Claim, Warrants, Data, and Impacts

Worksheet needs to be filled out and returned to your teacher. It will be a minor completion grade. Your teacher will take off points for any parts of the assignment that are unfinished.

Claim, Warrants, Data, and Impacts

Step 1: Vocabulary

So. You’ve learned some things about persuasion. Let’s start to hone in on how you would construct a strong argument yourself!

Here the different parts of an argument:

Claim – what you want your audience to know. “Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”

Data – Evidence that supports your claim. “Jordan won six NBA championships.”

Warrant – Why you think your data supports your claim. “NBA players careers should be judged on how many championships they’ve won.”

Impact – Why your claim being true or false matters. “Millions of people watch basketball regularly. The identity of the GOAT is an important question to tons of people.”

Step 2: Not Every Claim Is Created Equal!

Here are some things that make good claims….good.

(Adapted from SMU’s Business Communication Wiki article, Claim – Data – Warrant: A Model for Analyzing Arguments)

A good claim is not obvious. Why bother proving a point nobody could disagree with?

A good claim is not overly vague. Attacking enormous issues leads only to generalizations and vague assertions; refrain from making a book-size claim.

A good claim is logical; it emerges from a reasonable consideration of evidence. (Note: this does not mean that evidence has only one logical interpretation. Reasonable people often disagree.)

A good claim is debatable. Claims that are purely factual and claims that are only opinion fail this requirement.

Which of the following sentences makes a good claim? You aren’t saying whether or not you personally agree with the claim – just whether or not it meets the requirements for a good claim.

Teachers face many problems today.

Good b. Not Good

Kylo Ren is my favorite character in Star Wars because he is the most interesting to me.

Good b. Not Good

Students in grades K-8 should be required to participate in team sports.

Good b. Not Good

All big game hunting for sport ought to be banned.

Good b. Not Good

Step 3 – Find the Warrant

Fill in the warrant for each! This should not require any outside research. Remember – the warrant is why your data supports your claim. It’s the reasoning that connects your data and the claim together.

Claim: We should not elect Fred class president.

Data: Fred is way too bossy.

Warrant:

Claim: I should not be forced to share a room with my sister.

Data: She thinks everything in the room is hers. She has filthy habits. She constantly exhibits immature behavior.

Warrant:

Step 4 – Find the Warrant AND the Data

Here you will need to come up with the warrant and the data. The data part of this will require some outside source. Include under the “source for data” the URL/website link where you found the info in your data.

Example –

Claim: The Dallas Cowboys are the greatest football team in the NFL.

Data: They have the highest all-time winning percentage of any NFL team.

Source for data: https://espn991.com/all-time-winners-losers-by-winning-percentage-in-the-four-major-sports/

Warrant: The best way to tell how great a team is involves looking at their winning percentage, since that is the point of any given game in any sport.

Claim: Avengers: Endgame is the greatest superhero movie of all time.

Data:

Source for Data:

Warrant:

Claim: Pizza can be a part of a healthy diet.

Data:

Source for Data:

Warrant: