
It is usually best to annotate the text
after you have read it more than once
to ensure that you understand it
properly.
 A Reader’s Guide to Annotation
2.1 Use a pen, pencil, post-it notes or a
highlighter. (Although use it sparingly!)
*Summarize important ideas in your own words
*Add examples from real life, other books, TV,
movies, and so forth
*Define words that are new to you.
*Mark passages that you find confusing with a ???
*Write questions that you might have
 Critical Reading Techniques
3. Outlining the text
 Creating a rough outline of the text will also be
helpful in getting to understand it more
critically. By locating the thesis statement,
claims, and evidence, and then plotting these
into an outline, you can see how the writer
structures, sequences, and connects his or her
ideas. This way you will be able to better
evaluate the quality of the writing.
 Critical Reading Techniques

4. Summarizing the text

 similar to outlining, in that you need to get the
gist. It consists of getting the main points of the
essay, and important supporting details.
 It is a useful skill because you can better
understand the reading if you can recognize
and differentiate major and minor points in the
text.
 Critical Reading Techniques
4. Summarizing the text
Usually, locating the thesis statement
and topic sentences are helpful in
creating your summary.
The supporting details in a paragraph
and succeeding paragraphs may be
used to develop or clarify the writer’s
point.
 Critical Reading Techniques

5. Questioning the text

Involves asking specific questions on
points that you are skeptical about.
These may be topics that do not meet
your expectations or agree with your
personal views. Alternately, you should
also take note of things that you found
impressive.
 Ask yourself
• What type of audience is addressed?
• What are the writer’s assumptions?
• What are the writer’s intentions?
• How well does the writer accomplish these?
• How convincing is the evidence presented?
• How reliable are the sources? Are they based on
personal experience, scientific data, or outside
authorities?
• Did the writer address opposing views on the issue?
• Is the writer persuasive in his/her perspective?
 Essential Questions

• What are the benefits of becoming a critical

reader?
• How does critical reading improve your writing?
• How can I effectively distinguish among claims of
fact, policy, and value?
• Why do we need sufficient, relevant evidence,
and sound reasoning to support a claim?
 Determining Explicit and Implicit
Information

Explicit Implicit
ideas that are
suggested but not
information that is stated outright in the
clearly stated text
 Defining Claims
Claims or central argument is the writer’s point or position regarding
the chosen topic. This claim is what the writer tries to prove in the
text by providing details, explanations, and other types of evidence.
1. A claim
should be
argumentative
and
debatable.

4. A claim 2. A claim
Characteristics
should be of Good should be
logical. Claims specific and
focused.

3. A claim
should be
interesting
and engaging.
 Distinguishing Between Types of Claim

claims of fact claims of claims of policy

• state a value • posit that specific
quantifiable • assert something actions should be
assertion or a that can be chosen as solutions to
measurable topic qualified a particular problem.
• rely on reliable • consist of • usually begins with “
sources or arguments about should,” “ought to,”
systematic moral, or “must”
procedures to be philosophical, or • usually answers
validated aesthetic “how” questions
 Identifying the Context of Text
Development

Intertextuality Hypertextuality

-modelling
- presents a
of a text’s new way to
meaning by read on-line
another text that differs
text from reading
linear text such
as books.
Identifying the Context of Text Development

Intertextuality
-dialogue Hypertextuality

among
- user may then browse
different texts through the sections of the
and text, jumping from one text
interpretation section to another.
s of the -this permits a reader to
writer, the use these features
automatically rather than
audience, and requiring readers to
the current manually refer to them as
and earlier needed.
cultural
contexts.
 Critical Reading as Reasoning
1. Fact
2. Convention
-statement that can be proven
-way in which something is
objectively by direct
done, similar to traditions
experience, testimonies of
witnesses, verified and norms
observations, or the results of
research
Assertions
-are declarative sentences that
claim something is true about
something else.
3. Opinions 4. Preference
-are based on facts, but are -based on personal choice;
difficult to objectively verify therefore, they are subjective
because of uncertainty of and cannot be objectively
producing satisfactory proofs of proven or logically attacked.
soundness
 Formulating Counterclaims

Counterclaims - are made to

rebut a previous claim. They
provide a constructing
perspective to the main
argument.
 Formulating Counterclaims
The following questions will help you formulate
a counterclaim:
• What are the major points on which you and
the author can disagree?
• What is their strongest argument? What did
they say to defend their position?
• What are the merits of their view?
• What are the weaknesses or shortcoming in
their argument?
• Are there any hidden assumptions?
• Which lines from the text best support the
 Determining Textual Evidence
• Evidence is defined as the details given by the
author to support his/her claim.
• Evidence can include the following:
 facts and statistics (objectively validated
information on your subject);
opinion from experts (leading authorities on a
topic, such as researchers or academics); and
personal anecdotes (generalizable, relevant, and
objectively considered).
 Questions in Determining Evidence from Text
• What questions can you ask about the claims?
• Which details in the text answer your questions?
• What are the most important details in the paragraph?
• What is each one’s relationship to the claim?
• What details do you find interesting? Why?
• What are some claims that do not seem to have support? What
kinds of support could they be provided with?
• What are some details that you find questionable? Why do you
think so?
• Are some details outdated, inaccurate, exaggerated, or taken
out of context?
• Are the sources reliable?
Here are some tips for using text evidence:
Characteristics of Good Evidence

specific and
unified relevant
concrete

representative
accurate
or typical
 Paraphrasing
A paraphrase is…
• Your own rendition of essential information and
ideas expressed by someone else, presented in
a new form.
• one legitimate way (when accompanied by
accurate documentation) to borrow from a
source.
• a more detailed restatement than a summary,
which focuses concisely on a single main idea.
 Why paraphrasing is a valuable skill?
• It is better than quoting information from an
undistinguished passage
• It helps you control the temptation to quote
too much
• The mental process required for successful
paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full
meaning of the original.
 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
1.Reread the original passage
until you understand its full
meaning.
2.Set the original aside, and
write your paraphrase on a
note card.
 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
3. Jot down a few words below your
paraphrase to remind you later how you
envision using this material. At the top of
the note card, write a key word or phrase to
indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
4. Check your rendition with the original to
make sure that your version accurately
expresses all the essential information in a
new form.
 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
5. Use quotation marks to identify any
unique term or phraseology you have
borrowed exactly from the source.
6. Record the source (including the
page) on your note card so that you can
credit it easily if you decide to
incorporate the material into your
paper.
 Reminders
• Paraphrases and summaries do not use quotation
marks and require the author’s last name and year of
publication. Page number is not required for
paraphrases and summaries.
• When citing a source, you always have two choices: 1)
Write the author’s name as part of your sentence in the
text. 2) Write the author’s name in the parentheses.
Use only last name in all APA in-text citations and
do not include the title of books or articles in the body
of your paper. The date must go directly after the
author’s name.
 1-2 authors in text
• Emery’s (2004) case study of a boy with
autism found art therapy to be a useful tool to
help him relate to others.
• Abrams and Kane (2007) report the drop-out
rate is double that of other schools.
 Authors in parenthetical

Authors in parenthetical:

• Art therapy was found to be a useful tool to

help a young boy with autism relate to others
(Emery, 2004).
• The drop-out rate is double that of other
schools (Abrams & Kane, 2007).
 Multiple authors:
• Three – five authors – At first mention in the
paper, write all authors’ names. Thereafter, use et
al.
Authors in a text Authors in parenthetical:

To gain the benefits of educational diversity,

Hurtado, Dey, Gurin, and Gurin (2003) universities must . . . (Hurtado, Dey, Gurin,
emphasize that to gain the benefits of & Gurin, 2003).
educational diversity, universities must….. To gain the benefits of educational diversity,
Hurtado et al. (2003) emphasize that to universities must . . . (Hurtado et al., 2003).
gain the benefits of educational diversity,
universities must .
 Multiple Authors
• Six or more authors: Use only the first author’s name followed
by et al.
(Kosslyn et al., 1996)
• Multiple references in the same parentheses: Put in
alphabetical order by author’s last name and separate with
semi-colon.
(Bruffee, 1993; Goodsell, Maher, & Tinto, 1992; Pascarella
& Terenzini, 1991; Pike, 1993)
• Source with no author: Use abbreviated version of title.
(“Study Finds,” 2007)
• …the book College Bound Seniors (2008) describes…
Read more: http://libguides.lmu.edu/c.php?
g=324079&p=2174127
 Some examples to compare
The original passage A legitimate paraphrase
Students frequently overuse In research papers students
direct quotation in taking often quote excessively, failing
notes, and as a result they to keep quoted material down
overuse quotations in the final to a desirable level. Since the
[research] paper. Probably only problem usually originates
about 10% of your final during note taking, it is
manuscript should appear as essential to minimize the
directly quoted matter. material recorded verbatim
Therefore, you should strive to (Lester 46-47).
limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials
while taking notes. Lester,
James D. Writing Research
Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
 Some examples to compare
An acceptable summary A plagiarized version
Students should take just a few Students often use too many
notes in direct quotation from direct quotations when they
sources to help minimize the take notes, resulting in too
amount of quoted material in a many of them in the final
research paper (Lester 46-47). research paper. In fact,
probably only about 10% of the
final copy should consist of
directly quoted material. So it is
important to limit the amount
of source material copied while
taking notes.
Effective Paraphrase
Poor Paraphrase
 Sources
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/
619/1
/
• http://www.easybib.com/guides/students/res
earch-guide/paraphrasing-patchwriting-direct-
quotes/c-an-example-of-a-poor-paraphrase
/