Evidence appears in essays in the form of quotations and paraphrasing. Both forms of evidence must be cited in your text. Citing evidence means distinguishing other writers' information from your own ideas and giving credit to your sources. There are plenty of general ways to do citations.
Note both the lead-in phrases and the punctuation except the brackets in the following examples:. Your job during the course of your essay is to persuade your readers that your claims are feasible and are the most effective way of interpreting the evidence. Home Writing Guides Using Evidence. Using Evidence. Using Evidence Like a lawyer in a jury trial, a writer must convince her audience of the validity of her argument by using evidence effectively. This Web page will cover these basic issues you can click or scroll down to a particular topic : Incorporating evidence effectively.
Integrating quotations smoothly. Citing your sources. Here are some ways to work evidence into your writing: Offer evidence that agrees with your stance up to a point, then add to it with ideas of your own.
Present evidence that contradicts your stance, and then argue against refute that evidence and therefore strengthen your position. Use sources against each other, as if they were experts on a panel discussing your proposition. Use quotations to support your assertion, not merely to state or restate your claim.
Weak and Strong Uses of Evidence In order to use evidence effectively, you need to integrate it smoothly into your essay by following this pattern: State your claim. Give your evidence, remembering to relate it to the claim. Comment on the evidence to show how it supports the claim.
To see the differences between strong and weak uses of evidence, here are two paragraphs. Weak use of evidence Today, we are too self-centered. Most families no longer sit down to eat together, preferring instead to eat on the go while rushing to the next appointment Gleick In public speeches, statistics have the advantage of seeming objective, authoritative, and factual, but critical audiences will want to know about the sources and methods for determining your statistical evidence.
Testimony, or appeals to authority, come in two main types, eyewitness and expert. Eyewitness or first-hand testimonies are reports from people who directly experience some phenomenon. If a speaker is arguing about toxic waste dumps, a quotation from someone living next to a dump would fall into this category. First-hand testimony can help give the audience a sense of being there.
Experts may also rely on direct experience, but their testimony is also backed by more formal knowledge, methods, and training. Supplementing the neighbor's account with testimony from an environmental scientist, who specializes in toxic waste sites, is an appeal to expertise.
When using testimony in arguments, you should always make sure the authority you are appealing to is in fact qualified to speak on the topic being discussed. Argument: Claims, Reasons, Evidence Critical thinking means being able to make good arguments.
Everyone should stop wearing seat belts [claim] because it would save lives [reason]. Even when it seems like evidence may speak for itself, a reader needs to understand how the evidence connects to your argument. In addition, because analysis requires you to think critically and deeply about your evidence, it can improve your main argument by making it more specific and complex.
What Analysis Does: Breaks a work down to examine its various parts in close detail in order to see the work in a new light. What an Analysis Essay Does: Chooses selective pieces of evidence and analysis in order to arrive at one single, complex argument that makes a claim about the deeper meaning behind the piece being analyzed. In the essay, each piece of evidence selected is paired with deep analysis that builds or elaborates on the last until the thesis idea is reached.
Analysis should be present in all essays. Wherever evidence is incorporated, analysis should be used to connect ideas back to your main argument. Asking the kinds of questions that will lead to critical thought can access good analysis more easily. Such questions often anticipate what a reader might want to know as well.
Questions can take the form of explaining the evidence or expanding on evidence; in other words, questions can give context or add meaning. Asking both kinds of questions is crucial to creating strong analysis. Also ask yourself what the evidence implies about your argument:.
Argument: Violent action is justified in order to protect animal rights. Questions that explain the evidence: What did Watson mean by this statement? What else did he say in this speech that might give more context to this quote? Questions that expand on evidence: Why is this quote useful or not useful to the argument? Why should the reader take this quote seriously? How does this evidence evolve or complicate the argument—does what Watson said make the argument seem too biased or simple if activism can be related to terrorism?
Because there may be multiple ways to interpret a piece of evidence, all evidence needs to be connected explicitly to your argument, even if the meaning of the evidence seems obvious to you.
Plan on following any piece of evidence with, at the very least, one or two sentences of your honest interpretation of how the evidence connects to your argument—more if the evidence is significant. While his quote might simply be intended to shock his audience, by comparing animal activism to terrorism, he mocks the fight against international terrorism. Sometimes frustrations with analysis can come from working with an argument that is too broad or too simple.
The purpose of analysis is not only to show how evidence proves your argument, but also to discover the complexity of the argument. While answering questions that lead to analysis, if you come across something that contradicts the argument, allow your critical thinking to refine the argument. Example: If one examined some more evidence about animal activism and it became clear that violence is sometimes the most effective measure, the argument could be modified.
Without such aggressive actions, animal rights might be seen in a better light. The following are some patterns often found in passages of weak or empty analysis. Offers a new fact or piece of evidence in place of analysis.
0コメント