W.7.9.b (evaluate claim/evidence distinction): Students read a speech advocating for more library funding. In the excerpt, the speaker claims, "A stronger library strengthens the whole community," and supports it with: "Last year, 600 students used free tutoring at the library," and "Our job-search workshops helped 120 adults apply for jobs."
Carlos writes: "The author's evidence is that a stronger library strengthens the whole community. The claim is that 600 students used tutoring and 120 adults went to workshops."
Which statement best evaluates Carlos's work?
- Carlos labels the broad statement as evidence and the numbers as claims, and this is right because specific statistics function as the arguments a speaker is trying to prove.
- Carlos confuses the claim and the evidence; the broad statement is the claim, while the tutoring and workshop numbers are evidence supporting it. (correct answer)
- Carlos analyzes the speech well because he mentions every important detail, so the exact labels he assigns to each part do not really affect the quality of his work.
- Carlos gets the labels right because the general statement gives measurable proof, while the numbers about students and adults are the speaker's main opinions.
Explanation: A claim is the main point a speaker argues, and evidence is the specific facts that back it up. Here the broad idea that "a stronger library strengthens the whole community" is the claim, and the numbers—600 students tutored and 120 adults helped in workshops—are the evidence that proves it. So Carlos reversed the two, and the correct evaluation says exactly that: he confused the claim and the evidence. The option saying Carlos is right because statistics are the arguments a speaker proves is wrong—statistics are the proof, not the argument itself. The option claiming that labeling doesn't matter as long as he lists every detail is wrong because correctly separating claims from evidence is the whole task; mislabeling is a real error, not a detail. The option saying the general statement gives "measurable proof" while the numbers are "opinions" flips reality—the general statement has no measurements, and the numbers are factual evidence, not opinions. Remember: broad, arguable statements are usually claims, and specific facts, statistics, and examples are usually the evidence supporting them.