Impacts of Social Media on Society: Progress or Peril?
- 16 August 2023
- 774 words
Essays are important academic papers that students use to present and express their thoughts. A quality essay revolves around a central claim or thesis statement, which expresses the writer’s thoughts toward a topic, problem, or research question. The term “claim” refers to an assertion that convinces, argues, demonstrates, and suggestively implies something to a reader who agrees with or disputes it using available evidence, knowledge, or experience. These assertions differ from general statements in that others may approve or disagree with arguments. Good assertions should be clear, concise, distinct, affirmative, and easy to prove. The right step in writing a claim in an essay includes exploring the topic, asking critical questions, determining the goal of writing, and taking a unique standpoint. These phases must focus on assertions to align them with the existing knowledge and evidence for justification.
Providing a claim in an essay is the main argument that determines its complexity, effectiveness, and quality. This guideline focuses on how to write a claim in an essay and contains concise examples that people should follow to create outstanding academic papers. Anyone reading this article can understand the role of an argument in defining an essay’s direction, scope, and purpose. In different types of essays, authors must use evidence, quotations, arguments, expert opinions, statistics, and details to affirm their claims. A good argumentative statement should be specific, which helps to focus on a single idea. General assertions may make an entire essay vague and boring to readers. A good essay should contain a thesis statement as a central claim. However, each body paragraph should have supporting claims related to the thesis statement. Because all types of essays are important in communicating useful information to readers, one must make specific, believable, and justifiable assertions.
A claim is an assertion that convinces, argues, demonstrates, and suggests something to a reader who agrees with or disputes it based on available knowledge and understanding. Claims are useful in an essay since they define its scope and direction. In writing an argumentative essay, students use their thoughts to make claims and support them using evidence. The nature of the main assertions determines if the targeted audience can read through, agree, or disagree with the main message of an essay. In turn, a claim statement refers to a written sentence that reflects someone’s opinion. As a result, after choosing their essay topics, authors make argumentative statements to mean expressing their thoughts regarding a subject under discussion.
The main difference between a claim and a statement is the levels of agreeableness. For example, a claim means a debatable statement regarding a specific issue. Although readers may not disagree with statements, they can have diverse opinions regarding an argumentative claim. On the other hand, a statement may represent facts that are not debatable. An example of a general statement is: “The first African American president of the United States was Barack Obama.” One cannot dispute this statement because it represents a fact. However, an example of a claim is: “The election of Barack Obama as the American President marked the end of racism based on skin color.” In summary, some people may disagree with this argument under existing cases of racial discrimination against African Americans during and after President Obama’s tenure.
Writers can use various types of claims to make their essays more convincing. This section explains different types of assertions when writing a claim in an essay.
Developing a claim for an argumentative essay should contend for a certain interpretation or understanding debate topics. For example, students must understand a specific subject and take a position to justify it. However, the main assertion may contradict popular opinions regarding the subject. In turn, one must provide justifiable evidence to affirm any position taken. The following are the necessary steps that students should take to write a suitable claim for an argumentative essay.
The first step in writing a claim for an argumentative essay is to explore sensitive or controversial debate topics. In this case, one must do preliminary research on the selected or assigned topic to develop concrete ideas for possible arguments. The information gathered should allow writers to support and justify a specific position. For example, if the topic concerns global warming, one may gather evidence to justify why cutting down trees is a major cause of heat waves experienced in different parts of the world.
The second step of making a claim in an essay should involve narrowing it down to a specific subject by asking critical questions regarding the evidence gathered. This stage is necessary to enable authors to determine the quality of the information obtained on the subject. Interrogating the evidence allows one to determine if the selected side of the argument is valid and convincing. As a result, examining the topic may lead to identifying possible counterclaims and valid opposite arguments.
Reviewing the assignment briefing to understand the primary goal of the argument is an important step in developing a strong claim. In this stage, writers should develop a deeper understanding of the primary goal of making a good argument. The resulting insights are necessary to focus the essay’s scope and develop a claim that challenges the target readers’ opinions. Besides, reviewing the goals is essential in refuting what one assumes to be true. On the other hand, reviewing the essay’s goals is important in combining related and relevant ideas. Even if argumentative essays focus on multiple issues, quality papers should address a central theme guided by a clear thesis statement. In turn, writers must connect related ideas to make refutable claims demonstrating a clear stand on the main subject.
The fourth step should involve a unique standpoint to make a refutable argument. Most students need to start stating arguable facts followed by straightforward claims. A quality essay should contain a unique argument that convinces the audience to develop an alternative thought on the subject. Moreover, students should critically evaluate the obtained evidence and deduce a unique position to argue about. As a result, all sides taken should rebut popular beliefs and truths and affirm a distinctive position.
Different academic articles should have unique claims. In this case, students should identify the type of essay to make a suitable assertion, including a hook. The most common types of academic work encountered during academic studies include a research paper, an argumentative essay, a persuasive speech, a literary analysis, a persuasive essay, a rhetorical analysis, and a memo. This section contains information on the type of assertions one should make when writing these papers.
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Research Paper Topics
Argumentative Essay Topics
Persuasive Speech Topics
Literary Analysis Essay Topics
Persuasive Essay Topics
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics
Memo Topics
A claim paragraph should contain adequate information to explain the focus of an essay or research paper. One should include an attention-getter or start with a quote to attract readers’ attention to go through the information provided. The passage should contain background information about the topic presented in the paper to provide the target audience with a glimpse of the main ideas. Other important details include the main argument of the essay’s thesis statement.
A central claim may serve as a thesis statement in an essay. Academic papers should have an introduction with an argumentative thesis statement, which serves as a central claim. In this case, the main assertions should be last sentences of a college essay introduction, which provide the paper’s overview and focus when used as a thesis statement.
A hypothesis in a research paper represents a statement that requires testing for validation. Such a claim represents an unvalidated relationship between independent and dependent variables. Researchers state their assumptions or predictions about what their research results will confirm. This statement represents a tentative answer to the research question. In this case, hypotheses do not represent claims because they indicate unjustified answers that may be correct or wrong.
The results from a research paper refer to the confirmed and justified findings. Scholars use available evidence, theories, and results to test and affirm hypotheses. In turn, conclusions made become the findings in specific research work. Besides, these results may take a form of claims since they represent a justifiable or debatable position on a topic of interest.
A typical paragraph should have a topic sentence or claim, supporting evidence, and explanations. For example, any claim in an essay should begin with a statement followed by supporting evidence. One must provide a clear explanation linking the evidence to the assertion. In turn, justifications provided should link all claims to a central thesis statement.
A counterclaim refers to a statement that refutes a central argument in an essay. Different scholars have unique views regarding a specific topic. Such opposing thoughts reveal an alternative way of understanding the subject. For instance, opposers in a debate make counterclaims to contest the motion, while proposers make assertions and rebuttals to counter opposing statements. In this case, rebuttals are unique counterclaims that allow debaters to justify their arguments.
Claims used in essays should be clear and easy to prove. Basically, one should choose a statement that is easy to justify using available evidence. Because assertions convey the main points in a paper or paragraph, writers should include a strong supporting statement. Besides, any claim should have a definitive and affirmative tone.