Evidence, examples and detail
Evidence, examples and detail
This domain tests whether your claims are supported. Evidence includes facts, statistics, quotations, research findings and expert opinion; examples are specific instances; detail is precise information that makes an idea concrete. The co-requisite rewards relevance and explanation, not volume.
Core rules
- Make a clear claim first, then support it. A reader should know what the evidence is proving.
- Choose evidence that is relevant to the purpose and audience, not merely interesting.
- Explain the link: do not drop in a statistic and move on. State what it shows.
- Use detail to replace vague words: “many students” becomes “38 of the 120 students surveyed”.
- Distinguish fact from opinion and avoid inventing evidence.
- For persuasive writing, acknowledge a counterpoint and answer it.
- Keep evidence proportionate: one strong example explained well beats five listed examples.
Worked example
Claim: “The library needs longer opening hours.” Weak support: “Everyone wants it.” Reasoning: “everyone” is unsupported and vague. Stronger: “In a survey of 120 students, 78 said they could not use the library after 5 pm because of work or sport. Extended hours would therefore help the majority who currently miss out.” Reasoning: the claim is supported by a specific survey figure, the reason is explained, and the conclusion is limited to what the evidence shows.
Traps
- Evidence dumping: listing facts without explaining relevance.
- Using a statistic that does not match the claim.
- Replacing argument with anecdote.
- Overgeneralising from one example.
- Fabricating or misquoting evidence.