67 For Instructors: Creating Evidence-Based Claims

When we think about boiling down argumentation in composition to its most essential form, two key elements will usually pop up: claims and evidence. Your claim is similar to your thesis in that it can be your central argument and position, it can be the main idea/s present within your writing, it can reveal why you think your topic is interesting or important, what you think your topic reveals about something, and why you think your topic matters not only to yourself but to your audience. Your claim taps into what you are attempting to argue and/or what you’re going to be analyzing and exploring.

Evidence is naturally connected to a claim because your evidence is used to support, flesh out, and uphold that stance. Now most students might see this as quite obvious, but there are so many different layers to why and how evidence can be helpful and needed in what you create in a composition course.

Evidence establishes your credibility, it shows that you are not alone in having these thoughts about the topic you’re discussing or writing about, and thus lends credibility and legitimacy to the thing you are trying to prove/explore. Taking examples from a variety of sources helps to highlight the research and observations you engaged in showing off your newfound expertise, showing an academic approach, and showing that you spent time with your topic. Within that space, evidence usually isn’t just an off-the-cuff research response. Rather it comes from you learning and thinking about your topic and gaining information through different avenues, so that you have some authority to discuss what you’re talking about. It helps show an engagement with the ongoing conversation surrounding your topic; the other voices who have come before you to say something important about what you are discussing.

Evidence helps you move from having a casual opinion on something to a more actualized and layered consideration and understanding of a topic. That layering ties into the fact that evidence helps support more fully what you’re discussing, it can provide pertinent examples, provide specific and contextual details, and shows your audience exactly what you mean and why. It helps curb generalization and vagueness. When we think about avoiding generalization and adding detail and examples to our writing, evidence can help out with that. If you say “This is a widespread issue that needs to be fixed,” evidence can provide examples of what you mean when you say it’s a problem, and why is it an issue that should be stopped. You can give your readers tangible examples of what you mean, and give specific and contextual details to help flesh out what you are talking about. Evidence can help to answer for both you and your audience:

• What has made your topic become what it is?
• What was it like in the past as compared to what it is now? What led to that point?
• The big So What Question: Why is it interesting? Why should anyone care? Why is this information important? Why does it matter?
• What do the data, the facts, the statistics, and the information reveal or imply about the topic? What are the consequences of these implications?
• How is this idea related to my thesis? What connections exist between them? Does it support my thesis? If so, how does it do that?
• What examples do I have that illustrate this point?
• What are the conversations that others have about my topic, about my claim, about my point of view?

Evidence is also related to the three rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos. If you’ll recall, ethos is based on character and authority, pathos is based on emotion, belief, and values, and logos is based on making a clear and reasonable case. You can utilize all these appeals in your writing and one of the best ways to do so is by finding research that taps into those descriptions.

But don’t forget about feelings in your evidence, both your own and your audience’s. What type of bodily reaction will your research elicit? Do you want your audience to feel and see your credibility or the credibility of your evidence? Do you want your audience to see and recognize and follow your line of thinking by providing them with content and evidence that is rational, sensible, and logically based? Do you want them to feel a certain emotion…sadness, anger, frustration, joy, or amusement? Do you want to call your audience into action? Do you want them to feel like they learned something?

Connectedly, How do you feel about your own engagement with evidence? What thoughts or feelings did you have when reading or listening to or watching your pieces of research? It can sometimes be highly effective for yourself and your audience to identify and understand the situation, feelings, or activities being described and depicted. Our senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and intuition can be sources of information and evidence and help us to convince, connect with, and inform our audiences.

Contextualizing your Evidence:

After you introduce evidence into your writing, you must say why and how this evidence supports your argument. In other words, you have to explain the significance of the evidence and its function in your paper. What turns “a fact or piece of information into evidence is the connection it has with a larger claim or argument: evidence is always evidence for or against something, and you have to make that link clear” (“Evidence”).

Try incorporating analytical, “writerly” cue words such as reveals, implies, highlights, shows, symbolizes, proves, illustrates, signifies, epitomizes, illuminates, etc. For example:

• The arguments presented in this article reveal that…
• This research study proves that…
• This example illustrates the problem with…

Moreover, utilize terminology such as interesting, significant, controversial, strange, revealing, imperative, vital, enlightening, curious, thought-provoking, etc. This will help you analyze your articles beyond just summarizing them. This will also help you in trying to explain why your evidence matters and/or help to prove your claim/s. For example:

• These statistics and arguments are imperative in understanding this topic because…
• This point is interesting because it reveals how…
• This stance might be considered controversial because…
• This story helps to illuminate the reality of…

Practice Activity 

Let’s dive into a more specific example by looking at three sections of a student’s Profile of a Place essay (the bolded sections help highlight the claim and the piece of evidence that supports/proves that claim)

The Old Main Building at Texas Woman’s University (TWU), originally called The Girls Industrial College, was the first building constructed on the campus. It was built in 1903, and for many years, it was the only building that was used for educational purposes (Smith). It was founded in order for women to access a variety of programs that were not offered before the building was built, so the Old Main Building played an important role in the availability of higher education for women in the North Texas area. As claimed by the Denton County Historical Markers, the first classes on campus began on September 23, 1903, including 186 students and 14 faculty members (“The First Building of Texas Woman’s University”). Although in the present there are other buildings meeting the educational programs and needs previously provided in the Old Main Building, it feels great to look back at how so many students have been successful learning within the walls of this very old building.

…

Upon entering the building, the next aspect I noticed was the Women’s Leadership Hall, which is located on the first floor and truly shows the significance of women earning their access to higher education. There is a poster of Minnie Fisher Cunningham present when you enter through the main entrance. She was one of the women who fought for women’s right to vote. She first worked as a pharmacist but realized that the men were getting paid twice as much as she was. Cunningham knew she had to fight for the rights of women (“Texas Originals”). It is so inspirational to see a poster of her as a reminder that we need to be doing our best to help ourselves as well as for the good of others surrounding us.

…

I feel proud to be a part of TWU, especially after going into this first building on campus. As pioneers, it helps us to be more confident and to believe that someday we might be pioneers in the fields we decide to work in. I walked around the building, to ask how the students who utilize this building on a daily basis interact with this space and to see how they felt about studying here. One of the students whom I spoke with, who is majoring in fashion design, described them being here as feeling “empowered” (Tammy). Another student I interviewed said that “coming here makes me feel more proud” (Mirali). Being a part of this community and being able to learn at the first building at TWU provides a “strong” connection (Tammy) to our roots and the history of women earning rights for equality.

Observations to Consider:

• Notice how when the student makes a claim, for example: How the “Women’s Leadership Hall…truly shows the significance of women earning their access to higher education. They then prove and explore that claim with evidence: the presentation of the poster and story of Minnie Fisher.
• Notice how when the student needs to provide contextual, helpful background information they do so with evidence. For example, setting up how the Old Main Building was the first building constructed on the campus and providing specific dates, “1903,” specific details how many students and faculty members there were, and context: “for many years, it was the only building that was used for educational purposes,”
• Notice how the student calls forth how the building makes them and others feel, which helps to prove their overall claim of how important and integral the Old Main Building is for TWU and learning. For example, the claim is that the building helps pioneers “be more confident and to believe that someday we might be pioneers in the fields we decide to work in.” They then prove that claim with student interviews showing how the building makes them feel “empowered” and “proud.”

Questions to Consider:

• How does the student use outside sources, observations, and interviews to help enhance and support their claims?
• Do you think these pieces of evidence help flesh out and prove the points on display? Why or why not?

Helpful Video to Watch:

• How To Write An Essay: Evidence and Citation

A Note on Sources as Evidence:

For the most part, evidence is usually acquired through research and acquiring and consuming the writings, creations, words, data, and information of others to

Professional, academic sources are those that have been deemed to have authority on the subject that they are talking about. You need to make sure your outside sources are credible and that the person who authored/created them is credible as well. That the person or persons or organization that created the source is a professional in the subject that they are writing about, has done the research themselves, uses and quote and properly cite other outside sources, relies on logic and facts and statistics and analysis and critical thinking, and carries a professional and open-minded tone. That tone includes acknowledging one’s bias, or even admitting that their position isn’t the end all be all and that uncertainty and grey areas can exist. Library databases are usually seen as the most valid way of finding credible information due to the fact that in order to be published in academic journals you have to have proper credentials and the information that is being presented has been through a rigorous screening and revision process. Many instructors only want their students to use database sources because they deem it the only way to really find valid sources. However, there are many different ways to find authoritative sources that move beyond using library databases (though it is always a nice place to start or come back to). These include accredited newspapers, magazines, professional organizations, some TedTalks, some podcasts, interviewing people who are either an expert on your topic or are directly impacted and involved in it, some YouTube or video resources, some documentaries, academics, and experts blogging, etc.  But again, you should never take anything you read (even from legitimate news sources) at face value and must always be willing to look at your sources analytically and investigative-ally.

Here is a breakdown of scholarly vs popular sources: