"Prove it!" is something you often hear in an argument or discussion, especially when the other person is skeptical of what you're saying. In everyday conversations, it's not unreasonable for people to want proof that backs up our opinions.
The same is true in a persuasive essay. Good arguments, whether written or spoken, provide evidence up front that supports the assertions being made.
For your persuasive essay, you will look at the original research documents and find evidence that supports each of your reasons. The evidence you are looking for should be in the form of facts, statistics, expert opinions, and the results of studies.
Before you dig into the research, though, learn the how, what, and where of integrating evidence into your paper. Click each question in the table below and study the answer.
| How much evidence should I include? | You should have at least three pieces of evidence for each reason. |
| Where should I include the evidence that I find? | Recall that you are finding evidence to support each of your reasons (most likely you will have three reasons). Therefore, your evidence should be included in the paragraph for the reason it supports. |
| How should I include the majority of my evidence? | Most of your evidence should be in the form of paraphrasing. This is when you rewrite someone's words using your own words. |
| How should I include other evidence? | Sometimes a statement in a research document states a point so well that you will want to include those exact words in your paper. In this case, you can use a direct quote from the article. In these instances, the exact words will need to be placed in quotation marks. |
| How should I give credit to the authors when I paraphrase or quote them? | To let your audience know that you are incorporating other people's ideas and words into your paper, include the name of the author and the title of the document in the same sentence (or the one before) as the quoted and/or paraphrased text. Sometimes documents will quote other people. If you are using these quotes, be sure to also include the person's name who is actually speaking. |
Use the link to the set of research documents below to find evidence for each of your reasons. Then revise your rough draft to include this information. Save a version of this rough draft and turn it in with your final essay.
