A claim is what a writer wants you to believe. Support is whatever the writer offers to make you believe it: facts, examples, expert views and reasoning. Reading across viewpoints depends on keeping these apart.
You need this skill before you can compare two arguments fairly. After finding where two voices agree, you ask how well each voice backs up what it says.
What are the three kinds of support?
Evidence is something that could be checked: a figure, an event, a quotation. Authority is someone’s view used to add weight, such as a teacher or a researcher. Reasoning is the explanation that joins the evidence to the claim.
A writer may use all three or only one. An argument made of claims alone is an assertion, however firmly it is written.
How to label a paragraph, step by step
- Find the main claim. It is usually the sentence the rest of the paragraph would collapse without.
- Mark each sentence as claim, evidence, authority, reasoning or comment.
- Check the link. Ask whether the evidence really leads to the claim, or whether a step is missing.
- Note what is absent. If there is no evidence at all, say so in your answer.
Worked example
Here is an original extract from a school newsletter.
“Our school should introduce a reading hour after lunch. Reading levels are falling, according to the head of English. Last term, twelve students in Form 3 borrowed no library books at all. A quiet hour each day would give them a habit they currently lack.”
Sentence 1: claim. The writer wants a reading hour introduced.
Sentence 2: authority. The head of English is a named source, but the writer gives no figures to show how far levels have fallen.
Sentence 3: evidence. It is specific and checkable: twelve students, one year group, one term.
Sentence 4: reasoning. It links the evidence to the claim: a daily hour would build a habit that these students lack.
Overall: the claim has some support, but the evidence covers only one year group and the authority is unsupported. In a comparison answer you might write: “The writer supports the proposal with one specific figure, but the claim about falling levels rests on a single voice.”
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to label a forceful sentence as evidence.
Mistaken label: “It is obvious that every student needs quiet time” is evidence for the reading hour.
This sentence is another claim. “Obvious” is the writer’s word, not a fact that can be checked.
The correction is to ask “could I check this?” If you could not, it is a claim or an opinion, not evidence. Words such as “obviously”, “clearly” and “everyone knows” often signal a claim dressed up as proof.
Check yourself
Use this original extract.
“Canteen prices should be frozen. A plate of rice with chicken now costs RM1.50 more than last year. Students who cannot afford lunch tend to go hungry in the afternoon, so their concentration suffers. Anyone can see this is unfair.”
1. Identify the main claim.
Show answer
Canteen prices should be frozen.
2. Find one piece of evidence and one piece of reasoning.
Show answer
Evidence: a plate of rice with chicken costs RM1.50 more than last year. Reasoning: students who cannot afford lunch go hungry, “so their concentration suffers”, which links the price rise to a harm.
3. Is “Anyone can see this is unfair” support? Explain briefly.
Show answer
No. It is a second claim, expressed as if it needed no proof. It adds opinion, not evidence, and a careful reader would note that nothing is offered to show the unfairness.
Where this leads next
With claims and support separated, you can compare how two writers handle the same issue. Move on to comparing different emphases on a shared issue. If you want to test your labelling on fresh text, use the summary and paraphrase studio.
Some students can spot a claim but lose marks because they do not explain how strong the support is. That judgement is a regular focus of our online one-to-one First Language English tuition.