Writing a Paragraph With a Claim and Textual Evidence: Study Guide (English Literature 1.5)

What a literary-analysis paragraph is made of

When you analyse a short story, you read closely, notice details, and then make a claim about the text. A paragraph is where you defend one claim. Its two starting components are:

1. a claim that requires defence with evidence from the text, and
2. the evidence itself.

A claim is a statement that needs to be defended. “Ilse keeps a ferry timetable above her desk” is a fact: you can point to it, and nobody needs to be persuaded. “Ilse’s habits show that she cannot accept the end of the ferry” is a claim: a reader might disagree or ask how do you know?, and the text can answer.

Three tests help you tell the difference.

Test	Fact or summary	Claim
Could a reasonable reader disagree or ask “why?”	No	Yes
Does it say what a detail suggests or does?	No, it reports what is there	Yes
Can the text answer the question “how do you know?”	Not needed	Required

The shape of a paragraph

A reliable shape for this unit:

1. Claim. One sentence that states what you think about an aspect of the text (a character’s perspective, a setting’s values, a plot choice, a narrator’s limits).
2. Evidence. Two or three specific details or short quotations that bear on the claim.
3. Link. A sentence or two that says how the evidence supports the claim. This is the beginning of commentary, which Unit 3 develops fully.

Choosing evidence

Evidence is relevant when it bears on your claim, specific when it is a detail the reader can find, and sufficient when, taken together, it gives apt support. Choose evidence by asking:

• Does this detail show what I say it shows? If you need a long explanation to make it fit, it is the wrong detail.
• Is it specific? A phrase, an action, an object or a line of speech, not “throughout the story”.
• Do I have different kinds of evidence? One action and one line of dialogue make a stronger case than two actions of the same kind.
• Is it enough? Usually two or three well-chosen details.

Quoting accurately and smoothly

• Quote exactly. Copy words, spelling and punctuation as they are in the text.
• Quote briefly. Use only the words you will discuss.
• Embed. Build the quotation into your own sentence so that the grammar works: Ilse “stood for the full length of the old crossing”, not Ilse. “Stood for the full length of the old crossing.”
• Use the present tense for what the text does: “the narrator describes”, “the detail suggests”.
• Do not change meaning. If you trim a quotation, keep the sense of the original.

Worked example 1: building a paragraph from a public-domain text

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) opens with the narrator’s words: “True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” A few lines later he says: “The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them.”

Step 1: Read for what the details suggest. The narrator says he is “nervous” three times over (“very, very dreadfully”) and then asks why anyone would call him “mad”. He is answering an accusation nobody in the text has yet made. The second line recasts his “disease” as a gift (“sharpened my senses”).

Step 2: Decide a claim. The details suggest that he is insisting on his sanity more than a calm person would need to. A claim: Poe’s narrator reveals his anxiety by defending his sanity before anyone has accused him.

Step 3: Choose evidence. Two quotations of different kinds: the opening question, which shows the defensive stance, and the reframing of his “disease” as sharpened senses, which shows how he explains himself.

Step 4: Write and link.

The narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” reveals his anxiety by defending his sanity before anyone has questioned it. He opens with the repeated “very, very dreadfully nervous” and immediately asks “why will you say that I am mad?”, as though an accusation has already been made. He then insists that his “disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them”, turning a sign of illness into a boast. Both statements show a speaker who is arguing for his sanity, which suggests that he fears it is in doubt.

Check against the method. The first sentence is the claim. The second and third supply specific, short, embedded quotations of two different kinds. The final sentence is a link that explains how the evidence supports the claim. The paragraph speaks of “the narrator”, not the author, and uses the present tense.

Worked example 2: revising a weak paragraph (original, written by Marlbridge)

Recall Mr. Alder from Topic 1.1, who counts the till twice, denies a receipt, says “Everything is only something” and turns the sign early. A student draft reads:

Mr. Alder is a bad shopkeeper. He counts the till and he talks to the girl. There is a receipt and he says the date is wrong. He turns the sign. This shows he is not nice.

Step 1: Diagnose.

Sentence	Problem
“Mr. Alder is a bad shopkeeper.”	A label with no defined meaning; “bad” at what?
“He counts the till and he talks to the girl.”	Summary, and misses the key detail (the extra count)
“There is a receipt and he says the date is wrong.”	Summary; the evidence is not quoted and has no point
“He turns the sign.”	Fragment of events with no detail that matters (“four minutes early”)
“This shows he is not nice.”	A vague conclusion that does not link to the evidence

Step 2: Choose a claim that needs defence. Mr. Alder treats a small complaint as a threat to be managed instead of a request to be answered.

Step 3: Pick specific evidence of different kinds. An action (he “counted the till twice, which was one more time than the coins required”), a line of speech (“Everything is only something”) and a timed act (turns the sign “four minutes early”).

Step 4: Write the revision.

Mr. Alder treats a small complaint as a threat to be managed, not a request to be answered. He rejects the customer’s receipt by claiming that the warranty ended in March, and answers her plea that “It’s only a tin” with the evasive “Everything is only something”. Then he turns the sign to CLOSED “four minutes early”, ending the encounter before she can say more. Each response closes the conversation instead of resolving the problem, which suggests that his priority is control of the situation, not service.

Step 5: Check. The claim names what Mr. Alder does and how the text shows it. Three quotations of different kinds are embedded. The last sentence links them: each response “closes the conversation”. The paragraph is shorter than a plot summary and says more.

A self-assessment table

Use it on any paragraph you write.

Question	Yes / partly / no
Does the first sentence state a claim that could be disputed?
Is each piece of evidence a specific detail from the text?
Are quotations exact, short and embedded?
Do the details point in the same direction as the claim?
Does a link sentence explain how the evidence supports the claim?
Is the paragraph in the present tense and about “the narrator”, “the character”?

Common misconceptions

• “A fact is a good claim.” A fact needs no defence. A claim says what something suggests or does.
• “More quotations means a stronger paragraph.” Evidence must be relevant and sufficient. Three exact, well-chosen details beat a long quoted block.
• “A quotation proves itself.” A quotation sits there until you say how it supports the claim.
• “I should retell the story first.” Retelling the plot wastes time. Begin with the claim and use only the details you need.
• “A claim must use special words.” A claim should be clear, specific and defensible. Plain words are better than inflated ones.
• “I can improve a quotation by tidying it.” Do not change a quotation. Cut it, quote less, or paraphrase and attribute.

Where this leads

Try the practice questions, then use the checklist and revision notes. This topic closes Unit 1. Take the Unit 1 diagnostic and then the Unit 1 review. In Unit 3 the paragraph grows into a thesis, commentary and line of reasoning: see From claim-and-evidence paragraph to defensible thesis.