Making & Supporting a Claim with Evidence

The evidence needed to support your claim can come from a variety of sources.  Some sources will be considered more valuable than others so evaluating the quality and reliability of the information you have is very important. 

For example:

• Use primary information from direct sources. Taking information from a secondary news source that is reporting on the results of the research study is often considered less reliable than taking the information directly from the research study itself. 
• Consider the author and publication source of the information. What are their credentials? What is their expertise on the topic? Is the source cited by other authors?
• Use data and statistics to support your claim.
• Gather data yourself through interviews and conducting primary research.
• Make sure your sources have shared where and how they gathered their information and data from: look at the sources they cite or their research methods.
• Consider searching for peer-reviewed research articles

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.

Answering these questions may help you explain how your evidence is related to your overall argument.

1. OK, I’ve just stated this point, but so what? Why is it interesting? Why should anyone care?
2. What does this information imply?
3. What are the consequences of thinking this way or looking at a problem this way?
4. I’ve just described what something is like or how I see it, but why is it like that?
5. I’ve just said that something happens—so how does it happen? How does it come to be the way it is?
6. Why is this information important? Why does it matter?
7. 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?
8. Can I give an example to illustrate this point?

From the Writing Center at  University of NC Chapel Hill

If you're unsure if you need more evidence, making a Reverse Outline can help.

What is a reverse outline? Why is it helpful?

• You create a reverse outline after your essay has been written.

• The reverse outline helps you to analyze what you’ve already written, looking for repetitions, or points that might not be in the most effective order.

• The reverse outline shows the “big picture” of the paper.

How do I create a reverse outline?

▪ Write or type a number next to each of your paragraphs throughout the whole paper.

▪ For paragraph 1, write #1 on the first line of a separate sheet of paper, and list the main point(s) of that paragraph (a phrase or short sentence)

▪ Continue this process until you reach the end of the paper.

Example:

Essay’s Claim/Thesis: Deinstitutionalizing mental patients in the late twentieth- century led to transforming the “hobo” to the “homeless person.”

▪ 1: Introduction

▪ 2: The image of the hobo before World War II

▪ 3: The image of the homeless person today

▪ 4: The effects of deinstitutionalization

▪ 5: A history of deinstitutionalization

▪ 6: A history of the depression; how the depression is both different and similar to the time period of deinstitutionalization; incorrect beliefs about the causes and timeframe of deinstitutionalization

▪ 7: A history of deinstitutionalization

▪ 8: The Reagan administration’s policies on deinstitutionalization

▪ 9: The realities of life as a “homeless person” contrasted to the romantic notions of “riding the rails.”

▪ 10: Conclusion

 

Reverse Outline Prompt:

How do I analyze the reverse outline to help me re-organize my essay?

First, ask the following questions:

1. Does each paragraph fit in with your overall argument?
2. Is there a theme or point that repeats throughout the paper? If so, could you move those points closer together?
3. Now that you’ve labeled each paragraph, are there points that are missing from your argument that you’d like to add? Are there points that don’t seem connected to your argument that you might cut?

Then, based on your answers to the above questions, reorganize the paragraphs and then revise the whole essay draft to make sure that you’ve clarified transitions between points.

Reverse Outline