ESTABLISHING THE

SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE CLAIM(S)

Kiki Andiyana
Sandy Winata
 Argumentative writing is based on a
claim. A claim states your position on
a topic. It is an arguable statement that
is supported by evidence.

Claims in Argumentative
Writing
There can be many different types of
claims:
 Claims of fact: whether or not something is
true.
 Claims of cause and effect: whether or not
an event led to an event that followed it.
 Claims of value: whether or not something
is good.
 Claims of policy: whether one course of
action is better than another
Your goal is to write a precise,
knowledgeable claim. In other words,
you want to craft a position statement
that makes an argument, introduces your
reasoning, and describes exactly what you
will say in your essay.

Writing Claims
 You want to make your claim as focused, or
precise, as possible. Claims must be debatable as
well.
Do this by:
 Telling your reader your answer to a question
 Introducing your reasons
 Telling your reader the categories of evidence you will
discuss
 Arguing a position with which others may reasonably
disagree.
 In argumentative writing, claims take on the role of
thesis statements. For example, The American
Revolution was a world war because…is the
beginning of a thesis statement.

How to Write Claims ?

Your claim needs to answer the question
“So what?”
You can do this by explaining the
significance. Significance is important
because it goes beyond the statement of
facts; significance indicates how your
argument fits into a larger debate. As a
writer, you want to make sure your claims
are provocative and interesting. The
significance statement implies a
“because” with an opinion to back it up.

Why is Your Claim Significant ?

 For example, a claim about the American
Revolution being a world war could
indicate significance by stating “this was
the only war of its type in history,” or,
“without the involvement of other nations,
the Americans would not have won.”

Claims Significance : Example

In this lesson, you learned how to
write precise and significant claims.

Conclusion