Celestine Perez
Mrs. Danielson
AP English 11
Period 5
6 October 2008
Chapter 16 What counts as Evidence
• Evidence and the Rhetorical Situation
o People use allkinds of evidence in making and supporting claims
o Quality of evidence- collected, whom, for what purpose.
o To be more persuasive, the evidence should match the time and place in which you make you make the argument.
o You need to become familiar with a particular discipline so that you can get a sense of just what it takes to prove a point or support the claim.
o Note: Evidence may not always travel well from on field to another.
• Firsthand evidence and Research
o Firsthand evidence- comes from your prior knowledge.
o Observation- observing a subject.
o Decide exactly what you want to find out and anticipate what you’re likely to see.
o Use guidelines- Can be found on page 472 (EIAA)
o Interviews- can be used a type of evidence. Follow guidelines 474
o Surveys and Questionaires- Another type of evidence that can be used.
o Basically yes or no answers to some basic questions that will satisfy your subject.
o Guidelines on page 476.
o After finding enough people to complete your survey, produce a clear and readable form.
o Experiments- some arguments may be supported by evidence gathered through experiments.
o The evidence you gather from this informal experiment could provide some concrete support.
o Personal experience- can serve as powerful evidence when it’s appropriate to the subject, to your purpose and to the audience.
• Secondhand Evidence and Research
o Secondhand evidence comes from sources beyond yourself- i.e. books
o Two important distinctions on Library Sources
o Your library’s computers hold important resources that either aren’t available on the Web at all or...