An Exam-Day Evidence Routine
The rules have not changed all year
- Evidence illustrates, clarifies, exemplifies, associates, amplifies or qualifies a point.
- It is effective when commentary explains a logical relationship to the claim, and sufficient when quantity and quality provide apt support.
- Everything else this year has been these three sentences applied to different texts.
Select all the unchanged rules about evidence.
Length has never been one of the rules.
A routine beats a decision under time pressure
- On the day you will not have attention to spare for method.
- So fix the sequence now: read, underline, group, claim, link.
- A routine you have practised runs without costing you the thinking you need for the text.
The exam version of the recursive process is...
It is faster, and it cannot produce a thesis you have no evidence for.
Recursion is built in
- The process is recursive: the interpretation can come from the evidence, or the evidence from the interpretation.
- The exam version of that is: underline first, then decide what the underlinings are about.
- It is faster than deciding first, and it cannot produce a thesis you have no evidence for.
Cross out the phrases you will not use ____ you start writing.
A phrase left in your head will dilute a paragraph it does not belong to.
Cross out the phrases you will not use before you start writing. A striking phrase left in your head will find its way into a paragraph it does not belong to and dilute the claim — and on a timed essay you will not have the attention to notice it happening.
Which step of the routine is this?
Sort each action into the five-step exam routine.
Put the five-step routine in order.
A routine you have practised runs without costing you the thinking you need for the text.
Cut before you write, not after
- Of the phrases you underline, some will serve no purpose in the argument you settle on.
- Cross them out on the question paper before you start writing.
- A phrase left in your head will find its way into a paragraph and dilute it.
Fixing a routine in advance saves attention on the day.
On the day you will not have attention to spare for method.
The routine, in five steps
- Read once for sense. Underline the five or six phrases that struck you.
- Group them; the largest group is your thesis. Assign each a purpose from the six.
- Cross out the ungrouped ones. Then write, giving every quotation its linking sentence.
Six underlinings. Four are about how the speaker refers to time; two are about weather. The four become the thesis; the two are crossed out on the paper before a word is written. Nothing beautiful is lost — it is set aside, which is the only way to keep it out of paragraph three.
The three rules are unchanged: the six purposes, effective through commentary, sufficient through quantity and quality. Use the recursion deliberately — underline first, then decide what the underlinings are about — and cross out what you will not use before you write.