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What Is a Claim in ELA?: Things Your Students Should Know
Katrina Freund
February 12, 2025
Learning how to take a stance on an issue, finding evidence to support a point of view, and persuading others to see things a certain way are important skills students need to learn and that they will use across the curriculum and beyond.
Whether they’re having a mock trial or debate in social studies, writing an argumentative essay in ELA, or digging into phenomena in science, they need to know how to navigate claims and arguments effectively.
As teachers, we need to understand the nuances of the different types of claims and arguments our students may encounter in their texts to help prepare them to think critically and make logical, strong cases for what they believe.
Today, we’re looking at the nuances of claims and arguments—with a special focus on what claims look like in ELA—to help you scaffold students’ abilities to understand and interact with argumentative texts and express their own thoughts with clarity and support.
The first thing students need to know is what claims and arguments are! You can start by giving them the definitions of each word and then expanding on the definitions to build and assign meaning to the concepts. Finally, you can dive deeper into the categories of claims and arguments one at a time to examine the more specific types that fall under each umbrella term.
Arguments
Arguments are a set of evidence-backed claims and reasons used to persuade an audience to agree or disagree with an issue. You can make four types of arguments, and sometimes the groups overlap. They include:
Academic arguments: Discuss and evaluate ideas and rely on research and proof to answer questions.
Rhetorical arguments: Convince or persuade an audience to think a certain way and rely on logic, emotion, and interpretation to make points.
Explicit arguments: State the argumentative issue outright.
Implicit arguments: Hint at the argumentative issues but never say it outright.
Understanding the different types of arguments can help students when they analyze a piece and look for claims, proof, and evidence shared in the text.
Claims
Claims are challengeable statements supported by reasons and evidence. They’re the “main idea” of an argument and represent what the author believes and plans to convince the audience as they read or listen to it. Claims address the “so what” of the argument and tell the audience why they should care about it.
Your students can find claims in a variety of texts, including:
Argumentative essays
Literary analyses
Persuasive essays
Persuasive speeches
Research papers
Additional vocabulary related to claims and arguments
When discussing claims and arguments, students may hear new vocabulary words they haven’t heard before. It’s helpful to know the definitions of these words in the context of arguments so you can explain them to students. Knowing the definitions helps them assign meaning to different aspects of an argument or claim and use the terms correctly when reading, writing, debating, or persuading. Some of these vocabulary words include:
1. Reasons
Reasons support the stance an author takes in their claim. They should be compelling enough to convince readers to accept the author's stance or point of view. Reasons answer the “why” of a claim.
For example, if someone claims, “The minimum wage is too low,” readers should ask why. A statement like, “The minimum wage is too low because workers are struggling to pay their bills,” includes the initial claim and a reason, linked by the subordinating conjunction “because.”
Claim/reason pairs have to be logical. If they’re not, it’s a signal of flawed argument. For example, the claim statement, “The minimum wage is too low because all Americans don’t own cell phones,” isn’t logical. While the minimum wage may affect who can or can’t buy cell phones, it doesn’t support this claim and may not be the only factor as to why some people don’t own cell phones.
2. Evidence
Evidence backs up reasons with proof to persuade the audience to accept an author’s claims. Evidence takes different forms depending on the topic or complexity of the argument. Examples of evidence authors use to support their reasons include:
Case studies
Definitions
Hypothetical examples
Personal experiences
Statistics
Surveys
Testimonials
3. Proof
The term proof has slightly different definitions depending on its context. In argumentative reading and writing, proof is the combination of all the reasons and evidence you need to convince the audience to accept an argument. When we say an author or debater proved their point, we mean they gave all the information necessary to convince people to agree with their stance.
Proving your argument doesn’t mean everyone will agree, but you’ve presented a valid, well-researched claim supporting your viewpoint.
4. Issues
Issues are the topics, ideas, and activities that lead to arguments. Common umbrella issues that students may encounter in their argumentative texts include:
Education
Science and research
Politics
Technology
Sports
It’s common to see issues written as questions. This helps frame them in an unbiased way and helps students think about all the potential arguments for that issue. Examples of issues include:
Counterarguments or counterclaims are the opposing stance to an author’s argument or claim. Most argumentative text writers address counterclaims in their pieces to refute opposing viewpoints. This lets authors provide reasons and evidence that disprove the counterclaims to strengthen their arguments.
Claims and counterclaims aren’t always a 1:1 ratio. Some claims could have multiple counterclaims depending on the complexity of the issue. For example, if someone claims, “Cryptocurrency is good for society,” there’s the apparent opposite counterclaim that it’s not. But there may also be more nuanced counterarguments like, “Cryptocurrency is good for some industries, but not all of society.”
[6 types of claims students may encounter](id-types)
Educators Paul Barron and Jennifer Metsker identified six types of claims people can use to make their arguments. While students may encounter claims of fact, value, and policy most often, it’s helpful to understand the nuances of all six and what they may look like in the argumentative texts you teach—or even in the educational materials you read for professional learning or teaching insights.
Throughout this section, we’re using examples from our Pro/Con text set and other resources to show you what each type of claim may look like in an argumentative text.
[1. Claims of fact](id-fact)
Claims of fact are quantifiable stances that assess whether an issue is correct or incorrect, valid or invalid, or true or false. They answer questions like “What happened?” or “Is it true?” A claim of fact aims to get people to accept something that isn’t currently accepted or disprove something regarded as a fact that shouldn’t be anymore. Examples of claims of fact that you can prove or disprove with data or quantifiable evidence include:
Claims of value work to assign worth to an issue. They take the stance that something is good or bad, better or best. Claims of value answer questions like “What’s it worth?” and “What are the criteria?” That’s because to stand up, the claims need clearly defined criteria to make a judgment. Examples of these types of claims include:
Claims of value aren’t true or false, nor are they absolute. They have a set of criteria or parameters that the audience can use to measure worth and back that worth up with reasons and evidence.
[3. Claims of policy](id-policy)
Claims of policy state things that should or shouldn’t be done. They answer questions like “What should we do?” “How can we solve this problem?” or “What action should we take?” Claims of policy are common in governmental, business, or education arguments where a committee makes decisions for other people.
There are often two sides to every claim of policy: Pros, or the reasons to do or change something, and cons, or reasons not to do or change something. Typically, the side with more reasons and evidence makes for a stronger argument. Examples of claims of policy from our Pro/Con text set include:
The government should pay people to buy electric cars.
All high schoolers should have to take personal finance classes.
4. Claim of definition
Claims of definition aim to define concepts where their foundational practices may look different depending on the audience. They answer the questions, “What is it?” or “How should it be interpreted?” Examples of claims of definition include:
Claims of cause try to uncover why something happened. They answer questions like, “What caused it?” “Why did it happen?” “Where did it come from?” or “What are the effects?”
Claims of cause often come from the principle that correlation isn’t causation. In other words, the associations between two variables don’t always mean they have a common cause. This type of claim is popular in math and science fields. Examples of claims of cause from our Pro/Con text set include:
What did Hurricane Harvey show the world about climate change?
What happens when we raise the minimum wage?
6. Claim of comparison
Claims of comparison argue over what you can learn from looking at two issues side by side. They answer questions like “What can we learn?” “Why should we compare?” and “How can we better understand these two things?”
Unlike claims of value, you’re not arguing which thing is “better.” Instead, you’re trying to see what two unrelated or semi-related issues can tell about each other. Examples of claims of comparisons include:
[Why do students need to learn about arguments and claims?](id-why)
Aside from meeting those all-important grade-level standards, there are other reasons students need to learn about arguments and claims in the ELA classroom and beyond. Learning about this topic helps students:
Better understand texts
When students can break down an argument in a text, it gets them actively thinking about the content. The more engaged they are with it, the better their chances of understanding the material on a deeper level. The more they understand the material, the more likely they’ll remember and internalize it.
Building these knowledge banks helps students connect texts to other media or experiences and use the information as background knowledge to understand new lessons they encounter throughout their education.
Identify and recognize their ideas and opinions
Students can practice self-monitoring with argumentative texts. When they break down an argument and analyze their thoughts and feelings, students do higher-level thinking than just remembering and recalling information. They decide how they feel about the topic, what they think of the author’s perspective, and whether they agree or disagree with the argument.
This skill serves students exceptionally well when they’re learning media literacy and must evaluate bias or the validity of the content and resources they encounter.
Improve critical thinking skills
Critical thinking skills are vital to help students think for themselves and question the world around them. Rather than accepting everything they see or read as fact, learning how to identify and interpret arguments and claims helps them think more deeply about different perspectives on the same issues.
Become better writers
Reading and writing are intertwined. When students read more, they can become better writers by learning skills like text structure and point of view. The more they read, the more examples they encounter. The same is true when they read argumentative text.
When students have to write their own persuasive essays or papers, the background knowledge and skills they build while covering the topics in reading transfer to their writing.
[4 myths about claims and arguments](id-myths)
Claims and arguments can be complex topics for students to understand and lead to beliefs about them that aren’t true or are only partially true. Read on to bust some common myths about these topics:
1. Claims should act as a teaser for the content in the text
A claim isn’t the same as a book jacket summary or teaser content authors might use to get people to keep reading their work. A claim should be clear and include all the information a reader needs to know to understand your argument. For example, an effective claim may include the position you’re arguing, why you’ve taken that position, and how you plan to prove your claim.
2. Claims can only be one sentence long
No two claims look exactly the same. Some may be short and easily fit into one sentence. Others may be longer so that they can include more details. Ultimately, the space a claim takes up should fit the text. A 10-page essay will likely have a much longer claim than a three-paragraph article.
3. Connections between claims and supporting evidence are obvious
If the connection between a claim and its evidence was obvious, the writer likely wouldn’t need to make the claim in the first place. Instead, the connection between a claim and its evidence should be logical and well explained in the text. A reader should clearly understand how and why your claim and its evidence fit together, even if they don’t appear to have something in common.
4. Claims should always be 100% factually accurate or true
While it’s likely easier to find evidence to support your claim if it’s factually accurate, that’s not a requirement to make a claim (or counterclaim). The goal of an argument is to choose a position, make a claim, and support that claim with evidence. Even without 100% verifiable proof, a reasonable claim supported by substantial evidence can be persuasive enough to convince others to agree.
[How to tell if a claim is effective](id-effective)
Whether students analyze claims in a text or write their own argumentative pieces, they should know how to identify an effective claim. Use this checklist to help them analyze a claim to see if it holds up or could be improved:
1. Is the claim assertive?
An assertive claim sets the author’s stance on an issue. They make it clear to the audience what stance they’ll argue for or against in the text. An example of an assertive claim may be, “All students should have the option to do remote instruction the week after winter break.”
When someone reads this claim, they understand the issue on the table—students having the option to do remote instruction. Readers also understand the author’s stance on this claim: They support remote learning.
2. Is the claim specific?
Effective claims don’t include generalizations, cliches, or obvious statements. For example, the claim “Reusable water bottles are better for the environment” isn’t specific enough. The generality leaves room for open questions like “Better than what?” or “How do they affect the environment?”
A more specific claim may be, “Reusable water bottles are better for the environment than disposable bottles because they create less plastic waste.”
3. Can you prove the claim?
Even if a claim isn’t 100% verifiably true, you should still be able to prove it with evidence, logic, and clear connections. For example, you could prove the claim, “Cookie dough is a popular ice cream flavor.”
But, it might be difficult to find factual, quality evidence to support this claim. A better claim may be, “Cookie dough is one of the best-selling Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors.” This more specific claim allows the author to use quantifiable data like sales and production numbers as supporting evidence.
[Teaching claims and arguments with Newsela](id-newsela)
With Newsela ELA, you can teach students about claims and arguments in a text using a variety of relevant, real-world content.
Not a Newsela customer yet? You can sign up for Newsela Lite for free to start your 45-day trial of all our premium products and get the content and skill-building scaffolds you need to teach about claims and arguments in your classroom.
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