Text 1: Addicted to Tech?

Task Type 1: Identifying the Writer's Views and Claims

This activity focuses on identifying if there is a claim about the statement in the text and whether the statements report the writer's claims or views as expressed in the text or not.

Introduction

Definition

The identifying the writer's views and claims task tests your ability to identify the views and claims of the writer in a text. It's often used to test the student's understanding of a passage in which the writer is presenting an argument or where different ideas about a certain topic are compared or analysed.

Fundamental

There are a set of statements that report information and ideas from the text. The students' job is to read the passage and decide if the statements are reporting the information and ideas correctly or not.

Method

For each statement, there are three possible answers:

  • YES: if the statement agrees with the views of the writer.

  • NO: if the statement contradicts the views of the writer.

  • NOT GIVEN: if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

The Basic Rules for the Identifying the Writer's Views and Claims Task

Fundamental

  • The statements follow the order of information in the text.

  • The wording of the statements is not exactly the same as the wording in the text, but they contain the same information and ideas.

  • The statements include some words and names that are also used in the text. These help to locate the relevant information and ideas.

Tips and Tactics for the Task

Advice

  • Before you read the passage, read the statements and think about what you are going to read.

  • Do not use your own opinions or knowledge of the topic to decide the answer.

  • Re-read both the statement and the section of the text and think about the meaning of both (same ideascontradictionmissing ideas).

Quiz

Practice

Pre-reading Text

Have a look at the pictures below and guess what is the text about?

While-reading Text

Read the text and answer the questions

Post-reading Text

Debate

Working in pairs, perform a debate about the impact of technology use.

Self-evaluation

Which statement best describes how you feel about identifying the writer's views and claims task ?

  • I feel confident about doing Yes/No/Not Given task

  • I did OK, but I still need to do more work on Yes/No/Not Given tasks

  • I need more practice with Yes/No/Not Given tasks. I need to focus on ...