The concept of dividing statements into two specialized categories is something I would like to discuss. A descriptive statement describes the situation of the world without indicating whether it is good or bad (Werhane, 2019). A normative statement expresses an assessment, stating whether something is good, terrible, better, or worse in comparison to a standard or alternative (Werhane, 2019). Thus, by bringing an example of what these categories represent, it can be possible to further analyze them for a better understanding of the concept.
An example of a normative case would be a journalist expressing his personal feelings or utterly covering various events from one subjective point of view. By not aiming to picture objective reality, using phrasings that suppose certain morality or emotional state expressed by the author, it becomes a normative statement. On the other hand, factual news about an event involving statistics and clear evidence would make such an article an example of a descriptive statement. Furthermore, factual information should not be supported by direct sources or statistics; the fact that a statement does not contain any judgmental logic, either in a positive or negative context, is the main factor. Thus, the presented examples in journalism efficiently represent differences between normative and descriptive statements.
Another example I would like to present is coherent with the descriptive statement and follows the field of education. Apparently, in cases where there is a task to provide comparison or analysis essays, it is important for the author to not include personal phrasings and statements. Furthermore, the information should be supported by facts and all conclusions should be made as consequent statements which summarize the knowledge of academically approved sources. Thus, understanding the concept of statement categorization is essential for the academic writing field.
Reference
Werhane, P. H. (2019). The normative/descriptive distinction in methodologies of business ethics. In Systems Thinking and Moral Imagination (pp. 21-25). Springer, Cham.