Claim vs Evidence vs fact vs conclusion ??????

Thank you so much. that was really helpful .
Can i ask another question ….
what is the meaning of these words when they appear on the Boldface role question "Position" and "Judgment" ??? for example how to know that the statement is Position or Judgment ?

Dear jabhatta@umail.iu.edu,

I'm happy to respond.

As above, in terms of the GMAT, there's not a big difference. Any argument, anything that is not factual evidence, can be called a "claim." Any statement in the prompt that is not evidence is a claim. We always call the author's most important claim his "conclusion"; most typically, this most important claim comes at the end of the prompt passage, although sometimes it can come in other places in the prompt passage. Sometimes, if there's claim #1 in the middle of the argument, and then claim #2, the most important claim, comes at the end, we might call claim #1 something such as a "preliminary conclusion" or a "secondary conclusion that supports the main conclusion," whereas claim #2 would be the "main conclusion;" thus, it's possible to have two conclusion in a GMAT argument.

Both words have a verb form. The verb "to conclude" means that decide something, I come to a judgment about something. For example, I see A, B, and C, so I conclude P. In real life, that can be a private action: I could conclude something inside my own head and not tell anyone. By contrast, the verb "claim" explicitly means for me to tell other people about what I think. I see A, B, and C, and then I claim to my friend that P is true. If the idea is never spoken, then I have never claimed it. The two verbs differ as descriptions of real human action. Nevertheless, in the GMAT prompt passage, the passage is telling us everything, so that negates any real difference between a claim and a conclusion.

Does this make sense?
Mike

Mike - what is the difference between a claim (or position) vs. a conclusion ?

Thanks Mike this helps !

One follow up ...the difference between a claim and a premise ?

Can i say the

-- Claim that is not evidence towards a conclusion : a claim

-- Claim that is evidence towards a conclusion : a premise

Dear jabhatta@umail.iu.edu

I'm happy to help.

My friend, I would explain the difference between a "premise" and a "claim."

A "premise" is a starting point in an argument. It's the place I start my argument because I expect that my listeners will already agree with this. Often, it's entirely factual. In a GMAT CR argument, the premises are the starting points that we are supposed to assume is true. In real life, someone may start an argument by saying, "Look, we agree that X is Y, so . . . " The part of his argument where he expect you already to agree is the premise.

A "claim" is a conclusion. You may not agree with my claim initially, but I hope that if I construct a persuasive argument, you will come to believe it. It is the part of the argument that the person making the argument believes, the person hearing the argument probably didn't start out believing, but the person making the arguments wants his listen to believe as a result of the argument. For GMAT CR purposes, there's not really a difference between a "claim" and "conclusion," and a "claim" could be either the main conclusion or any secondary conclusion.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Can i explain it this way....

A claim does not have a premise supporting it

whereas

A conclusion will always have a premise supporting it

Bunuel Could you please help us understand what's the difference between a "claim" and a "position", at least in terms of GMAT CR Bold questions.
Thanks.

Please see Mike’s explanation above. It seems pretty complete.




Posted from my mobile device

how is fact different from opinion? I often find it difficult to differentiate between the two.

Fact refers to something that can be verified or proved to be true, which is based on observation and research whereas opinion refers to a judgement or belief about something based on assumption and personal view.