SHS

Department of Education-Region III

TARLAC CITY SCHOOLS DIVISION
Juan Luna St., Sto. Cristo, Tarlac City 2300
Email address: tarlac.city@deped.gov.ph/ Tel. No. (045) 470 - 8180

Reading and
Writing Skills
Quarter 1: Week 4
Learning Activity Sheet
 READING AND WRITING SKILLS
Name of Learner: Grade 11/12 – Q1/Q3 –Week 4
Section: Date:

Identifying Claims Explicitly or Implicitly Made in a Written Text

Background Information:
Critical reading means that a reader is able to distinguish the information that is clearly
stated (explicit) in the text from ideas that are suggested (implicit). This will help the reader
make inferences about what he/she reads (Rodriguez & Tiongson, 2016).

An implicit message is a message that uses visuals rather than literally saying or explicitly
saying what they mean. An implicit message is one in which communication is not plainly
expressed. It is implied.

Example:

George moved away from the dog, he'd never owned one.

Note: This doesn't say the words that George didn't like dogs, but it is thefeeling that you get
when you read it.

An explicit message is the actual stated meaning of a message. This is what the text you
read or the words you hear says without any interpretation on your part.

Example:

The speaker delivered the lesson comprehensively.

Note: The meaning of the sentence is straight forward. There is no othermeaning to

interpret since an explicit message is what is exactly written.

Generally, learning the different types of claims will lead the readers and the writers as well,
to recognize the arguments and evidences used in a text for effective reading which
entails a deeper and more analytical sort of engagement. Digging deeper into the text by
thinking about its meaning and significance using the three types of claims will be the focus
of this learning activity sheet.

What is a claim?

A claim is an expressed opinion or a conclusion that the arguer or writer wants to be

accepted by the audience. Often labeled as a proposition, in making claims, arguers’
advance statements with which they believe others will disagree because claims challenge
the beliefs or opinions of others, they require support in the form of reasons and information
(Rottenberg, 2020).

Kinds of Claim (Rottenberg, 2020)

Claims of Fact
It asserts that a condition has existed, exists, or will exist and is based on facts or data that
the audience will accept as being objectively verifiable.
A fact claim is an argumentative thesis that makes a quantifiable assertion; in other

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words, it is an argument (claim) about a measurable topic (fact).

Examples:
- Horse racing is one of the most dangerous sports.
- Manila is the capital city of the Philippines.
- The death penalty does not deter crime.
- The earth orbits the sun.
- Smoking is an addiction that people are genetically predisposed to.

These claims must be supported by data. In an inference or an educated guess about the
future, a reader will probably find the prediction credible if the data seemauthoritative.

Defending a factual claim:

1. State the claim clearly, preferably at the beginning.
2. Define terms that may be controversial or ambiguous.
3. Make sure your evidence (facts and opinions, or interpretations of the facts) is
sufficient, accurate, recent, typical; the authorities should be reliable.
4. As a courtesy to your readers, distinguish facts from opinions and interpretations.
5. Emphasize your most important evidence by placing it at the beginning or end of
your essay and by devoting more space to it.
Questions include:

What is true or false?

What happened/did not happen?How do
we know this?
What exists?
What does not exist?

Claims of Value

It attempts to prove that some things are more or less desirable than others. They express
approval or disapproval of standards of taste and morality. Such claims emerge whenever
people argue about what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
A value claim is an argumentative thesis which makes a qualifiable assertion; in other words,
it is an argument (claim) about a moral, aesthetic, or philosophical topic (value)

Examples:
- Being defeated is one of the most dehumanizing experiences a person can face.
- Ending a patient’s life intentionally is forbidden on moral grounds.
- Capital punishment is unjust.
- Physician-assisted suicide is immoral.
- The right to carry arms in conflict areas is an important one.

Defending a claim of value:

1. Make clear that the values or principles you are defending are important and more
significant than related values (sometimes values can seem to contradict others).
2. Suggest that adherence to the values you are defending will bring about good results in
some specific situation or bad results if respect for the values is ignored.
3. Since value terms are abstract, use examples to clarify meanings and make
distinctions. Comparison/contrast often helps, e.g., heroism vs. foolhardiness.
4. Use the testimony of people or institutions that are respected.

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Questions of value include:

- Is it good or bad?
- Is it right or wrong?
- How moral or immoral?
- Of what worth is it?
- Who says so?
- And is it ethical or unethical?

Claims of Policy

It asserts that specific policies should be instituted as solutions to problems. The expression
of should, must, or ought to usually appear in the thesis statement. Policy claims call for an
analysis of both fact and value.
A policy claim is an argumentative thesis that asserts a course of action the reader should
take; in other words, it is an argument (claim) about an actionable topic (policy).

Examples:
-Prisons should be abolished because they are crime-manufacturing concerns.
- Our town’s Board of Education should make sure that qualified minorities appear
on any new list of candidates for Board President.
- The one-child policy should be imposed in populated countries.
- Increased budget for the education of prisoners will result in a decrease in the
number of released prisoners who re-offend.
- The sale of assault weapons should be banned to avoid crimes.

Defending a claim of policy:

1. Make your proposal clear, with all terms precisely defined.

2. If necessary, establish the need for change. If a change has been resisted, explain why.
3. Consider the opposing arguments. State them fairly so you can refute or at least defuse
them.
4. Prove your proposal satisfies the need for change, and provide answers to opposing
arguments.
5. Support your proposal with solid data, but don’t neglect the moral considerations and
the common sense reasons, which may be even more persuasive.

Questions of policy include:

- What should be done?

- How can we solve this problem?
- What course of action should we pursue?
- And what should not be done?

Learning Competency with code:

Identify claims explicitly or implicitly made in a written text (EN11/12RWS-IIIij-6)

Directions/ Instructions:

Read carefully the directions indicated in the following exercises then provide what isneeded
or asked in each item.

Exercises/Activities:

A. Read the essay below, look for claims then identify their type.
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 REGINE
By Edsel L. Natividad

It was beyond imagination in the eyes of a skeptic but it was possible in the heart of a
believer.
There was no assurance but there was a chance.
She was welcomed by a foggy morning in September. The month of September is
cold. She has yawned many times while waiting for her driver. The night before the competition
was the toughest. She did not sleep much overthinking the uncertainty of the result due to the
shortage of time for training. At 2:00 AM she decided to get out of bed and practice instead. She
spent some time looking at the screen of the computer before taking three-hour sleep. It wasn’t
that she was extrinsically pressured butit was herself that would like to win.
The drive from the school to the contest venue was incredibly terrible. Road repairs
caused worse traffic situation intertwining to the adrenaline of rush hours. It showcased
motorists’ selfishness and no one paid respect to the red light. With this, the traffic management
group in Tarlac City should keep an eye to reckless motorists so they will practice driving
etiquette and avoid accidents.
Four minutes after the call-time they arrived. The venue was overwhelming. It was the
kind of school an uninterested student would like to attend. Spacious hallways, vast soccer field,
basketball courts, three-story buildings, rooms with glass doors and air-conditioning units, and
the like were there. Schools like this are preferred by most students than schools with fewer
infrastructures and recreational facilities.
The assigned room for the seminar was even more astonishing more so for a book lover
and a writer. The faculty library was conducive to learning. It was cold, well-lit, and soundproof.
Books, one of the primary sources of knowledge, were everywhere.
Bookshelves surround tables in different sizes. The single couch beside the glass wall that
overlooks the soccer field is the best spot. The morning ray shines through you while reading
your favorite novel and sipping black coffee.
The seminar started. The resource speaker shared his immense knowledge of technical
drafting.
The contest proper started at noon. The three participants were given four hours to complete
their task in the computer laboratory. Coaches waited outside patiently.
The computer lab was huge for the few people inside it. The room was way colder than
the library. Participants fought with the draftiness of it while keeping focused on the task.
Time was also their enemy. They had to finish a whole floor plan with rooms, garage, and
furniture inside it.
She battled against her memory to remember all the lessons she had from her coaches
and the techniques taught to her a few hours ago. It was not easy. Nevertheless, she finished
first with less than an hour left.
She went out of the room with cold hands and an anxious heart. She called her mother
back who has been calling her during the contest proper. Using a cell phone isprohibited in any
contest.
She related what she felt. She did not want to preempt the result but at least she did what
she had to do.
The time was up. The judging began.
Coaches, participants, the organizers, and resource speakers gathered for the final
moment.
Speakers were awarded the usual way. The announcement of winners followed. No one
admitted, but all wanted to get the first place.
The coldness of the room doubled. Hearts were pounding when the third placer was
announced. It wasn’t her. The second placer followed. It wasn’t her either. All stood up for the
only female participant. Her name resounded in the room when the announcer read out loud…
“Regine S. Tejada of Alvindia-Aguso High School”.
Regine and her coach, Hilario O. Saludez shook hands. “I
knew it will be you”, Saludez gladly told Regine.
Regine, who has been dreaming of becoming an architect, was trained by his class
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adviser Hilario O. Saludez and her Mathematics teacher Robin Lee Metiam.
It was the first time DepEd’s Technolympics will hold Technical Drafting Contest.This
kind of contest should always be in the line-up of Technolympics to motivate future architecture
students.
We don’t need assurance to go on. We got nothing to lose if we try. Today, Regine proved
that.

A. Directions: Write the claims that you found in the essay and identify their type.

Claims Types
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
B. Write two samples of claims of fact, claims of value and claims of policy based on
thepicture and caption below.

Workers install sandbags in the wrecked portion of the Tarlac River dike to prevent water
from entering the city on November 15, 2015. (Edsel L. Natividad)

Claim of facts:
1.
2.
Claim of value:
1.
2.
Claim of Policy:
1.
2.

C. Using the different types of claim, write an essay on the positive and negative
effects of social media to the life of a student on a separate sheet of paper.

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Reflection

In this lesson:

I learned that _

I can now

I can apply this learning to

References:

Niu.edu. Accessed September 3, 2020. https://www.niu.edu/britt/courses/245_argcomp.pdf

Rottenberg, Annette. 2020. Three types of claims. Accessed September 3, 2020.

https://www.coursehero.com/file/20205607/3-types-of-claims/

Unit5.org. Fact, Value, And Policy Claims. https://www.unit5.org/cms/lib03/ IL01905100/

Centricity/Domain/1254/vern%20persuasive%20patterns.pdf

Mesacc.edu. Sample for Claims about Value. Accessed September 3, 2020.

https://www.mesacc.edu/~paoih30491/ArgumentSampleClaimofValue.html

Tiongson, Marella Therese A. and Rodriguez, Maxine Rafaella C. 2016. Reading and
Writing Skills First Edition. Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City. Rex Book Store.

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Answer Key:
A.

Claims Types
1. The month of September is cold. Claim of fact

2. With this, the traffic management group in Tarlac City should Claim of policy
keep an eye to reckless motorists so they will practice driving
etiquette and avoid accidents.

3. Schools like this are preferred by most students than schools Claim of value
with fewer infrastructures and recreational facilities.

4. Books, one of the primary sources of knowledge, were Claim of fact

everywhere.

5. Using a cell phone is prohibited in any contest. Claim of fact

6. This kind of contest should always be in the line-up of

Technolympics to motivate future architecture students. Claim of policy

B. Answers may vary.

C. Answers may vary.

Writer:

EDSEL L. NATIVIDAD
Teacher II

Evaluator:

MARIECHRIS M. DAVID
Teacher III

Reviewed:

CARMELA T. PEREZ EdD

Education Program Supervisor-I

REYMAR D. PAGUIO PhD

Education Program
Supervisor, English