Chapter 12: The Basics of Argument
Lab Activity 56: Claim and Support
 
Objective
To identify the claim and support in an argument.

arrow.gifStep 2: Indicate whether the sentence in each group is a claim or a support for the claim.


           1The Reagan administration carefully—and masterfully—controlled the president's image as presented by the media. 2To avoid having Reagan give unrehearsed answers, for example, his advisors would place the media at a distance and rev a helicopter engine so that the president could not hear reporter's questions.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America, 9th ed., p 220

6. Sentence 1 is the _____________. 

 
 
           1The Reagan administration carefully—and masterfully—controlled the president's image as presented by the media. 2To avoid having Reagan give unrehearsed answers, for example, his advisors would place the media at a distance and rev a helicopter engine so that the president could not hear reporter's questions.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America, 9th ed., p 220

7. Sentence 2 is the ________. 

 
 
           1Strangely enough, as technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed, news coverage has become less thorough. 2Newspapers once routinely reprinted the entire text of important political speeches; now the New York Times is virtually the only paper that does so—and even the Times has cut back sharply on this practice. 3In place of speeches, Americans now hear sound bites of 15 seconds or less on TV. 4The average length of time that a presidential candidate has been given to talk uninterrupted on the TV news has declined precipitously since the late 1960s.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America, 9th ed., p 230

8. Sentence 1 is the _______. 

 
 
           1Strangely enough, as technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed, news coverage has become less thorough. 2Newspapers once routinely reprinted the entire text of important political speeches; now the New York Times is virtually the only paper that does so—and even the Times has cut back sharply on this practice. 3In place of speeches, Americans now hear sound bites of 15 seconds or less on TV. 4The average length of time that a presidential candidate has been given to talk uninterrupted on the TV news has declined precipitously since the late 1960s.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America, 9th ed., p 230

9. Sentence 2 is the ________. 

 
 
           1Strangely enough, as technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed, news coverage has become less thorough. 2Newspapers once routinely reprinted the entire text of important political speeches; now the New York Times is virtually the only paper that does so—and even the Times has cut back sharply on this practice. 3In place of speeches, Americans now hear sound bites of 15 seconds or less on TV. 4The average length of time that a presidential candidate has been given to talk uninterrupted on the TV news has declined precipitously since the late 1960s.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America, 9th ed., p.230

10. Sentence 4 is the ____________. 

 
 





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