Explicit and

implicit claims
in a text
 “When talking about
writing, “explicit” means
something that is stated
plainly, while “implicit”
refers to something that
is implied and not stated
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 explicit
Obvious and apparent; directly stated

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📌  Explicit information is clearly stated, leaving
nothing implied. For example, the phrase “it
was a dark and stormy night,” uses explicit
information that leaves no room for debate.

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 📌  Franz Kafka’s book, The Metamorphosis :
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from
uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”

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 implicit
Not expressed clearly; only suggested; indirectly
stated

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 📌 J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan :

All children, except one, grow up.

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✘ If something is implicit, it is not directly
stated. The reader must understand implicit
information and facts based on other clues in
the text. Let’s think back to our “dark and
stormy night” example.

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✘  What if the sentence ran like this: “The trees
were swaying wildly outside Anne’s window
as she prepared for bed, and the gutters
were overflowing.”

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 ✘ Anne preparing for bed = night time

✘ swaying trees and overflowing gutters = stormy

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✘ Implicit information has a place as well,
especially in fiction. You may not realize it,
but you use implicit information every day to
communicate. Implicit information can help
your writing seem more natural, and often be
a better–although more roundabout–way to
make your point.

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✘ The important thing to remember when using
implicit information is that the reader will be
forced to guess your meaning from 
clues in the text. Make your clues clear, then,
so as to avoid any confusion.

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 Claims
= a statement that the author
wants the reader to accept
=writer’s point or position
regarding the chosen topic
3 types of claims
📌 claim of fact
📌 claim of value
📌 claim of policy

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Claim of fact
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 Claim of fact
✘ Relates to statement that can be varied, no matter how
difficult
✘ Inferred from a reliable source of information
✘ Claim that can be proven by steadfast information of
data
✘ Not dependent on merely o a person’s preference, but
can be true of false

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✘ A Claim of Fact asserts that something quantifiable
has existed, does exist, or will exist. The center of
controversy in a factual claim is over the
reasonableness of the fact in question. In other words,
a claim of fact debates whether the statement of the
Claim is correct or incorrect, valid or invalid, true or
false.
✘ Claims of fact may be assertions about the past,
present, or future.

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✘ Past claims of fact tend to deal with the assigning of
motive or responsibility for historical actions.
Examples are: "General Custer was responsible for
the massacre at the Battle of the Little Big
Horn," or, "Democrat policies caused the rise of
terrorism."

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✘ Present claims of fact tend to deal with
events of current importance. Examples
are: "There is a God," "Divorce is causing
increased juvenile crime," "Video games lead
to the increase of violence among teens," or
“Climate change is exacerbated by people.”

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✘ Future claims of fact deal with making
predictions about the nature of future events;
such as: "Tuition at community colleges will
be increased next year," "Oil prices will
continue to rise" or, "The Tesla Model 3 will
become the best-selling sedan in the United
States."

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Claim of value
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 Claim of value
✘ Based on personal taste or practices and morality
✘ Argues whether something is good or bad
✘ A statement about which is better, more important,
more desirable, more needed, or more useful

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✘ A Claim of Value asserts qualitative judgments along
a good-to-bad continuum relating to persons, events,
and things in one’s environment. If you construct a
position claiming that something is good or bad or
one thing is better than another, you’ve made a claim
of value. Examples of claims of value are: "The
Wizard of Oz is the greatest movie of all time,"
"Snowboarding is the greatest way to spend a
vacation," or, " Filipino food is the best food of all."

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✘ The center of argument in a value claim is over the
criteria used in making the judgment. Value claims
call into question a standard of comparison: bad as
compared to what, good as compared to what,
superior as compared to what? All judgments we
make are opinions that compare two or more items
and assert that one of the items is, by comparison, the
better one.

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 What is a “bad” influence, a “good” education, a
“better” phone?
✘ These words have no universality or common
understanding. This puts you in the position of having
to define how value judgments are made in a
particular situation, to argue for that definition, and to
assess how well the person/thing being judged meets
that definition.

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✘ A person’s values are often called into play when a
person is arguing morality. Since value claims cannot
be empirically supported, our arguments with others
tend to be qualitative and without much factual
support. One significant problem in social
argumentation is that we tend to view claims of value
as claims of fact, and thus we shift the focus of
argument from good and bad to true or false.

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 look at the following claims
✘ Law and Order is the best program on television.
✘ Barack Obama was a great President.
✘ Abortion is morally wrong.
✘ The Lakers are better than the Celtics.

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✘ We do this without the universal criteria necessary for
such "truthfulness" to be argued. We expect that
others will accept our value judgments as "true,"
without the empirical data necessary to prove such
judgments. This is why social argumentation breaks
down into quarrelling and bickering, and why we
have such a difficult time getting along with others
who see the world differently than we do.

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Claim of policy
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 Claim of policy
✘ An argument that asserts the implementation of a
certain policy
✘ Depends on an existing policy, rule, or law
✘ Begins with “should”, “ought to”, or “must”

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✘ A Claim of Policy asserts that something should or
should not be done by someone about something. It
proposes that some specific course of action should,
but not necessarily will, be taken. The key word in a
claim of policy is the conditional verb “should”
which implies that some action ought to be taken, but
not that it must or will be taken.

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✘ Policy claims are analyzed by locating the sub-claims
of fact (the need for a policy change in the status
quo), or value claims (the desirability of making such
a change) inherent in the policy claim.

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✘ "All professional athletes should be randomly
drug-tested." We can analyze this claim by first
finding the sub-claims of fact, which center around
the need for drug testing of athletes. We might
discover the following: drug use among athletes has
increased, drug use affects athletic performance,
athletes are role models for youth, and other methods
to discourage drug use have not worked. 

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✘  In order to discover the sub-claims of value, we need
to discuss the desirability of drug testing on athletes.
We might discover: athletic performance will be
greatly improved if we have mandatory drug testing,
fans will have greater respect for athletes if they
submit to drug tests or random drug testing is the best
way to deal with drug use in sports. We can now
debate the original claim using these sub-claims as
the major arguments that will determine pro or con
adherence.

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 Remember
✘ Claims of fact are quantifiable statements that focus
on the accuracy, correctness or validity of such
statements and can be verified using some objective
evidence.
✘ Claims of value are qualitative statements that focus
on judgments made about the environment and invite
comparisons.
✘ Claims of policy are statements that focus on actions
that should be taken to change the status quo.
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THANKS!
Prepared by: Nicole & Brix
STEM 11-B

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