English 102

Assessing Evidence

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Syllabus (DOC)

Davis Oldham
FOSS 5355
546-4768

What is evidence?

Evidence is facts, data, information, examples—any form of information that a writer uses to support the point she or he is trying to make.

Don’t confuse evidence with citation.

• Evidence is the facts used to support the point.
• Citation tells the reader where the writer got the facts.

Just because a writer does not cite her or his sources, does not mean she or he has no evidence.

How do you find it?

In assessing evidence, the first step is to find it or identify it. One of the best ways to do this is to start with the point the author wants to make. Then look for specific details—facts, data, examples, etc.—she or he provides to support that point. That is the evidence for that point.

Example

Point: America is “a nation of frustrated altruists” (people who want to give generously to others)

Evidence:

• Poor people give a larger portion of their income to charity than rich people.
• Even when not giving to charity, American workers spend much of their money on others (friends, children, co-workers, etc.).

These are both specific facts or examples that support this point.

How do you evaluate it?

There are many ways to evaluate the quality of someone’s evidence, but three criteria (standards) that are almost always used are as follows:

1. Is the evidence sufficient? Is there enough of it, or do you need more to feel convinced?
2. Is the evidence relevant? Is it really about the point the author wants to prove, or did they go off on a tangent, providing facts that don’t have anything to do with the point?
3. Is the evidence representative? This is the hardest one to understand, but also the most important. Representative evidence is evidence that accurately represents the whole topic, not just a select piece. Another word for representative is typical.
   • Example: Let’s say I want to prove that Americans are altruistic, and to prove it I point to Bill Gates. He gave away billions last year! Does this prove my point? Is Gates a typical American? No—he has tons of money to give away, and he has made that a special goal for himself. Therefore, he does not represent Americans in general. He is not the best example. A much better example would be an ordinary working person who makes an average income, because such a person is more likely to represent a typical American.

   Researchers go to a lot of trouble to make sure their evidence is representative. For example, in surveys and polls, they work hard to get a random sample of people to talk to. Why? Because picking people at random means you get a typical or representative example. You don’t accidentally limit yourself to members of a certain income group, or ethnicity, or gender, or occupation, or some other category that might distort your results.

Steps to analyze and evaluate evidence

Analyze

1. Identify the point the author is trying to prove.
2. Identify the evidence—specific facts, data, statistics, examples, or other information that supports that point.
3. Identify the most important pieces of evidence for that point.

Evaluate

4. For each piece of evidence, ask the following questions:
   1. Is it sufficient?
   2. Is it relevant?
   3. Is it representative?

The more questions you answer “Yes” to, the better the quality of the evidence.

Of course, sometimes you won’t be able to tell if the evidence is sufficient or representative (you can usually tell if it is relevant). In those cases, you have to use your best judgment, based on whatever information you have and on your overall sense of the author’s credibility. Remember that all research is an uncertain process. You frequently have to make judgments based on incomplete information. Part of the process of learning is developing your skill at spotting reliable and unreliable evidence, even without all the information that you need. Practice makes perfect!

A method for analyzing and evaluating evidence

Here’s a method I use sometimes that you might find helpful. It might sound a bit laborious, but it actually helps the process of evaluation and it goes pretty quick. It’s a good way to keep your thinking organized.

• After I’ve done a paragraph outline, I make a table showing each of the major points of the article. I just label them I, II, III, IV and so on for easy reference.
• Under each point, I list what I think are some of the key pieces of evidence—just a word or phrase to help me remember it. (For example: “Lutz” to refer to evidence from another author, named Lutz, mentioned in the article.) I don’t try to list all of them, just some of the most important ones. I label these as well (A, B, C, etc.). I also mark which paragraph they came from, so I can find it again easily. At this stage I might have 7 or 8 separate items listed under each main point.
• I underline the most important pieces of evidence from the list I’ve already made. In other words, I select even fewer pieces from my list—say, 4 or 5. (Your numbers may vary.)

Here’s what the results look like:

Evidence Analysis
Main Point I	Main Point II	Main Point III	Main Point IV
A: 1st piece of evidence (para 1)	These columns would list key pieces of evidence for the other main points
B: 2nd piece of evidence (para 4)	.	.	.
C: 3rd piece of evidence (para 4)	.	.	.
D: 4th piece of evidence (para 5)	.	.	.
E: 5th piece of evidence (para 6)	.	.	.
F: 6th piece of evidence (para 6)	.	.	.
G: 7th piece of evidence (para 6)	.	.	.
H: 8th piece of evidence (para 8)	.	.	.

• Now I make a new table. Down the side I list these pieces of evidence, using their letter labels as abbreviations. Across the top I create a row labeled Sufficient, Relevant, Representative.
• In each row (for each piece of evidence), I mark “Y” or “N” to show whether I think it is sufficient, relevant or representative. Or I put a question mark if I’m not sure.

Evidence Evaluation
Section I Evidence	Suff	Rel	Rep
B	N	Y	Y
C	Y	Y	Y
E	Y	?	Y
F	Y?	Y	Y
G	N	?	?

This example shows the evaluation of Section I. If I were doing the whole article I would make a table for each of the other sections.

Once I’m done, I have a quick guide to whether I find the evidence convincing or not, as well as a detailed analysis of some of the key pieces of evidence. I can use this as an outline for the evidence section of my Critique paper.

Note that these two tables correspond directly to the grading criteria for the evidence portion of the Critique Paper:

• Evidence Analysis (EA) and
• Evidence Evaluation (EE).

In other words, the method I am showing you here is designed to help you make your paper do exactly what the instructions call for. Once you have picked out the important evidence and decided if it is sufficient, relevant and representative, you can just write up your findings in paragraph form and that portion of the paper will be done.