- Today she’s fielding phone calls from a woman whose veteran son was committed to a non-VA psychiatric facility, but he doesn’t want to be at the facility because he, a severe-PTSD sufferer, was already paranoid before one of the other resident loons threatened to kill him, and anyway he fought for his fucking country and they promised they wouldn’t abandon him and he swears to God he will have to kill himself if the VA doesn’t put him in with the other soldiers.
- This whole sentence together is an evaluative claim. The author is making an evaluation of the situation between the operator and mother.
- a non-VA psychiatric facility
- This portion of the sentence is a categorical claim. The author is putting the hospital into a specific category.
- but he doesn’t want to be at the facility
- This is an evaluative claim, the author is judging that he does not want to be at the psychiatric hospital.
- a severe-PTSD sufferer
- This is once again a categorical claim. The author has categorized this patient as a severe PTSD sufferer.
- severe-PTSD sufferer
- This is an ethical claim as well. The author is stating that not only does this man have PTSD, it’s severe, and he is suffering.
- was already paranoid before one of the other resident loons threatened to kill him,
- This portion of the sentence is a causal claim. Our veteran was already paranoid, but it’s now heightened because he was threatened by another patient.
- one of the other resident loons
- This is a categorical claim, referring to psychiatric patients as loons.
- anyway he fought for his fucking country
- This is an evaluative claim that claims our veteran fought for his country.
- they promised they wouldn’t abandon him and he swears to God he will have to kill himself if the VA doesn’t put him in with the other soldiers.
- This whole piece is a causal claim. Our veteran claims that he will have to kill himself if he is not placed with other veterans.
- they promised they wouldn’t abandon him
- This a moral claim that proposes that our country promised this veteran he wouldn’t be abandoned by the military, even after his service was done.
- Another veteran’s wife calls from the parking lot of a diner to which she fled when her husband looked like he was going to boil over in rage.
- This is a causal claim that claims the wife fled to this diner due to her husband’s boiled-over rage.
- Another woman’s husband had a service dog die in the night, and the death smell in the morning triggered an episode she worries will end in him hurting himself or someone else if she doesn’t get him into a VA hospital, and the closest major clinic is four hours away and she is eight and a half months pregnant and got three hours of sleep, and the clinic’s website says its case manager position for veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan is currently unstaffed, anyway.
- This entire section can be numerous claims, but the one that speaks to me is an ethical claim. This sentence poses the dilemma that veterans want to get help, yet many of the resources needed for them to get help aren’t available.
- the closest major clinic is four hours away
- This is a numerical claim that states the closest clinic is four hours away. It is also a categorical claim by stating the clinic is a major clinic.
- the clinic’s website says its case manager position for veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan is currently unstaffed, anyway.
- This is an evaluative claim that evaluates the situation that the clinic is understaffed in the necessary positions.
- Anyway
- Stating anyway at the end of the sentences poses a moral claim that, even if the clinic was staffed, it wouldn’t have made a difference in the availability of help for the veteran.
- It’s a brief emergence from his bedroom—he’s been “sleeping or hiding,” Brannan describes it, 20 or so hours a day for a few days.
- This is a numerical claim that puts a timespan on how long Caleb hides and sleeps in his room.
- today, like most days, he feels “like a damn train ran over me.
- This is an analogy claim where Caleb equates the pain he feels every day to being hit by a train.
- “Breathe,”
- This is a recommendation claim that Brannan makes to the women that call her to ease their minds.
- though when I ask her if she follows her own advice, she says no. “If I stopped, and started breathing,” she says, “I would be too sad.”
- This is a causal claim from Brannan. She claims that if she follows her own advice to take a second and breathe she wouldn’t be able to because she would become to sad.
- So she doesn’t. If she’s not saving lives on the phone or blogging, she’s offering support via Facebook, where thousands of Family of Vet users and nearly 500 FOV volunteers congregate and commiserate.
- This is a factual claim that can be proven if you go to the Facebook page where Brannan helps out other vets, and you could see how many people visit the site.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
So she doesn’t. If she’s not saving lives on the phone or blogging, she’s offering support via Facebook, where thousands of Family of Vet users and nearly 500 FOV volunteers congregate and commiserate.
This is a factual claim that can be proven if you go to the Facebook page where Brannan helps out other vets, and you could see how many people visit the site.
—Nice. It’s also Causal and Evaluative. “SO” is a clear signal of Causation. She doesn’t want to dwell on her own problems SO she spends her life helping others. It characterizes what she does on Facebook as “saving lives,” which is not Factual but Evaluative. Etc.
Feel free to revise for Grade Improvement, but be sure to let me know you’ve made revisions; otherwise, I probably will not notice.