Claims, reasons, and assumptions

The essay, “ Put Your Money Where Their Mouths Are”, by Nicholas D. Kristof, is a well written opinion essay that answers key questions that every opinionated essay should contain.  A good opinion essay should make a claim that is backed up by reasons, as well, as having assumptions that precede it.  These three things (claims, reasons, and assumptions) are can be found in the thesis of the paper as well as in the body of the paper itself.  In this specific case most of the information about the claims, reasons, and assumptions of the paper are found in the body of the essay. 

            The first thing that must be addressed in the paper is the claim.  The claim is usually the statement that the author is arguing for.  In this specific case, the author is not supportive of international child labor laws.  The author makes it very clear that child labor is important in certain parts of the world. Second, there must be reasons behind the claim.  The author in this essay supports his claims through a couple different reasons, such as, how some third world countries have no schools, and how some families need the child’s income to put food on the table.  These reasons were well backed up in the paper through examples of how implicated child labor laws affected third world families. Finally, the author makes some assumptions in his paper.  In this paper the author assumes his audience knows that there is controversy over child labor laws. He also assumes that the audience knows some of the history behind the argument of labor laws.  With the claim, reasons, and assumptions well addressed, few questions are left to be asked about the content of the paper.  One question that might be asked is, can the U.N. World Food Program help send kids through high school instead of fourth grade, if enough money is donated? This could be a potential question for the writer. Overall, this essay is very well written and address many of the questions a reader might have along the way.