{"id":489,"date":"2017-11-10T15:37:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T15:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/?post_type=chapter&p=489"},"modified":"2018-02-28T00:22:57","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T00:22:57","slug":"failures-in-evidence-when-even-lots-of-quotes-cant-save-an-argument","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/chapter\/failures-in-evidence-when-even-lots-of-quotes-cant-save-an-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Failures in Evidence: When Even “Lots of Quotes” Can’t Save an Argument"},"content":{"raw":"In a strong argument, the author's own claim and reasoning drive the argument, and then credible, valid evidence is there to support that reasoning. Arguments are interactions between author and audience - the author wants to persuade the audience to accept his or her claim.\r\n\r\nThus, there is a question and answer that is implicit in the author-audience relationship with argument -\r\n\r\nAn author's claim<\/span> <\/strong>should answer the question, \"What are you, the author, trying to get me, the audience, to think about the topic?<\/strong>\"\r\n\r\nAn author's reasons<\/strong> <\/span>should answer the question, \"What reasoning supports supports your claim?\"<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAn author's evidence<\/strong> <\/span>should answer the question, \"How can you, author,\u00a0 show me, the reader, that your reasoning is valid?\"<\/strong>\r\n\r\nClaims can be easy to come up with. Even reasons can be fairly easy to come up with. But for those reasons<\/strong> <\/span>to be valid, for them to be accepted by a reader, they must be supported and developed with solid, credible, sufficient, accurate, relevant and compelling evidence.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLet's look at failures in evidence, which is essentially when a reader says, \"I do not accept your evidence\"<\/strong><\/span>. Here is why that might happen:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Evidence is inaccurate<\/em>: You've misread information or misquoted; you are not interpreting the quoted material in an accurate manner<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Evidence is insufficient<\/em>: You are using just a small piece of evidence to support your reasoning. You need more. You probably have a \"generalization\" fallacy.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Evidence is unrelated to the reason<\/em>: Your evidence does not clearly or directly relate to the point that you are trying to make.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Evidence is incomplete or too narrowly chosen<\/em>: You have \"cherry picked\" certain examples or pieces of information to the exclusion of others, so while yo do have evidence to support your point, you are also neglecting a lot of other information\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Evidence is old<\/em>: The information that you are citing is not relevant anymore. It is outdated!<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Evidence does not come from an\u00a0authoritative source<\/em>: The source of your evidence is not credible; the person being cited is not an authority on the topic<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nOne of the bigger issues with evidence is not so much with the evidence itself, but with the way that you integrate it into the paper. A reader needs to understand clearly how and why the evidence you chose relates to the point that you are making.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhenever you integrate evidence into your papers, you it is important to answer the question \"How does this evidence support the point that you are making?\"<\/strong><\/span> -- never assume that the reader sees what you see in evidence. Always make it as clear as possible how the evidence supports the reason.\u00a0<\/strong>","rendered":"

    In a strong argument, the author’s own claim and reasoning drive the argument, and then credible, valid evidence is there to support that reasoning. Arguments are interactions between author and audience – the author wants to persuade the audience to accept his or her claim.<\/p>\n

    Thus, there is a question and answer that is implicit in the author-audience relationship with argument –<\/p>\n

    An author’s claim<\/span> <\/strong>should answer the question, “What are you, the author, trying to get me, the audience, to think about the topic?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

    An author’s reasons<\/strong> <\/span>should answer the question, “What reasoning supports supports your claim?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

    An author’s evidence<\/strong> <\/span>should answer the question, “How can you, author,\u00a0 show me, the reader, that your reasoning is valid?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Claims can be easy to come up with. Even reasons can be fairly easy to come up with. But for those reasons<\/strong> <\/span>to be valid, for them to be accepted by a reader, they must be supported and developed with solid, credible, sufficient, accurate, relevant and compelling evidence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Let’s look at failures in evidence, which is essentially when a reader says, “I do not accept your evidence”<\/strong><\/span>. Here is why that might happen:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Evidence is inaccurate<\/em>: You’ve misread information or misquoted; you are not interpreting the quoted material in an accurate manner<\/li>\n
    • Evidence is insufficient<\/em>: You are using just a small piece of evidence to support your reasoning. You need more. You probably have a “generalization” fallacy.<\/li>\n
    • Evidence is unrelated to the reason<\/em>: Your evidence does not clearly or directly relate to the point that you are trying to make.\u00a0<\/li>\n
    • Evidence is incomplete or too narrowly chosen<\/em>: You have “cherry picked” certain examples or pieces of information to the exclusion of others, so while yo do have evidence to support your point, you are also neglecting a lot of other information\u00a0<\/li>\n
    • Evidence is old<\/em>: The information that you are citing is not relevant anymore. It is outdated!<\/li>\n
    • Evidence does not come from an\u00a0authoritative source<\/em>: The source of your evidence is not credible; the person being cited is not an authority on the topic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      One of the bigger issues with evidence is not so much with the evidence itself, but with the way that you integrate it into the paper. A reader needs to understand clearly how and why the evidence you chose relates to the point that you are making.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Whenever you integrate evidence into your papers, you it is important to answer the question “How does this evidence support the point that you are making?”<\/strong><\/span> — never assume that the reader sees what you see in evidence. Always make it as clear as possible how the evidence supports the reason.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-489","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":35,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/489\/revisions\/495"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/35"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/489\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/eng-102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}