Text Evidence and Relevance to Support Theme Statements

INCORRECT Evidence – INCORRECT Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. INCORRECT Evidence – INCORRECT Relevance “Take, for instance, the biography of great writers. Did not every one of them gamble, drink, and draw down upon himself the anger of right-thinking people in his young days?” (Chekhov 235) Ivan Markovitch argues that Sasha, as a young person, is entitled to make mistakes in his youth. Markovitch points out that some of the greatest men of history made similar mistakes and these men turned out to be successful. Both the passage and its explanation are incorrect because they do not support the theme sentence.

CORRECT Evidence – INCORRECT Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. CORRECT Evidence – INCORRECT Relevance “He ought, of course, to be punished, but he was punished as it was by his conscience and the agonies he was enduring now while awaiting the sentence of his relations”(Chekhov 235). Ivan Markovitch argues that Sasha is receiving meaningful consequences by waiting to be judged by his uncles. This is a fair punishment because Sasha has had such a hard life. He changes his ways after going through this experience. The relevance (explanation) is incorrect. In the story, these consequences do NOT help Sasha learn responsibility, so this relevance does not successfully connect the passage to the theme.

CORRECT Evidence – CORRECT Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. CORRECT Evidence – CORRECT Relevance “He ought, of course, to be punished, but he was punished as it was by his conscience and the agonies he was enduring now while awaiting the sentence of his relations”(Chekhov 235). Ivan Markovitch believes that Sasha is receiving meaningful consequences by waiting to be judged by his uncles. He is proved wrong later in the story when the author reveals that Sasha does not care what his uncles decide. Since the opinion of the uncles does not matter to Sasha, this consequence is not meaningful enough to cause Sasha to act with more responsibility. The relevance is now correct. The relevance explains how the wrong type of consequences (ones that are not meaningful) do not lead to person becoming more responsible.

CORRECT Evidence – Weak Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. CORRECT Evidence – Weak Relevance “ ‘ Suppose we were to forgive him and pay the money. You know he would not give up leading a dissipated life, squandering money, making debts, going to our tailors and ordering suits in our names!’”(Chekhov 237) The Colonel says that letting Sasha go free will not make Sasha change. This relevance is weak. The student does make a clear connection between the passage and the theme.

CORRECT Evidence – Average Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. CORRECT Evidence – Average Relevance “ ‘ Suppose we were to forgive him and pay the money. You know he would not give up leading a dissipated life, squandering money, making debts, going to our tailors and ordering suits in our names!’”(Chekhov 237) The Colonel implies that letting Sasha go free allows him to avoid experiencing meaningful consequences. Without the consequences, Sasha won’t learn. This relevance is average. The student has begun to make a connection to theme, but he or she is not being specific enough. This student needs to write more information and connect to the word “responsibility” from the theme sentence.

CORRECT Evidence – Strong Relevance Without meaningful consequences, people will never learn responsibility. CORRECT Evidence – Strong Relevance “ ‘ Suppose we were to forgive him and pay the money. You know he would not give up leading a dissipated life, squandering money, making debts, going to our tailors and ordering suits in our names!’” (Chekhov 237) The Colonel implies that letting Sasha go free allows him to avoid experiencing meaningful consequences. Without consequences, the Colonel feels that Sasha will continue his past pattern of irresponsible behaviors. This proves to be true at the story’s end, when after being let free of the debt, Sasha extorts money from his Uncle Ivan. This relevance is strong. The student makes a clear connection between the passage and theme, citing compelling details from the story to support his or her ideas.