Evidence and Counter-evidence

1. What is evidence?

Evidence is facts, opinions, anecdotes, illustrations and clarifying examples that support your thesis statement.

Each item of evidence must support your thesis statement.

a. Facts are most frequently used as evidence in academic essays. They may include names, dates, events and other specific pieces of information such as statistics gathered from research.

b. Authoritative opinions can also be used as evidence to support your argument. They may include the opinions of authorities in the field, or your own opinion as long as it is grounded in solid fact.

c. Anecdotes, or short stories, can make an essay more interesting, and make an argument easier to understand.

2. Rules of evidence

In academic writing, there are some basic rules that should be followed when using evidence

a. Each fact must be accurate

i. Make sure you have not made an error in copying down a quote or piece of information, particularly dates, numbers and names of people

ii. Treat statistics with caution – make sure you understand how the statistics were gathered and what they refer to.

iii. Do not use quotes out of context. A quote must reflect the original meaning that the author intended. You cannot change a quote to suit your own purposes!

b. Each fact must be authoritative

i. Each piece of information should come from a reliable source.

ii. If you use information from a biased source, you must acknowledge this, and it will weaken your evidence.

iii. Avoid material that is very old or out of date. Try to find the latest information. Make sure the information has not been revised or changed by later research.

c. Each fact must be relevant

i. Do not use facts or issues that are not relevant to your argument.

d. The number of facts must be adequate to prove your point

i. The number of facts, or amount of evidence you need depends on the argument. In general, the more generally accepted your point is, the fewer facts you need to convince people.

ii. Beware of using too much evidence. The reader may get lost in too much detail.

e. The facts should be arranged in a way that best proves your point

f. Do NOT manipulate your evidence to make it support your thesis

i. Do not overlook significant factors, individuals or events

ii. Do not ignore evidence that goes against your thesis

3. Some common problems with evidence

a. Not enough instances to prove a point

b. Don’t use famous names as sole proof of a point

c. Don’t praise or blame the people who state some evidence – and ignore the idea

d. Don’t try to prove something by saying that people always believed in a certain thing

e. Don’t try to prove something by showing that everyone is doing it.

f. Don’t try to prove something by saying the same thing over and over again.

g. Don’t use an unreliable source to support your idea

h. Don’t make a comparison that is weak or untrue

i. Don’t appeal to a person’s unreasonable emotions

j. Don’t draw conclusions that do not naturally follow from the previous information.

k. Don’t generalize – make one fact the source of a broad conclusion

l. Don’t try to show that just because something happened after something else, that the second thing is necessarily the result of the event

m. Don’t state your argument in either-or terms, when more than two possibilities exist.

n. Don’t use a red herring to distract the reader from the argument

The type of evidence that is best will depend to some extent on your topic or subject. While “hard” science usually requires clear statistical evidence based on experiment, philosophy may require the use of logical reasoning, and social science may require the use of considerable anecdotal evidence and quotes from authorities. Consider carefully which kind of evidence you think will be MOST convincing in the case of your topic. If you are not sure, try looking at arguments about the topic that other people have made – what kind of evidence did they use?

4. What to do about counter-evidence

If your topic is truly controversial, there will almost certainly be some evidence which seems to support the other side of the argument. In an academic argument, it is not good to simply ignore the counter-evidence. In fact, you can sometimes use counter-evidence to your own advantage.

a. First, you should try to anticipate any counter-arguments that may exist. If you were going to argue the opposite side, what evidence might you use?

b. Decide whether you will accept the counter-evidence as valid, or reject it. If you accept it as a valid argument, you must explain why it does not affect your overall argument. If you reject the counter-evidence, you must explain why it is mistaken.

c. Do not try to make the counter-evidence look foolish. Treat it with respect, even if you are going to reject it. In this way, you can show the reader that you seriously considered all sides of an argument before deciding which argument was strongest.

d. It is usually better to consider one or two counter-arguments carefully, rather than give a long list without any detail.

e. If you find that the counter-evidence is stronger than your own evidence, you will need to go back and reconsider your thesis statement.