Claims and Evidence: Writing
What to master
Strong writing pairs a precise claim with well-chosen evidence and explicit commentary explaining how the evidence supports the claim. Use a range of evidence types-facts, examples, expert testimony, personal experience-selected for the audience. Always attribute sources and represent them accurately.
Structure body paragraphs as claim → evidence → reasoning (warrant) → link. The reasoning sentence is where most points are earned or lost; do not let evidence sit unexplained.
Traps
- Evidence dump: stacking quotations without commentary.
- Vague claims ("society benefits") that cannot be supported.
- Misattribution or distortion of a source's position.
- Overgeneralizing from a single example.
- Ignoring the strongest counterevidence, which undermines ethos.
Worked example / rule of thumb
Weak: "Many students struggle with sleep. A study found 70% of teens are sleep-deprived. This is bad." Strong: "Later start times could improve academic performance. A national survey found roughly seven in ten high schoolers report insufficient sleep, and sleep researchers link chronic deficits to impaired memory consolidation-suggesting that shifting start times could translate into measurable learning gains." The second names the claim, supplies attributed evidence, and states the warrant.
Rule of thumb: every piece of evidence gets a "because" sentence. If you cannot write one, the evidence does not belong.