HW15

Step 1: View the first link: “Academic Essay Evidence–video.”

Step 2: View the second link: “Essay Writing: Supporting Details–video.”

Step 3: Complete and submit DLA C.11: “Evidence Supporting the Thesis.” Make sure you meet with an instructor in the vWRC to complete the last section of the DLA. Submit below. In your submission include the name of the instructor you met with as well as the date and time you met.

Evidence: Supporting the Thesis
Dire c t e d L e arning Ac t iv it y —C omposit ion 1 1

Essential Question

What types of evidence can I use in my academic essays?

Purpose
Upon completion of this activity, students will know what constitutes evidence in an academic essay.

This DLA should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Instruction
Evidence is a crucial component to your expository essays. Without evidence, even the best of thesis

statements will fail. After all, an attorney can claim that the defendant is guilty, but if there’s no

evidence, there’s no guilty verdict! The jury’s out on your thesis until you prove it.

So what kind of evidence is admissible in an essay? It depends on the topic, but here are a few common

types of evidence:

a) Examples: These can be drawn from outside sources, personal experience, or observation.

Hypothetical examples can be great, if they are believable. Introduce these honestly: “Imagine a

student…” or “Let’s say that…” or “What if…?”

b) Facts and Statistics: Facts are verifiable and universally accepted. Statistics are interpretations

of data, not indisputable facts. How the data was gathered and how the findings are

presented—these affect the reliability of statistics.

c) Expert Opinion: This refers to the thoughtful, well-informed opinion of people who are experts

in the appropriate field. A physical therapist, then, would be an expert in preventing and

repairing injury, but not necessarily on, say, psychological disorders. Experts are often quoted as

support.

d) Textual Evidence: Quotations can also be used in an analysis of a text to make a claim about

that text, rather than because you think your readers will accept the writer’s authority. For

instance, if you claim an author contradicts herself, you would quote two places from the text to

demonstrate that contradiction.

Having evidence is not enough. It needs to be good evidence. Here are the basics of evaluating evidence:

• Do you have enough evidence?

• Is your evidence detailed, specific and concrete, rather than vague, general, and abstract?

• Is your supporting evidence logical? To test this, use the ABC test from St. Martin’s Guide to

Writing by Rise Axelrod & Charles Cooper:

o Appropriate: Is this relevant to the point you’re trying to prove?

o Believable: Will your readers accept the evidence you have presented as true?

o Consistent & Complete: Are there any contradictions? Are there any gaping holes in

your argument? That is, did you forget some important aspect of the topic that would

be obvious to many readers?

Exercise
Write a paragraph in which you support one of the following thesis statements. Underline your topic

sentence (this should be an idea that supports your thesis), and then provide at least 2 kinds of evidence

from the list above.

1) Compare & Contrast Thesis: On-campus jobs are better for students than off-campus jobs. (OR,

your own variation.)

2) Cause & Effect Thesis: Recent increases in college tuition have many causes (OR, Recent

increases in college tuition have many negative effects).

3) Argumentation Thesis: RCC should provide more parking for students (OR, your own variation.)

Then meet with a WRC instructor or tutor and ask the following questions:

1) Do I provide sufficient, specific, and concrete detail?

2) Is the evidence relevant (i.e. appropriate)?

3) Is the evidence believable?

4) Is the evidence consistent or are there any contradictions? Is the evidence complete, or are

there any issues that really should be addressed?

5) Write down ways that your paragraph could be improved:

Review your answers with an instructor or tutor in the Virtual Writing & Reading Center. Be sure you can

answer the essential question above.

Essential Question
Purpose
Instruction
Exercise