Because she also helps thousands of other people—measured by website and social-media interactions—through Family of a Vet, a nonprofit created “to help you find your way, find the information you need, and find a way not only to cope with life after combat…but to survive and thrive!”
Evaluative Claim– This could be argued if one wanted to, but can supported by expertise. It also evaluates the quality of Brannon’s website.
Brannan founded the organization in 2007, after panicked Googling led her to the website of Vietnam Veteran Wives (VVW) when Caleb returned from his second tour.
Factual Claim– This can be proved. Her organization was founded in 2007, backed by evidence.
Life after the first tour had been pretty normal. “Things were a little…off,” Caleb was edgy, distant, but he did not forget entire conversations minutes later, did not have to wait for a stable mental-health day and good moment between medication doses to be intimate with his wife, and then when he finally tried, pray to Christ for one of the times when it’s good sex, not one of the times when a car door slams outside and triggers him, or the emotion becomes so unbearable that he freezes, gets up, and walks wordlessly out the door.
Categorical Claim – Lists several symptoms of PTSD. While also listing the behavior of Caleb.
All that didn’t happen until after the second tour. Brannan was in a terrible place, she says—until she talked to Danna Hughes, founder of VVW.
Evaluative Claim– Brannon is being evaluated as she said she was “in a terrible place.” Brannon’s behavior is being evaluated also when mentioning she got better when she talked to Danna Hughes.
Danna had been through much of the exact same turmoil, decades ago, and had opened a center to help get Vietnam vets benefits and educate their spouses and communities about their condition.
Evaluative Claim– evaluative again, examining Danna’s behavior here.
“This is the only reason I am well. People care when you tell them. They just don’t know. They want to help and they want to understand, so I just have to keep going and educating.”
Ethical Claim– Here judgment or demand is being placed on the “people.” Saying “they just don’t know,” is trying to express her judgment of people and how more people should be seeking help.
alwaystired247
AnonymousStudent
azntaco
beforeverge
BigBabyBaller
bitagaming
breakingbad1820
Caravan
cinderella1013
davidbdale
Yankeelover18
fatboy489zt
giantsfan224
glacierfreeze21
gobirds17
green0728
gymrat230
Gir
jerseymikes1106
jesusisking1738
jetsfan806
Kenneth Alex Krug
manipulator66
mercythyhealer14
McCormick Karner
mochaatrain
oni
powerranger
peanut2348
pinkcottoncandy4
princess01430
redbird1123
rubes1256
shxrkbait
sillyinternetperson
soulpond47240
spatel8267
stingingcrib5
tacotyphoon
thepersonindisguise
usmnt23
worldofjuice999
xephos1
Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
Clarify how to locate claims and the certain types. When doing this I wasn’t quite sure how to identify the certain claims.
You’ve done good work here, Kaboom. Let’s see if a closer examination can tease out claims you might have missed.
You say:
Categorical Claim – Lists several symptoms of PTSD. While also listing the behavior of Caleb.
You’re certainly correct. Are there other claims inside the overall Categorical Claim?
Life after the first tour had been pretty normal.
—Normal is an Evaluative Claim describing what sort of time Katie and Caleb were having. It’s modified a bit by the Comparative Claim, “pretty.” It sets up what will be a multiple Comparative Claim comparing life before the first tour with life after the first tour and even (because of the verb tense “had been”) life after the second or later tours. Life was normal before the tour, “pretty normal” after the first tour, but then, comparatively less normal after the later tours. All of that contained in “after the first tour HAD BEEN pretty normal.”
“Things were a little…off,”
—A vague Evaluative Claim describing how NOT normal things were. “Off” doesn’t describe how something is unusual, but it’s a clear claim of abnormality as perceived by Brannan.
Caleb was edgy, distant,
—Evaluative Claims, also Comparative since he’s being evaluated relative to how he was before his military service.
but he did not forget entire conversations minutes later,
—This is Factual and Comparative. It means that after his later tours he DID forget entire conversations immediately, but that after his first tour, he HADN’T.
did not have to wait for a stable mental-health day
—Factual and Comparative in the same way. Now he has to wait for a (Evaluative Claim) stable mental-health day to be intimate with his wife.
and good moment between medication doses
—Both Evaluative and Causal since it blames the medication for “bad moments.”
to be intimate with his wife,
—Causal since these moments can only proceed when Caleb is free of medication side-effects and unstable mental health symptoms.
and then when he finally tried,
—Comparative and Evaluative since it involves Brannan’s opinion that Caleb wasn’t trying until he tried and that his trying was long delayed.
pray to Christ for one of the times when it’s good sex,
—Evaluative and Comparative since it compares good sex episodes with those that aren’t. Causal too, in a way, since it implies that prayer can help result in good sex episodes.
not one of the times when a car door slams outside and triggers him,
—Evaluative and Causal as it describes times that a trigger ruins the sex and blames the car door slamming as the cause of spoiling the mood.
or the emotion becomes so unbearable that
—Causal, Comparative, and Evaluative for reasons already identified.
he freezes, gets up, and walks wordlessly out the door.
—Causal and Descriptive.
Turns out there was more than one claim in that section, Kaboom.
That demonstration may appear to be slightly overboard, but the point of the exercise is to heighten your awareness of the deliberate if subtle functionality of virtually everything a writer says in a persuasive essay.
Does that make sense?
Yes that makes sense, but honestly very impressed all those claims are in all that little sections of text. I’m aware that there are claims in the writing, but identifying them is a little difficult.