Evidence and Reasoning

Writers defend their claims with evidence and/or reasoning. Without those, their claims would be opinions without grounding in facts or logic.

Developing and Explaining Proof

As you read in Assignment 7, you usually don’t form a claim first and then look for evidence—information to prove an idea is valid. Instead, you spend time thinking about a topic and the information related to it, and then you use what you learn to develop a position and claim. For example, if you are on the ASB team considering the implementation of a student mentorship program, you would first explore the potential benefits and challenges of such a program. Once you have developed a claim, the information that originally introduced you to the subject becomes evidence to support the claim. To strengthen support for your claim, you find more evidence.

Information or evidence alone, however, is not sufficient to defend a claim. Defending a claim requires reasoning—showing your audience how you think through your argument and how the evidence supports the claim. Reasoning both leads to and extends from the claim. The entire process of gathering information, formulating a claim, providing evidence to support the claim, and using reasoning to explain how the evidence relates to the claim is a cycle.

The graphic below illustrates the cyclical nature of the argumentation process. Follow it all the way around the circle from 1 to 8 until you understand it well enough to be able to explain it to someone else.

Remember: Writers defend their claims with evidence and/or reasoning. 

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