Evidence for Two Readings at Once
One quotation, two jobs
- Evidence is used to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify or qualify a point — unchanged.
- When a poem holds two readings, one phrase often has to serve both.
- The commentary then has to do double work: what it means under reading one, and under reading two.
For a two-reading claim, sufficiency means...
Unequal support proves a preference, not an ambiguity.
Separate the supports
- For each reading, find the piece of text that makes it available.
- Usually they are different lines: one before the ambiguous phrase and one after.
- Quoting both, separately, is what proves the poem supports each rather than that you can imagine each.
Two readings need two ____ sentences, one for each relationship.
The second is the one students omit.
Effectiveness still means commentary
- Evidence is effective when commentary explains a logical relationship between the evidence and the claim.
- With two readings there are two relationships, so two sentences.
- The second is the one students omit, and it is what makes the ambiguity claim stand up.
The support for both readings is usually the same line.
Usually different lines — one before the ambiguous phrase and one after.
Three quotations for one reading and one for the other proves a preference, not an ambiguity. For a two-reading claim, sufficiency means balance — roughly equal support on each side, each with its own linking sentence.
Does this evidence set prove an ambiguity?
Sort each set by what it actually establishes.
Match each quotation to the reading it supports.
The ambiguous phrase is what is being read; the other two are what read it.
Sufficiency for a two-reading claim
- Evidence is sufficient when its quantity and quality provide apt support for the line of reasoning.
- For an ambiguity claim, apt means balanced: roughly equal support for each reading.
- Three quotations for one reading and one for the other proves a preference, not an ambiguity.
Select all the steps of the two-reading evidence pass.
Deciding is what the ambiguity claim says the poem does not do.
A two-reading evidence pass
- Quote the ambiguous phrase once.
- Quote the support for reading one, then the support for reading two.
- Write a linking sentence for each, and check the two sides are roughly balanced.
Ambiguous phrase: she kept the house. Support for achievement: the previous line lists what she saved. Support for confinement: the next stanza has her "still at the same window." Two quotations, two linking sentences, one on each side — and now the ambiguity is evidenced, not asserted.
When one phrase serves two readings, quote the support for each separately — usually different lines. Evidence is effective only with commentary, so two readings need two linking sentences. Sufficiency here means balance: unequal support proves a preference, not an ambiguity.