Using Evidence in Writing

 

Expose

After clearly expressing an idea/thesis/argument, connect it to at least one theme. Provide context for the evidence without giving specific examples. Follow a train of thought that ends with the significance of your ideas.

Evidence

Cite the evidence. Provide an explanation (not a summary) of the quotation or key word. Introduce evidence near the beginning of the sentence. Make all evidence part of a sentence. Don’t isolate quotations by leaving them alone between two other sentences.

Explain

Explain the significance of the evidence. Connect the evidence to the thesis paragraph. Connect the evidence to a theme. Use a train of thought to justify how the evidence supports your argument (thesis).

 

Examples

Lady Macbeth wants power, and through her control of Macbeth, tries to achieve her goal without experiencing guilt. When Macbeth—witnessing the blood on his own hands—feels remorse for Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth chastises him: “A little water clears us of this deed. / How easy it is then!” (2.2.66.67). Although her bloody “hands are of [his] colour” (2.2.63) because she has framed the guards, she does not share Macbeth’s intense guilt since she has avoided committing murder herself.

 

In As I Lay Dying, Cash’s acts of devotion reveal that love, a verb more than a noun, is selfless. Before her death, he toiled to make his mother’s life less burdensome, completing Jewel’s chores—“work that pa still thought Jewel was doing and that ma thought Dewey Dell was doing” (119)—without recognition. As Addie dies, Cash labors unceasingly in the rain, “soaked, scrawny, and tireless” (69), to construct a coffin that will provide a fitting burial for his mother. Cash functions without concern for himself and conveys the theme that love involves action instead of words.