Academic Language: Justify a Claim

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Here is the first lesson of many that seeks to familiarize students with academic language. Many students struggle with the language of school--or academic language. These lessons seek to address these issues and empower our students.

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Transcript:

In school, you are often asked to justify your answer, justify your response, justify a claim, or justify your reasoning.

To justify simply means to explain yourself--to show or prove that what you are arguing is right and reasonable.

For example, if your friend said videogames are bad for children because they cause kids to become more aggressive.

You would want your friend to justify his claim, or explain himself..: “what evidence does he have to prove this? Was there a study done that demonstrates this? Does he know anyone who has become more aggressive after playing violent video games?

Pretend your friend responded—

Violent video games cause kids to be more aggressive, man. Look at all the school fights these days. If you don’t think violent video games cause this, you are crazy and naive.

This is not a well-supported or well-justified argument. Not only does your friend attack you and not the argument by calling you crazy and naive, but his evidence and reasoning are weak. His assumption that school fights are the result of violent video games needs to be backed up with evidence. He, therefore, does a poor job of justifying his position that video games cause aggressive behavior in children and are bad for them.

Now pretend your friend said this:

There are various studies that show children are prone to aggressive behavior after playing violent video games. For example, an Iowa State University study found that long-term gamers were more likely to fantasize about punching or striking a person they disliked than kids who played less video games. This study clearly shows a link between violent video games and aggressive behavior in children.

Here your friend provided evidence from an Iowa State study to back up his claim that video games cause kids to become more aggressive. He has begun justifying his position, or explaining his reasoning. He still needs to prove how aggressive behavior in children is a bad thing. And--to make his case stronger--he should gather more evidence. But he has at least started the process of justifying his position that violent video games are bad for children because they cause kids to become more aggressive.


Now that you are familiar with what justify means, let’s have you justify a claim. Choose one of the claims below to write an argumentative paragraph about. Be sure to justify your position by supporting your claim with evidence and reasoning. A quick google search should give you the evidence necessary for this task. Good luck.



Using cell phones while driving should or should not be banned.

Columbus Day should or should not be replaced with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

School uniforms should or should not be mandated in public schools.