Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

22 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

Review

Words combine to form statements, which in turn combine to form texts. No

text can be understood outside its context of use and interpretation. The most

important statements for us to consider are claims. When properly linked

together, they form a text, which is either an argument or an explanation.

Claims state, in language, the events, ideas, and things that make up our

world, asserting that what they represent is true. Claims are the key elements

from which we build our arguments and explanations. The analytical function

of claims is, however, often obscured by their mode of expression.

By understanding what claims are and what their properties are, we can

better understand how to use claims as premises and conclusions in our

reasoning. Claims have three significant properties. First, a claim always

contains an internal connection between two or more components. One or both

of these components can be a claim in its own right, but functioning differ-

ently—as an element within a claim. Second, claims always include some indi-

cation of scope and certainty, though often they are implied. Third, claims are

either descriptive (what is) or are value judgments (what ought to be). Many

claims appear to be descriptive but either contain implicit value judgments or

become value-laden when read in combination with other claims.

Claims are used as either premises or conclusions; the difference

between them is determined by how we use them in any particular act of

reasoning. Any claim can serve as a premise or conclusion. That said, we can

see how conclusion-claims must relate to the particular purposes of the

reasoning: predicting, establishing, or appealing for action, and explaining or

justifying. In the last case, the reasoning involves an explanation, whereas

the other purposes require an argument.

CONCEPT CHECK

The following terms and concepts are introduced in this chapter. Before checking

in the Glossary, write a short definition of each term:

argument

assumption

audience

certainty

claim

conclusion

connotation