what does it mean to have the right kind of evidence?

What this handout is about

This handout will provide a wide overview of gathering and using prove. It volition help you determine what counts as evidence, put evidence to work in your writing, and determine whether you have enough evidence. It will as well offer links to additional resources.

Introduction

Many papers that you write in college will require you to make an argument; this means that yous must accept a position on the subject field yous are discussing and support that position with evidence. It's important that you use the right kind of testify, that you use information technology effectively, and that you have an advisable amount of it. If, for example, your philosophy professor didn't like information technology that you used a survey of public opinion as your primary evidence in your ideals paper, you lot need to find out more about what philosophers count as expert testify. If your instructor has told you that you demand more than assay, suggested that you're "only listing" points or giving a "laundry listing," or asked you lot how certain points are related to your argument, it may hateful that you lot tin can do more to fully incorporate your prove into your argument. Comments like "for example?," "proof?," "get deeper," or "expand" in the margins of your graded paper suggest that you may need more evidence. Let's accept a look at each of these problems—understanding what counts as evidence, using evidence in your statement, and deciding whether you lot need more testify.

What counts every bit evidence?

Before you lot brainstorm gathering information for possible use as evidence in your argument, you demand to be certain that you empathize the purpose of your assignment. If yous are working on a project for a form, look carefully at the consignment prompt. It may requite you clues near what sorts of evidence you will need. Does the instructor mention any item books you should utilize in writing your paper or the names of any authors who have written about your topic? How long should your paper be (longer works may require more, or more varied, evidence)? What themes or topics come up in the text of the prompt? Our handout on understanding writing assignments can help you lot interpret your consignment. It'south as well a proficient idea to think over what has been said almost the assignment in form and to talk with your instructor if yous need clarification or guidance.

What matters to instructors?

Instructors in different academic fields expect different kinds of arguments and evidence—your chemistry newspaper might include graphs, charts, statistics, and other quantitative data as bear witness, whereas your English paper might include passages from a novel, examples of recurring symbols, or discussions of label in the novel. Consider what kinds of sources and prove you have seen in course readings and lectures. Y'all may wish to encounter whether the Writing Center has a handout regarding the specific academic field you lot're working in—for example, literature, folklore, or history.

What are principal and secondary sources?

A notation on terminology: many researchers distinguish between primary and secondary sources of show (in this instance, "primary" means "first" or "original," not "most important"). Primary sources include original documents, photographs, interviews, so forth. Secondary sources present information that has already been processed or interpreted by someone else. For instance, if you are writing a newspaper about the movie "The Matrix," the film itself, an interview with the director, and product photos could serve as primary sources of evidence. A film review from a magazine or a collection of essays about the film would exist secondary sources. Depending on the context, the same detail could be either a main or a secondary source: if I am writing about people's relationships with animals, a collection of stories almost animals might be a secondary source; if I am writing about how editors get together diverse stories into collections, the aforementioned book might now function as a master source.

Where can I find bear witness?

Here are some examples of sources of information and tips about how to apply them in gathering evidence. Ask your instructor if you aren't sure whether a certain source would be appropriate for your paper.

Impress and electronic sources

Books, journals, websites, newspapers, magazines, and documentary films are some of the well-nigh common sources of evidence for academic writing. Our handout on evaluating print sources will aid you cull your print sources wisely, and the library has a tutorial on evaluating both print sources and websites. A librarian can help y'all discover sources that are appropriate for the type of assignment you are completing. Simply visit the reference desk at Davis or the Undergraduate Library or conversation with a librarian online (the library'due south IM screen proper name is undergradref).

Ascertainment

Sometimes yous tin directly observe the affair you lot are interested in, by watching, listening to, touching, tasting, or smelling it. For example, if you were asked to write about Mozart's music, you could mind to it; if your topic was how businesses attract traffic, yous might become and look at window displays at the mall.

Interviews

An interview is a expert way to collect information that yous tin't find through any other type of inquiry. An interview can provide an proficient's stance, biographical or start-hand experiences, and suggestions for farther research.

Surveys

Surveys allow you to find out some of what a group of people thinks about a topic. Designing an effective survey and interpreting the data you get tin be challenging, so it's a skillful idea to check with your instructor earlier creating or administering a survey.

Experiments

Experimental data serve as the primary grade of scientific testify. For scientific experiments, you should follow the specific guidelines of the field of study you are studying. For writing in other fields, more breezy experiments might exist acceptable as evidence. For example, if you want to prove that nutrient choices in a cafeteria are affected by gender norms, you might ask classmates to undermine those norms on purpose and find how others react. What would happen if a football player were eating dinner with his teammates and he brought a small salad and diet potable to the table, all the while murmuring about his waistline and wondering how many fat grams the salad dressing independent?

Personal experience

Using your own experiences can exist a powerful way to appeal to your readers. You should, however, utilize personal experience merely when it is appropriate to your topic, your writing goals, and your audience. Personal experience should not be your only class of evidence in most papers, and some disciplines frown on using personal experience at all. For example, a story about the microscope you received equally a Christmas souvenir when you were nine years old is probably non applicative to your biological science lab written report.

Using evidence in an argument

Does evidence speak for itself?

Admittedly not. After you innovate evidence into your writing, y'all must say why and how this evidence supports your statement. In other words, y'all have to explain the significance of the prove and its part in your paper. What turns a fact or piece of information into evidence is the connection it has with a larger claim or argument: show is ever evidence for or against something, and you take to brand that link articulate.

Every bit writers, we sometimes presume that our readers already know what we are talking about; nosotros may be wary of elaborating too much because nosotros retrieve the bespeak is obvious. But readers tin can't read our minds: although they may exist familiar with many of the ideas nosotros are discussing, they don't know what nosotros are trying to do with those ideas unless we bespeak information technology through explanations, organization, transitions, and and then forth. Attempt to spell out the connections that you lot were making in your mind when you chose your evidence, decided where to place information technology in your paper, and drew conclusions based on it. Remember, you can always cut prose from your paper later if y'all decide that you are stating the obvious.

Here are some questions you can inquire yourself about a item bit of prove:

OK, I've only stated this betoken, simply so what? Why is it interesting? Why should anyone care?
What does this information imply?
What are the consequences of thinking this way or looking at a trouble this way?
I've just described what something is like or how I see it, but why is it like that?
I've just said that something happens—and then how does information technology happen? How does it come to exist the style it is?
Why is this information important? Why does information technology matter?
How is this idea related to my thesis? What connections exist between them? Does information technology support my thesis? If so, how does it do that?
Can I give an case to illustrate this indicate?

Answering these questions may help yous explain how your testify is related to your overall statement.

How tin can I incorporate evidence into my paper?

There are many ways to present your evidence. Ofttimes, your testify volition be included every bit text in the body of your paper, as a quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Sometimes you might include graphs, charts, or tables; excerpts from an interview; or photographs or illustrations with accompanying captions.

Quotations

When you lot quote, you are reproducing another writer's words exactly as they appear on the folio. Here are some tips to aid yous make up one's mind when to apply quotations:

Quote if y'all can't say it any better and the author'south words are especially brilliant, witty, edgy, distinctive, a good illustration of a indicate you're making, or otherwise interesting.
Quote if you are using a particularly authoritative source and you need the author'southward expertise to back upwards your indicate.
Quote if you are analyzing diction, tone, or a author's use of a specific discussion or phrase.
Quote if you are taking a position that relies on the reader's understanding exactly what another writer says about the topic.

Exist certain to introduce each quotation you use, and always cite your sources. See our handout on quotations for more details on when to quote and how to format quotations.

Like all pieces of bear witness, a quotation tin can't speak for itself. If you end a paragraph with a quotation, that may be a sign that you have neglected to discuss the importance of the quotation in terms of your statement. It's important to avoid "plop quotations," that is, quotations that are just dropped into your newspaper without whatever introduction, discussion, or follow-up.

Paraphrasing

When you paraphrase, you have a specific section of a text and put it into your own words. Putting it into your own words doesn't mean but changing or rearranging a few of the author's words: to paraphrase well and avoid plagiarism, endeavour setting your source aside and restating the sentence or paragraph yous have just read, equally though you were describing it to another person. Paraphrasing is different than summary considering a paraphrase focuses on a particular, fairly short bit of text (similar a phrase, sentence, or paragraph). You lot'll demand to bespeak when y'all are paraphrasing someone else's text by citing your source correctly, only equally you would with a quotation.

When might you want to paraphrase?

Paraphrase when you desire to introduce a writer's position, but his or her original words aren't special enough to quote.
Paraphrase when you are supporting a detail bespeak and need to draw on a certain place in a text that supports your point—for example, when one paragraph in a source is peculiarly relevant.
Paraphrase when you want to present a writer's view on a topic that differs from your position or that of another writer; you can then refute writer's specific points in your own words after you paraphrase.
Paraphrase when you want to comment on a particular example that another writer uses.
Paraphrase when yous need to present information that's unlikely to be questioned.

Summary

When you summarize, you are offer an overview of an entire text, or at to the lowest degree a lengthy department of a text. Summary is useful when you are providing background information, grounding your own statement, or mentioning a source equally a counter-statement. A summary is less nuanced than paraphrased material. It tin can be the most effective style to comprise a large number of sources when you lot don't have a lot of space. When you are summarizing someone else'southward argument or ideas, exist sure this is clear to the reader and cite your source appropriately.

Statistics, data, charts, graphs, photographs, illustrations

Sometimes the all-time evidence for your statement is a hard fact or visual representation of a fact. This type of evidence can be a solid backbone for your statement, just you nonetheless need to create context for your reader and describe the connections you want him or her to make. Retrieve that statistics, data, charts, graph, photographs, and illustrations are all open to interpretation. Guide the reader through the interpretation process. Once more, always, cite the origin of your evidence if you didn't produce the material you are using yourself.

Practise I need more show?

Let'south say that y'all've identified some appropriate sources, found some prove, explained to the reader how information technology fits into your overall argument, incorporated it into your draft effectively, and cited your sources. How practise you tell whether you've got enough evidence and whether it'southward working well in the service of a potent argument or analysis? Hither are some techniques you can utilize to review your draft and assess your use of testify.

Make a reverse outline

A reverse outline is a great technique for helping you run into how each paragraph contributes to proving your thesis. When you make a opposite outline, you lot record the main ideas in each paragraph in a shorter (outline-like) form so that you tin run across at a glance what is in your paper. The opposite outline is helpful in at least 3 means. First, it lets you lot see where you have dealt with also many topics in one paragraph (in general, you should accept one principal idea per paragraph). 2nd, the reverse outline tin help yous run into where you need more than testify to bear witness your point or more analysis of that testify. 3rd, the opposite outline can help y'all write your topic sentences: in one case you lot have decided what you want each paragraph to be nearly, you tin can write topic sentences that explicate the topics of the paragraphs and state the human relationship of each topic to the overall thesis of the paper.

For tips on making a contrary outline, see our handout on organization.

Color code your paper

You will need iii highlighters or colored pencils for this exercise. Utilize 1 color to highlight general assertions. These will typically be the topic sentences in your paper. Next, apply some other color to highlight the specific evidence y'all provide for each assertion (including quotations, paraphrased or summarized material, statistics, examples, and your own ideas). Lastly, utilise some other color to highlight analysis of your evidence. Which assertions are key to your overall argument? Which ones are peculiarly contestable? How much evidence practice you have for each assertion? How much analysis? In general, you should have at least as much analysis equally you lot do evidence, or your paper runs the risk of existence more summary than argument. The more controversial an assertion is, the more than evidence you may need to provide in order to persuade your reader.

Play devil's advocate, act like a child, or doubt everything

This technique may be easiest to use with a partner. Enquire your friend to have on 1 of the roles above, so read your newspaper aloud to him/her. After each section, intermission and permit your friend interrogate yous. If your friend is playing devil's advocate, he or she will always take the opposing viewpoint and force you to go along defending yourself. If your friend is acting like a child, he or she will question every sentence, even seemingly cocky-explanatory ones. If your friend is a doubter, he or she won't believe anything y'all say. Justifying your position verbally or explaining yourself volition strength y'all to strengthen the evidence in your paper. If y'all already have enough evidence merely oasis't connected information technology clearly plenty to your main argument, explaining to your friend how the bear witness is relevant or what it proves may help you to do so.

Mutual questions and boosted resource

I have a full general topic in listen; how tin I develop information technology so I'll know what bear witness I need? And how tin I go ideas for more testify? See our handout on brainstorming.
Who tin help me find evidence on my topic? Check out UNC Libraries.
I'k writing for a specific purpose; how can I tell what kind of evidence my audience wants? See our handouts on audition, writing for specific disciplines, and particular writing assignments.
How should I read materials to gather prove? See our handout on reading to write.
How can I make a good argument? Cheque out our handouts on argument and thesis statements.
How do I tell if my paragraphs and my newspaper are well-organized? Review our handouts on paragraph development, transitions, and reorganizing drafts.
How do I quote my sources and incorporate those quotes into my text? Our handouts on quotations and avoiding plagiarism offer useful tips.
How do I cite my evidence? Run across the UNC Libraries commendation tutorial.
I think that I'm giving evidence, only my instructor says I'm using too much summary. How can I tell? Check out our handout on using summary wisely.
I want to utilise personal feel as evidence, simply can I say "I"? We take a handout on when to use "I."

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout'due south topic, and we encourage you to do your own inquiry to find additional publications. Please practise not utilise this list equally a model for the format of your ain reference listing, equally information technology may non match the commendation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. Nosotros revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz. 2016. Everything's an Argument, 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's.

Miller, Richard E., and Kurt Spellmeyer. 2016. The New Humanities Reader, 5th ed. Boston: Cengage.

University of Maryland. 2019. "Research Using Master Sources." Research Guides. Last updated Oct 28, 2019. https://lib.guides.umd.edu/researchusingprimarysources.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Eatables Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you lot utilise the entire handout and aspect the source: The Writing Heart, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Source: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/evidence/