SECTION 11:

“It’s to help kids like that that Brannan and her volunteers put together an informational packet on secondary trauma for parents to give to teachers, explaining their battle-worthy idiosyncrasies and sensory-processing sensitivities.”

The quote would be a causal claim. Because there are kids who suffer from living around those with PTSD, Brannan and her volunteers made their informational packet. If there had not been those who were suffering, it is more than possible that the packet would not have been made. This highlights cause and effect.

“They’re common enough problems that the Department of Health and Human Services got in touch with Brannan about distributing the packet more widely.”

This quote would be an evaluative claim as the Department of Health and Human Services judged the characteristics of the packet and decided that the packet should be more widely spread. Furthermore, this claim would be evaluative as Evaluations can be supported by authority, which in this case would be the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Though Brannan hopes Katie will come out of childhood healthy, she still says, ‘She’s not a normal kid. She does things, and says things. She’s a grown-up in a six-year-old’s body in a lot of ways.’”

This quote would be an attributive claim as the author writes “she still says” as a means to distance himself an arms length from the claim, as not every claim can be verified. 

“She certainly looks like a normal kid when she comes down from her room dressed for tap class. In a black leotard, pink tights, and shiny black tap shoes, she looks sweet as pie.”

This quote would be an Illustrative claim. The author doesn’t just say, “she looks like a kid but isn’t mentally”, instead the author instead gives more to the reader to visualize. To realize the innocence of her youth and highlight the internal contrast due to her situation. In turn, the passage evokes sympathy from the reader. 

“‘One time, a bad guy in Iraq had a knife and my dad killed him,” she says, apropos of nothing.”

This quote would be an attributive claim, as the author is referencing a story Katie had allegedly told. What makes this quote an attributive claim is that in referencing Katie’s story, he writes “she says” to put some distance between himself and the claim of the story Katie told.

“Brannan is stern but impeccably patient. She doesn’t know why Katie adapted this story about confiscating a weapon from an insurgent into a story about bloodshed, but she isn’t too happy about it. That kind of small talk recently ruined a birthday party one of her classmates was having at Chick-fil-A. Brannan and Katie have a talk, again, about inappropriate conversation.”

This whole passage would be an Evaluative claim. The claim adheres to the judgment of characteristics of a situation. This is shown through the author stating that Brannan is stern but patient. The passage continues with the evaluative claims as further statements indicate judgment of the situation. Not only this but the evaluations are arguable and evidence based. 

A part of the passage would also constitute a Causal claim, “That kind of small talk recently ruined a birthday party one of her classmates was having at Chick-fil-A.” This would be causal as Katie stories are causing something negative to happen, in this case the ruining of a birthday party. Cause and effect.

“Katie is sorry—God, is she sorry, you can see it in her face and guilty shoulders, but she seems to feel like she can’t help it. Sometimes, at bedtime, she asks her mom to pray with her that her teacher will like her. Once, she asked Brannan to take her to a hypnotist, so he could use his powers to turn her into a good girl.”

This passage would be an illustrative claim, as the author is using a more poetry-esk type of language to describe the sorrow Katie feels from the helplessness of her situation. The three sentences in the passage all aim to derive sympathy from the readers.