(section16) Claim analysis:
“In 2009, it was Hovda who delivered the Pentagon the recommendation that because multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury, concussions need time to heal.”
“it was Hovda” demonstrates a factual claim, explaining how Hovda was the one to deliver the Pentagon recommendation.
the entire quotation is an attributive claim due to the author not directly quoting who made this statement.
“multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury” and “concussions need time to heal” are causal claims. These claims describe the cause of having multiple concussions and the long term effects.
“Hovda says some of the Army’s best doctors implied that if soldiers were told they needed rest after concussions, it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers, or retired guys claiming disability way after the fact.”
The author quoting “hovda says” and “the Armys best doctors implied..” demonstrate attributive claims, due to the sentence being a passing statement.
“it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers” demonstrates a causal claim, by insisting that if people were told to rest they will retire.
“it would take a neuroscientist”
The author stating “it would take a neuroscientist” demonstrates an evaluative claim by expressing its an obvious judgement about concussions.
“Hovda’s cause prevailed. These days, there are MRIs in theater, assessments after blasts, mandatory rest periods after a concussion.”
The author quoting ” Hovdas cause prevailed” is a causal claim, expressing the cause and effect of Hovdas recommendation and how it allowed more opportunities for those effected with concussions.
“people ask Hovda if they’re gonna get better, he encourages them that they’re gonna get different.That they will never be the same“
this quote by the author is an attributive claim demonstrating that the Hovda encourages those with concussions they will get better, however, cannot prove it.
“researchers “have tried hyperbaric oxygen, hundreds of clinical trials; we’re just failing miserably in trying to make a difference”—but that they should not panic.”
This quote demonstrates an evaluative claim by expressing the hundreds of trials backed by researchers.
“There’s good rehabilitation strategies: learn what your deficits are, learn that you’re not going crazy, that you just can’t do what you used to do,” he says”
This quotation is an evaluative and proposal claim, expressing to find good rehabilitation strategies and the author recommending to learn what your deficits are.
“The human brain has an enormous amount of plasticity. New cells are born every day.”
This quotation is a factual claim, expressing the idea that the human brain has high amounts of plasticity, which can be proved.
“New connections can be made.”
This quotation is a a causal claim, demonstrating a prediction of people making new connections in the future.
“The good news is..”
this quotation is an evaluative claim, by expressing the quality of “news”.
“teleologically speaking, if we didn’t have the ability to recover from brain injury, we’d have ended up as somebody’s breakfast.”
This quotation is a causal claim demonstrating the cause and effect of not being able to recover from brain injuries.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
I was momentarily perplexed until I realized I assigned Section 16 to more than one student (each class of 22 nearly exhausts all 22 sections).
Let’s go! 🙂
In 2009, it was Hovda who delivered the Pentagon the recommendation that because multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury, concussions need time to heal.
“it was Hovda” demonstrates a factual claim, explaining how Hovda was the one to deliver the Pentagon recommendation.
—Agree with that, but Factual Claim is a default choice true of most claims. Nuance is more impressive, as you’ve demonstrated everywhere in your remarks.
the entire quotation is an attributive claim due to the author not directly quoting who made this statement.
—It is that. Be ready to analyze how his support for this claim affects his analysis of the “best doctors'” claims.
“multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury” and “concussions need time to heal” are causal claims. These claims describe the cause of having multiple concussions and the long term effects.
—Totally true.
“Hovda says some of the Army’s best doctors implied that if soldiers were told they needed rest after concussions, it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers, or retired guys claiming disability way after the fact.”
The author quoting “Hovda says” and “the Army’s best doctors implied” demonstrates attributive claims, due to the sentence being a passing statement.
—I don’t know what a “passing statement” is, but both those claims are Attributive for sure.
“it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers” demonstrates a causal claim, by insisting that if people were told to rest they will retire.
—I’m not sure it suggests retirement, but it’s certainly causal AND deeply judgmental. Both “epidemic” and “faker” pass judgment.
—Does that make it an ethical claim?
—Does Hovda concur in this judgment?
—It does seem contradictory that he would BOTH recommend rest to the Pentagon AND pass along the suspicions of the “best doctors” that recommending rest would usher in wide abuse. Yeah?
“it would take a neuroscientist”
The author stating “it would take a neuroscientist” demonstrates an evaluative claim by expressing it’s an obvious judgement about concussions.
—Huh? Maybe the evaluation would be obvious to a neuroscientist, but that implies it might be completely inaccessible to non-scientists.
Hovda’s cause prevailed. These days, there are MRIs in theater, assessments after blasts, mandatory rest periods after a concussion.
The author quoting ”Hovda’s cause prevailed” is a causal claim, expressing the cause and effect of Hovda’s recommendation and how it allowed more opportunities for those [a]ffected with concussions.
—Is there an unspoken claim here in the author’s report? In other words, can we tell from the reading that MacClellan is pleased with the outcome? Just asking.
“people ask Hovda if they’re gonna get better, he encourages them that they’re gonna get different. That they will never be the same“
this quote by the author is an attributive claim demonstrating that the Hovda encourages those with concussions they will get better, however, cannot prove it.
—Surely Attributive.
—Certainly Causal.
—Also Comparative.
—I believe Hovda DOES NOT CLAIM vets will get better.
researchers “have tried hyperbaric oxygen, hundreds of clinical trials; we’re just failing miserably in trying to make a difference”—but that they should not panic.
This quote demonstrates an evaluative claim by expressing the hundreds of trials backed by researchers.
—It’s also Categorical.
“There’s good rehabilitation strategies: learn what your deficits are, learn that you’re not going crazy, that you just can’t do what you used to do,” he says
This quotation is an evaluative and proposal claim, expressing to find good rehabilitation strategies and the author recommending to learn what your deficits are.
—Nice. I like that you picked up on the Proposal aspect.
The human brain has an enormous amount of plasticity. New cells are born every day.
This quotation is a factual claim, expressing the idea that the human brain has high amounts of plasticity, which can be proved.
—It’s not NOT factual. But it’s surely Causal and Definitional.
New connections can be made.
This quotation is a causal claim, demonstrating a prediction of people making new connections in the future.
—Yeah, that’s part of the causal chain begun above. Nice catch.
The good news is . . . .
this quotation is an evaluative claim, by expressing the quality of “news.”
—Very nice. You’re tuned to find claims in little phrases.
teleologically speaking, if we didn’t have the ability to recover from brain injury, we’d have ended up as somebody’s breakfast.
This quotation is a causal claim demonstrating the cause and effect of not being able to recover from brain injuries.
—It definitely is. It’s also Categorical in a humorous way. It describes US as those who recover from injury AND THEREFORE are not lunch (do not belong to the category: lunchmeat).
This is very high quality work, BabyYoda.
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