Identifying Claims Discussion
For your Initial Post due by Friday at 11:59 PM:（due sep 17）

Choose one of the videos from LECTURE: Course Theme – Borders and summarize its main claim in 350-500 words. Include the following:

Identify the main claim.
Identify the main claim as a claim of policy, fact, or value.
Explain why you believe the claim is one of policy, fact, or value.
You may also comment on whether or not you personally agree with the claim.

For your Response to at least 1 classmate due by Sunday at 11:59 PM:（due sep19）

Address the following topics in your response of at least 250-300 words:

Compose a counterargument to your classmate’s summary.
Provide some reasons for your counterargument.

Phrases to help you
Claims of Policy

We should _____________.
We ought to _____________.
We must _____________.
Lets _____________.
The best course is _____________.
The solution is to _____________.
The next step should be _____________.
We should consider _____________.
Further research should be done to determine _____________.

Claims of Fact

Research suggests that _____________.
The data indicate that _____________.
_____________is increasing or decreasing.
There is a trend toward _____________.
_____________causes _____________
_____________leads to _____________.

Claims of Value

_____________is terrible/disappointing/underwhelming.
_____________is mediocre/average/decent/acceptable.
We should celebrate _____________.
_____________is great, wonderful, fantastic, impressive, makes a substantial contribution to _____________.
_____________is the best _____________.
_____________is the worst _____________.
_____________is better than _____________.
_____________is worse than _____________.
_____________is just as good as _____________.
_____________is just as bad as _____________

Phrases that signal that one idea is supposed to lead to another. 

Because_____________, _____________.
Because of this, _____________.
If_____________, then _____________.
Since_____________, _____________.
For this reason,_____________.
We can conclude_____________.
Therefore, _____________.
So_____________.
Consequently, _____________.
As a result, _____________.
Hence_____________.
Thus_____________.
It follows that _____________.