An Exam-Day Evidence Routine
IntroducedThe 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.
By the final unit, evidence has still not been promoted to the job of explaining itself.
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.
Run an exam-day evidence routine
Under time pressure the order of operations is what protects the essay from becoming summary.
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.