Evidence

“Bring in the evidence” (King Lear 1.3.31)

Readers read arguments with certain expectations.   One of these expectations is that they will find a structure of claims and evidence in your essay.

You already know:  

Each paragraph supports your essay point.  
Each paragraph point is evidence for the essay point.  
Each paragraph supports its paragraph point.  

Within the paragraph, writers make more supporting claims and defend them with evidence, often in the form of a quotation.   Writers do this because readers want to know why they should agree with the essay.

You need to think of each paragraph and each section as guided by an assertion that the reader might contest.   The reader’s reaction to every claim you make is “Prove it!”

As a writer, you might have one of these common reactions:

• “This is accepted common sense wisdom.”   You might decide not to give any evidence, whether you’re writing about Shakespeare or the facts of history.   Thus, you might write “As You Like It is a critique of Elizabethan rural life” followed by no evidence.   Often the reason for this is that you assume the reader has thought about the idea in the same you have already and you don’t think it’s necessary to prove what you think is obvious.
• You might also give too much evidence with little meaning or structure.   We call this a “laundry list.”   Also, you might use a long block quote but give no discussion of that evidence.

But because we always move beyond first reactions to our writing, here is a mantra to say every time you write: “Evidence is rarely self-evident.”

Your reader is thinking:
1) What’s your main claim?
2) Why should I agree with that?
3) How does that reason justify your claim?

You answer with:
1) Assertion
2) Evidence
3) Justification of evidence, discussion of what in the evidence is significant.

How can you do this is in your own paper?   What does this structure of evidence look like?

You claim:   Though defensive of rural life with Touchstone, Corin is opposed to the economic and social conditions in the country.

Your readers ask:   Why should we agree with that?

You offer as a reason:   Corin complains that he must work for another rather than making his own profit and blames the absent landlord for rural problems.

Your readers ask:   What’s your evidence for the reason?

You offer as evidence:   Corin says:

But I am shepherd to another man

And do not shear the fleeces that I graze.

My master is of churlish disposition,

And little recks to find the way to heaven

By doing deeds of hospitality….

By reason of his absence, there is nothing

That you will feed on…(2.4.75-82)

If you have quoted accurately from an accepted text, then readers are not likely to question this evidence as evidence.   They won’t ask you to go another level down: to provide evidence that they should accept this as part of the text of As You Like It.

Readers will continue to ask why they should accept your claim until they get a satisfactory answer.

So, the levels of “why?” stop in one of two ways:

• readers grant the reason and so don’t demand evidence
• readers grant what you’re giving them IS evidence (usually a quotation or a restatement of something from the text)

If you’re worried about whether you provide the appropriate evidence and enough of it, and if you’re worried about whether you discuss that evidence fully enough, there’s one fairly sure way to move in the right direction:   SLOW DOWN and FOCUS.   Make sure your reader only has to think about one thing and give yourself time to adequately address that thing.