Relevant and Sufficient Evidence
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.
Select all the purposes the CED lists for evidence.
Clarify, associate and amplify complete the six; summarising is not one of them.
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.
Evidence is effective when...
The quotation does not argue; the sentence after it does.
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.
Select all the things sufficiency depends on.
Five weak quotations are not sufficient, and one perfect one usually is not either.
An unexplained quotation is not effective evidence at all. The CED's definition makes effectiveness depend on the commentary that explains the logical relationship — so a paragraph that quotes and moves on has supplied text, not support.
Which purpose is this evidence serving?
Sort each use by the CED's purpose word.
You must always form your line of reasoning before looking for evidence.
The process is recursive — an interpretation can emerge from analysing evidence first.
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.
Match each use of the same quotation to its purpose.
Same words, three commentaries — the purpose decides what you have to write.
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.
Same quotation, two purposes. To exemplify: "a small clerk of a man" is one instance of the narrator's habit of ranking. To qualify: it shows the habit is not malice but reflex — he says it about someone he likes. The commentary is different in each case, and the quotation alone said neither.
Evidence is used to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify or qualify. It is effective only when commentary explains its logical relationship to the claim, and sufficient when its quantity and quality aptly support the line of reasoning. The process is recursive — either direction is legitimate.