General Claims and Generalities

General Claims
According to Epstein, a general claim is one "that asserts something in a general way about all or part of a collection." (Epstein, 394). Some of these claims may seem valid, but they cannot be assumed as strong or valid arguments mainly depending on the wording of the argument. For example, "All children like to play with toys. Allen likes to play with toys. Therefore, Allen is a child." The reason this is not true is because Allen may not be a child. Epstein explained how and when to use "all", "some", "no" and "only" in an argument. When using "all" in an argument, it means every single possibility, no exceptions, or every single possibility and there is at least one. "Some" is meant as "at least one" and sometimes "at least one, but not all."

Generalities
There are two kinds of generalities: precise and vague. Precise generalities involve a more black and white approach in the argument. An example of this "Less than 5% of the students in a chemistry class actually understand the material. Mary is in that chemistry class. So she does not understand the material. On the other hand, vague generalities use generic terms, such as most, many, and almost all.