הוכחה רלוונטית ומספקת

Evidence is used for a purpose

• Writers use evidence strategically and purposefully to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify or qualify a point.
• Six purposes, and they are not the same job.
• Knowing which one a quotation is doing tells you what your commentary has to say about it.

A quotation cannot do all six jobs at once; even evidence deserves a job description.

Effective means explained

• Evidence is effective when the writer uses commentary to explain a logical relationship between the evidence and the claim.
• So an unexplained quotation is not weak evidence — by this definition it is not yet effective evidence at all.
• The quotation does not argue; the sentence after it does.

Two failures with two opposite fixes: a different quotation, or a richer one

Sufficient means quantity and quality

• Evidence is sufficient when its quantity and quality provide apt support for the line of reasoning.
• Both are named: five weak quotations are not sufficient, and one perfect one usually is not either.
• "Apt" is the standard — fitted to this reasoning, not impressive in general.

The process is recursive

• Developing an interpretation is a recursive process: it can emerge from analysing evidence and then forming a line of reasoning, or from forming a line of reasoning and then finding evidence.
• So there is no single correct order of work, and either direction is legitimate.
• What is not legitimate is keeping a claim the evidence stopped supporting.

An evidence check

• For each quotation, name which of the six purposes it serves.
• Check there is a sentence explaining its relationship to the claim.
• Then ask whether the quantity and the quality are apt for this line of reasoning.