Selecting Evidence and Controlling Composition: Study Guide (English Literature 3.8)

Choosing evidence is part of the argument

In Topic 3.7 you learned that commentary connects evidence to claims. This topic is about the step before that: choosing the evidence, and the step after: writing it up so that the reader can follow you.

Writers use evidence strategically and purposefully. Two tests apply.

• Relevant: the detail bears directly on this claim, not only on the text in general.
• Sufficient: its quantity and quality together give apt support for the line of reasoning.

Evidence is effective when your commentary explains its logical relationship to the claim. A strong detail with no commentary is wasted; a weak detail with excellent commentary cannot carry the claim.

Six purposes for evidence

A piece of evidence can be used to do different jobs. Naming the job helps you choose it and write about it.

Purpose	What it does	Example of use
Illustrate	Shows the claim at work	A line that displays the character’s attitude
Clarify	Makes a point precise	A line that defines what a word in your claim means in this text
Exemplify	Gives a representative example	One instance of a pattern
Associate	Links two ideas or images	A phrase that ties one idea to another
Amplify	Builds on or intensifies a point	A second detail that raises the stakes
Qualify	Limits or complicates a claim	A detail that shows the claim is not the whole truth

A paragraph that uses two or three different purposes is usually stronger than one that repeats a single kind of detail.

Worked example 1: selecting and using evidence (public-domain play)

Claim: In Act 1, Scene 7 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth redefines courage as consistency between desire and action. (Project Gutenberg text.)

Step 1: Gather candidates.

Candidate	Text
(a)	“Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dress’d yourself?”
(b)	“Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valour / As thou art in desire?”
(c)	“When you durst do it, then you were a man”
(d)	“Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’”
(e)	“He has almost supp’d.” (her first line in the scene)
(f)	Macbeth: “I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none.”

Step 2: Test relevance. (e) is about the dinner and has no bearing on courage. (a) to (d) each relate to courage, and (f) is Macbeth’s counter-definition, so it bears on the claim by contrast.

Step 3: Assign purposes.

• (b) illustrates the claim: it states the test directly (“To be the same in thine own act and valour / As thou art in desire”).
• (c) clarifies what she means by “a man”: the person who “durst do it”.
• (d) exemplifies the failure she describes, using the image of “I dare not” waiting upon “I would”.
• (a) associates his resolve with drunkenness and with clothing (“dress’d yourself”), so that his earlier hope seems a costume or a drunkenness he has slept off.
• (f) qualifies the claim: Macbeth has his own definition of manliness, so her definition is contested, not universal.

Step 4: Select. For one paragraph, choose (b), (c) and (f): an illustration, a clarification and a qualification. Add (d) only if the paragraph needs another example.

Step 5: Write with commentary.

In Act 1, Scene 7, Lady Macbeth redefines courage as consistency between desire and action. She asks “Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valour / As thou art in desire?”, which makes bravery a matter of matching what one wants with what one does. She sharpens the point by claiming that “When you durst do it, then you were a man”, so that manliness is measured by daring and not by restraint. Macbeth resists this definition with “I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none”, and the contrast shows that her view of courage is a choice she imposes, not a settled truth, which makes the scene a contest over what courage means.

Step 6: Check. The paragraph uses three pieces of evidence for three purposes, each followed by commentary. The qualification strengthens the thesis by showing the scene as a contest of definitions.

Composition: control of the sentence

Grammar and mechanics that follow established conventions allow writers to communicate their interpretation clearly. That means editing is part of analysis. Common sentence-level problems to check:

Problem	Example	Edited
Comma splice	“Dolores opens the door, the heat meets her.”	“Dolores opens the door, and the heat meets her.”
Fragment	“Because the notebook is open.”	“Because the notebook is open, the reader sees that his work was interrupted.”
Tense shift	“The narrator describes the room and then showed her face.”	“The narrator describes the room and then shows her face.”
Subject-verb agreement	“The details of the room shows neglect.”	“The details of the room show neglect.”
Its / it’s	“Its a small detail.”	“It is a small detail.”
Pronoun reference	“Dolores spoke to her mother after she left.”	“After her mother left, Dolores spoke to her.”
Quotation not fitting the sentence	“Dolores. ‘Found the secateurs.’”	“Dolores ‘found the secateurs, clean and sharp’.”
Vague wording	“This shows a lot about her.”	“This shows that she prefers action to speech.”

Quoting accurately and smoothly

• Copy exactly, including capital letters and spelling.
• Cut to the words you will discuss. Use an ellipsis (…) when you leave out words in the middle.
• Fit the quotation to your grammar. Use square brackets for a necessary change that keeps the sense: the text says “I never knew myself”, and your sentence may say that Elizabeth “never knew [her]self”.
• Show a line break in verse or drama with a slash.
• Use the present tense for what the text does.

Worked example 2: editing for clarity (original draft, written by Marlbridge)

Draft:

In the greenhouse scene Dolores don’t want to touch the notebook. She leaves it, where he left it, the page stop in the middle of a column which show his life was interrupted. Its a small detail but it matter.

Step 1: Read for meaning. The claim is that the notebook’s unfinished column shows his life was interrupted, and that this small detail matters.

Step 2: Mark the errors.

Error	Why it obscures meaning
“Dolores don’t want”	Agreement (“doesn’t” or “does not”)
“She leaves it, where he left it, the page stop…”	Misplaced comma and a comma splice; “stop” does not agree
“which show”	Agreement; the subject of “show” is the page stopping
“Its a small detail but it matter”	“Its” for “It is”; missing comma before “but”; “matter” does not agree
“This is a small detail” is vague	The paragraph needs the claim in clearer words

Step 3: Edit.

In the greenhouse scene Dolores does not want to touch the notebook. She leaves it where he left it. The page stops in the middle of a column, which shows that his life was interrupted. It is a small detail, but it matters because it makes his absence visible without a word.

Step 4: Check. The meaning is the same, but the reader can now follow it without stopping to guess. The last clause, “because it makes his absence visible without a word”, adds the so-what that the draft left out.

Strong and weak use of evidence

Weak	Why it is weak	Stronger
A long block quotation of the whole speech	Hides the words that matter	A short phrase embedded in a sentence, with commentary
Three details that all say the same thing	Repetition, not support	Two details of different kinds, and one that qualifies
A quotation chosen because it is striking	May not be relevant	A quotation chosen because it bears on the claim
Editing only at the end	Errors remain, and revision is rushed	A short edit of each paragraph as you finish it

Common misconceptions

• “More quotations mean a better essay.” Relevance, variety and commentary matter more than number.
• “Evidence that complicates my claim should be left out.” Relevant complications, handled well, strengthen an argument.
• “Grammar is separate from analysis.” An unclear sentence can hide a good idea.
• “A quotation is correct if the meaning is close.” Quote exactly or paraphrase openly.
• “I must decide my thesis before I choose any evidence.” Interpretation is recursive. Evidence can lead to a line of reasoning, and a line of reasoning can send you back for more evidence.
• “Editing means changing my ideas.” Editing for clarity leaves the ideas as they are and removes what blocks them.

Where this leads

Try the practice questions, then use the checklist and revision notes. This topic closes Unit 3. Take the Unit 3 diagnostic and then the Unit 3 review. For the thesis and commentary skills this topic supports, see From claim-and-evidence paragraph to defensible thesis and Commentary and the line of reasoning.