Lesson 2: Evaluating

Written Texts by
Analyzing Claims
Enduring Understandings:
Critical reading is an active and
reactive process.
Critical reading is the foundation of
good writing.
Analyzing a writer’s claims helps
us appreciate diverse perspectives
on a topic.
Good claims are always backed up
by reliable evidence.
Essential Questions:
 What are the benefits of becoming a
critical reader?
 How does critical reading improve
your writing?
 How can you effectively distinguish
among claims of fact, policy and
value?
 Why do you need sufficient, relevant
evidence and sound reasoning to
Objectives:
 Explain critical reading as looking
for ways of thinking
 Identify claim of fact, policy and
value explicitly or implicitly made
in a written text
 Write a critique of a selected text
on the basis of its claim, context,
and properties as a written material.
Warm-Up

CHARACTERISTIC
S OF A CRITICAL
READER
CRITICAL
READIN
DEFINING
CRITICAL
READING
Whenever you read something and
you evaluate claims, seek
definitions, judge information,
demand proof and question
assumptions, you are thinking
critically. This type of reading goes
beyond passively understanding a
text because you process the
author’s words and make judgments
after carefully considering the
Reading Critically
 means thinking critically
 find out the author’s views on
something, ask questions, evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses of the
author’s argument and decide to
agree or disagree with it
 allows you to enter into a dialogue
with the author
Critical Reading
 this deepens your understanding of
the issue or topic discussed
 to arrive at a sufficient
interpretation of the text
Reading Text:
“The Policies and
Achievements of the
Government and
Regeneration of the Filipino”
(Excerpt)
By Manuel L. Quezon
Techniques that
help you
develop
Critical
Reading Skills
1. KEEPING A READING
JOURNAL
 It is writing your feelings and
ideas in reaction to your
reading assignment.
2. ANNOTATING THE TEXT
 Simply means making notes on
your copy of the reading
 This includes highlighting or
underlining important passages
and writing notes, comments,
questions and reactions on the
margin.
3. OUTLINING THE TEXT
- By locating the thesis statement,
claims and evidence and then
plotting these into an outline,
you can see how the writer
structures, sequences and
connect his/her ideas.
4. SUMMARIZING THE TEXT
 A summary consists of getting
the main points of the essay and
important supporting details
- Summarizing the text is similar
to outlining in that you need to
get he gist.
5. QUESTIONING THE TEXT
 It involves asking specific
questions on points that you are
skeptical about.

 The following may be asked:

 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?
Identifying and
Analyzing
Claims
Determining Explicit and
Implicit Information
 Critical reading also means
that you are able to distinguish
the information that is clearly
stated (explicit) in the text
from ideas that are suggested
(implicit). This will help you
make inferences about what
you read.
EXPLICIT INFORMATION
 clearly written and explained
in the text so the reader will
not be confused
IMPLICIT INFORMATION
 something that is implied but
not stated outright in the text
 the idea is not written so you
need to use the clues in the
text to make an inference on
what you have read
INFERENCE
 is a conclusion that you make
based on explicit information
and your reasoning and
background knowledge
DEFINING CLAIMS
Whenever you read something, you
find yourself looking for the writer’s
point or position regarding the chosen
topic. That point is also known as the
claim, or the central argument or thesis
statement of the text. This claim is what
the writer tries to prove in the text by
providing details, explanations, and
other types of explanation.
 CLAIM
most important part of the text
defines the paper’s direction
and scope
is a sentence that summarizes
the most important thing that the
writer wants to say as a result of
his/her thinking, reading and
writing
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A
GOOD CLAIM
 A claim should be
argumentative and debatable.
 A claim should be focused.
 A claim should be interesting
and engaging.
 A claim should be logical.
Here are some questions to help
you determine the writer’s claim
while reading the text:
 What is the author’s main
point?
 What is author’s position
regarding it?
Distinguishing
Between the
Types of
Claim
 CLAIMS OF FACT
 state a quantifiable assertion or a
measureable topic
 assert that something has existed,
exists or will exist based on data
 rely on reliable sources or
systematic procedures to be
validated
 usually answer a “WHAT”
When determining whether something is
a claim of fact, the following are useful:

Is the issue related to a possible

cause or effect?
 is this statement true or false?
How can its truthfulness be
verified?
 Is this claim controversial or
debatable?
 CLAIMS OF VALUE
 assert something that can be
qualified
 arguments about moral,
philosophical, or aesthetic topics
 try to prove that some values
are more or less desirable
compared to others
CLAIMS OF VALUE
 they make judgments, based on
certain standards, on whether
something is right or wrong, good
or bad, or something similar
 attempt to explain how
problems, situations, or issues
ought to be valued
To discover these explanations, you may
ask the following questions:
 Which claims endorse what is good or
right?
 What qualities should be considered
good? Why?
 Which of these values contend with
others? Which ones are more important,
and why? Whose standards are used?
 What are some concrete examples of
such values?
CLAIMS OF POLICY
 posit that specific actions should
be chosen as solutions to a
particular problem
 begin with “should”, “ought to”,
or “must”
 usually answer “HOW” questions
because they defend actionable
plans
 The following questions will be useful in
evaluating a claim of policy:
 Does the claim suggest a specific
remedy to solve the problem?
 Is the policy clearly defined?
 Is the need for the policy established?
 Is the policy the best one available?
For whom? According to whose
standards?
 How does the policy solve the
problem?
Quiz no. 2
I. Write
EX if the statement is EXPLICIT.
Otherwise, IM if it is IMPLICIT.
1. You handed me your pen.
2. We will have a meeting this afternoon
3. The teacher told the child, “Listen or
else.”
4. The handshake between the two
contestant.
5. She helps to paint the wall
Quiz no. 2
II. Name that claim!
Identify the type of claim in each statement.
1. Teachers should be given an increase in their salary.
2. The hunting of animals is a barbaric practice.
3. Global warming is a threat to people living here on Earth.
4. It is immoral to participate in non-violent strikes in the
streets,
5. Increasing population threatens the environment.
Identifying the
Context of Text
Development
Being a critical reader also
involves understanding that texts
are always developed with a certain
context. A text is neither written nor
read in a vacuum: its meaning and
interpretation are affected by a
given set of circumstances.
Knowledge of the text’s context
helps in appreciating the text’s
message more deeply.
CONTEXT
 defined as the social,
cultural, political, historical,
and other related
circumstances that surround
the text and form the terms
from which it can be better
understood and evaluated
 In discovering a reading’s
context, you may ask questions
like:
 When was the work written?
 What were the circumstances
that produced it?
 What issues does it deal
with?
 Another important
technique in analyzing the
context of a text’s
development is defining its
intertextual link to another
text. Intertextuality is the
modeling of a text’s
meaning by another text.
 Intertextuality
 defined as the connections
between language, images,
characters, themes, or subjects
depending on their similarities in
language, genre, or discourse
 This is seen when an author
borrows and transforms a prior text
or when you read one text and you
reference another.
Intertextuality
 becomes a dialogue among
different texts and
interpretations of the writer, the
audience, and the current and
earlier cultural contexts.
 Meanwhile, hypertext is
relatively new way of reading
text online. Traditionally,
reading was viewed as a linear
process, where you read from
the beginning until end.
However, the advent of the
Internet and technology has
created new ways of reading and
processing a text, which
Hypertext
 nonlinear way of showing
information
 connects topics on a screen
to related information,
graphics, videos, and music–
information is not simply
related to text
Critical Reading
as Reasoning
Identifying Assertions
Becoming a good critical reader
means that you are able to logically
evaluate the claims of the writer. Any
writer would want to consider the
reader to consider– and possibly agree
with– the claims that he or she puts
forward. In expository writing,
assertions become the primary channel
for a reader to assent to a claim.
Assertions
 declarative sentences that
claim something is true
about something else
 a sentence that is either
true or false
Read the following example:
 The sampaguita’s roots are used for
medical purposes, such as an
anesthetic and a sedative.
 The sampaguita belongs to the
genus Jasminum of the family
Oleaceae.
The popularity of smpaguita flowers
is most evident in laces of worship.
 Sampaguita are the most beautiful
4 Common Types
of Assertion
ASSERTION OF FACT
 a statement that can be
proven objectively by direct
experience, testimonies of
witnesses, verified
observations or the results of
research
Example:
 The sampaguita’s roots are used
for medicinal purposes such as an
anesthetic and a sedative.
(This statement is a fact because it can
be directly verified by experience or
reliable research reports.)
 ASSERTION OF CONVENTION
 A convention is a way in which
something is done, similar to
traditions and norms.
Conventions depend on historical
precedent, laws, rules, usage and
customs.
 Their truthfulness is verified by how
commonly held definitions and
beliefs are interpreted.
ASSERTION OF CONVENTION
 Something to note about
conventions is that they may
sound factual due to their being
derived from customs, but
because they are socially
accepted ways of doing things,
they cannot be verified by
measurements.
Example:
The sampaguita belongs to the
genus Jasminum, of the family
Oleaceae.

(This statement is a convention because

it is based on a classification system
made up by scientists, and is
acceptable to the scientific
community.)
 OPINION
 Opinions are based on facts, but
are difficult to objectively verify
because of the uncertainty of
producing satisfactory proofs of
soundness.
 results from ambiguities
 it is open to disputes
Example:
 The popularity of
sampaguita flowers is most
evident in worship places.

( It is based on observation that needs

to be proven by studies and repeated
observation.)
PREFERENCE
 based on personal
choice
 subjective and cannot
be objectively proven or
logically attacked
Example:
 Sampaguitas are the most
beautiful and most fragrant of all
flowers.

(This statement is a preference

because it says a lot about the
type of flowers that the writer
likes.)
FORMULATING COUNTERCLAIMS
To be an effective critical thinker, it
is not enough just to be able to
identify claims and assertions. The
ability to analyze an argument is
essential to understanding the text
more deeply, but understanding the
claim is not the only facet of the
argument. You must also learn how to
analyze the counterclaims and
evidence provided by the text.
COUNTERCLAIMS
 claims made to rebut a previous
claim
 provide a contrasting perspective
to the main argument
 Being able to locate and provide
counterclaims to an argument, you
show a deep competence and
familiarity with the writer’s topic.
 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 views?
 The following questions will help you
formulate a counterclaim:
 What are the weaknesses or
shortcomings in their argument?
 Are there any hidden
assumptions?
 Which lines from the text best
support the counterclaim you
have formulated?
Determining Textual Evidence
 To better evaluate the author’s
argument, you should be able to
determine the evidence from the
text. This will allow you to
validate the assertions of the
author and your own
counterclaims as a response to
reading.
 EVIDENCE
 defined as the details given by the
author to support his/her claim
 The evidence provided by the
writer substantiates the text. It
reveals and builds on the position
of the writer and makes the reading
more interesting
 crucial in swaying the reader to
your side
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)
 personal anecdotes (generalizable,
relevant, and objectively considered)
The following are some questions
to help you determine evidence
from the 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?
 How does the given detail
reinforce the claim?
 What details do you find
interesting?
 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 the context?
 Are the sources reliable?