In literature By Ivanna Marrugo
Textual evidence
Textual evidence are specific quotations and examples from a text that directly relate to your point, is essential for supporting your argument, particularly in academic writing.
What is a textual evidence?
- Make sure to explain how the evidence you use supports your interpretation
- Introduce the quotation, in a way that makes reader focus on what you want them to see.
Use it correctly
There are three main ways to integrate evidence from sources into your writing: quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
3 Methods
- Integrating quotations provides direct evidence from reliable sources to support your argument. - Using the words of credible sources conveys your credibility by showing you have done research into the area you are writing about and consulted relevant and authoritative sources. - Selecting effective quotations illustrates that you can extract the important aspects of the information and use them effectively in your own argument.
INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS
If the language of the original source uses the best possible phrasing or imagery, and no paraphrase or summary could be as effective; or If the use of language in the quotation is itself the focus of your analysis (e.g., if you are analyzing the author’s use of a particular phrasing, imagery, metaphor, or rhetorical strategy).
When should you use quotations
“John thinks that this brother [Jeff] will be a great dad,” said Andrew. Use quotation marks if the word or words are meant to imply irony or sarcasm. Example: The mayor told the people of his town that he “cares” about their well-being. Use quotation marks to highlight certain words within a sentence.
- Paraphrase and summary differ in that paraphrases focuses on a smaller, specific section of text that when paraphrased may be close to the length of the original.
- Using these forms of integration demonstrates your understanding of the source, because rephrasing requires a good grasp of the core ideas
Integrating Phrases and Summaries
- Instead of using direct quotations, you can paraphrase and summarize evidence to integrate it into your argument more succinctly.
When choosing a signal verb, try to indicate the author’s rhetorical purpose: what is the author doing in the quoted passage? Is the author describing something? Explaining something? Arguing? Giving examples? Estimating? Recommending? Warning? Urging?
Be sure the verb you choose accurately represents the intention of the source text
USING SIGNALS VERBS
It would be incorrect to write the following: The author persuades that …x The writers convince that … x The speaker expressed that …x He analyzes that …x She informs that … x They described that …x I support that … x
3 Types of textual evidence
Facts, Graphs, Statistics
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