“Even doctors can’t say for sure exactly why he has flashbacks, why he could be standing in a bookstore when all of a sudden he’s sure he’s in Ramadi, the pictures in his brain disorienting him among the stacks, which could turn from stacks to rows of rooftops that need to be scanned for snipers.”
-This is an evaluative claim as it looks into the severity and the mysteriousness of Caleb’s condition. They are insinuating that his condition is much more severe and un-comprehendible than the majority of people who suffer from PTSD.
“Some hypotheses for why PTSD only tortures some trauma victims blame it on unhappily coded proteins, or a misbehaving amygdala.”
-This is a factual claim because it states a scientific theory or hypothesis to explain the cause of PTSD and does not make any innuendos from personal opinions or beliefs.
“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 is a comparative claim, in this claim, Katie is being compared to a normal, happy child rather than seeing the mental trauma that she endures.
“Vets make up 7 percent of the United States, they account for 20 percent of its suicides—or that children and teenagers of a parent who’s committed suicide are three times more likely to kill themselves,”
-This is a factual claim because it again states numerical data that is backed by studies and is not based on opinion. This claim remarks on the fact that veterans have an astronomically high suicide rate, and that their conditions even effect their families.
Counterintuitive 