To identify the claim of the passage, look for words such as:
as a result
belief
consequently
hypothesis
in conclusion
may
might
nevertheless
nonetheless
predicts
probably
therefore
thus
will
These are good claim signals because such words generally introduce a
belief that can be disputed. If something in the passage can be disputed,
then it is a claim, not a fact.
To identify the premises of the passage, look for words such as:
since
because
due to
owing to
as a result of
All of these phrases play the role of providing evidence that leads to
a conclusion. Thus when you see these phrases, you should be on the
lookout for the author’s main claim.Now that you know what the argument, premises, and claim are, let’s identify
them in the passage. In the previous passage, the argument is the following:
Nonetheless, since DigiCom has spent more money than EverDrop on
advertising, the sales of the DigiCom word processor will greatly exceed
those of the EverDrop word processor.
The claim is that sales of the DigiCom word processor will greatly exceed those
of the EverDrop word processor. This claim is based on the premise that “DigiCom
has spent more money than EverDrop on advertising.”
Once you have identified the claim and premises of the passage, your next
step is to think about assumptions made in the argument. You can think of an
assumption as the glue that holds the premises and claim together. Basically, it
is a piece of evidence that is necessary for the conclusion to logically follow from
the premises. Though any argument can have infinite assumptions, some will be
more obvious than others. A major assumption in the previous argument is that
increased advertising will actually lead to increased sales.CHAPTER 6 ■ READING COMPREHENSION 13502-GRE-Test-2018_107-172.indd 135 13/05/17 11:06 am