Claim Sorting Worksheet: Observation, Inference, Judgment

How to use this

Choose a short passage: an editorial paragraph, a company statement, a social post of a few sentences. Longer is not better. Four or five sentences is enough to produce every difficulty.

Work in this order. Sorting first and reacting second is the discipline the worksheet exists to enforce.

The worksheet

Step 1: Transcribe

Write out the passage with each sentence on its own line. Sentences that contain two claims joined by “and”, “because”, or “since” should be split into separate lines.

Step 2: Label each line

Use four labels:

• O, observation. Something recorded or witnessed, which could in principle be checked against a record.
• I, inference. A conclusion drawn from observations.
• A, assumption. Something the passage treats as true without stating or checking it. These are usually not on the page, so you will be adding lines rather than labelling them.
• V, value judgment. A claim about what is good, right, or important.

A line that needs two labels needs to be split further.

Step 3: Write the assumptions

For each inference, write the assumption it depends on as a full sentence. This is the hardest step and the one that produces the most insight. If an inference appears to need no assumption, it is probably an observation.

Step 4: Grade the inferences

Mark each inference as near certain, reasonable, or speculative, and write the reason in six words or fewer.

Step 5: Locate your disagreement

Answer one question: if you disagree with this passage, which label is the disagreement attached to?

Most people discover that they were arguing at a different level from the one their disagreement lives at.

Common results

Disagreement at the assumption level. Both parties accept the observations and diverge on an unstated premise. Naming it usually shortens the argument dramatically.

Disagreement at the value level, conducted with evidence. Both parties agree about what happened and disagree about whether it was acceptable. Additional evidence will not help, and continuing to supply it is a way of avoiding the real question.

Disagreement about inference strength. Both parties accept the observations and the assumption, and differ on how much confidence the evidence supports. This is the most tractable case, because it points directly at what further observation would settle it.

For facilitators

Give the whole group the same passage for the first pass, then let pairs choose their own. Passages chosen by participants produce more honest sorting, because people bring material they actually care about, and the discipline is more visible under those conditions.

Do not use a passage from a live local controversy in a first session. The sorting is hard enough without the group defending positions.

Version and reuse

Version 1.0, reviewed August 2026. Reuse terms are described on the Terms of Use page.

Next step

Practice sorting in the Think Lab

Topics covered: Critical Thinking