Claim and type

Write out the exact claim you're testing, including who it's about, in what context, compared to what, and over what time frame.

During an argument about screen time you hear yourself say it again: "You are always on that phone." Your teenager rolls their eyes, and honestly they have a point. Always? During dinner? Compared to their friends? Compared to you? The complaint feels true in your chest, but as stated it's untestable, so every fight about it goes nowhere.

Claim and type is the move of writing out the exact claim you're testing before you look for evidence: who it's about, in what context, compared to what, and over what time frame. The cue is a vague, sweeping statement you're about to act on. The operation: take the fuzzy claim and pin each part. "Always on the phone" becomes "on weeknights between dinner and bed, my kid spends more than three hours on the phone, up from last school year." Then note what kind of question that is, here an amount over time, so you know what evidence would even count. What changes is that the conversation shifts from character accusation to a checkable statement, one a week of screen-time reports can settle. Don't bother with this precision when the stakes are trivial or you both already agree on the facts.