Evidence and Examples

What is Evidence?  Evidence is something that is used to develop or support a reason.  Evidence is often in one of the following forms:  An example  Statistical or numerical data  An estimate  A factual claim  A personal observation  A statement from a source or witness

Evidence Indicator Words  For example  For instance  Such as

What evidence is provided to support the claim that ‘premature hearing loss is a problem for young people because of noise levels at rock concerts?  Loud music, lawn mowers and aircraft noise can all damage tiny cells in our ear and leave us with premature hearing loss. This can be a particular problem for young people because of the very high noise levels at rock concerts. Not surprising then that the number of Americans under 18 with some form of hearing loss has reached 1.3 million. It seems unlikely that rock musicians will turn down this volume, so the least that we can do is to advise young people to use simple, cheap ear plugs when they attend rock concerts.  Adapted from OCR’s January 2007 question paper

What evidence is provided to support the claim that ‘premature hearing loss is a problem for young people because of noise levels at rock concerts?  Loud music, lawn mowers and aircraft noise can all damage tiny cells in our ear and leave us with premature hearing loss. This can be a particular problem for young people because of the very high noise levels at rock concerts. Not surprising then that the number of Americans under 18 with some form of hearing loss has reached 1.3 million. It seems unlikely that rock musicians will turn down this volume, so the least that we can do is to advise young people to use simple, cheap ear plugs when they attend rock concerts.  Adapted from OCR’s January 2007 question paper

What are Examples?  One form of evidence that provide a way of developing a reason.  They illustrate the reason, giving a specific situation in which the reason holds.  There are two main ways of using an example to illustrate a reason:  Give a list of specific examples  Illustrating a general idea through a more developed example  Examples DO NOT count as reasons (or part of a reason)

Identify the examples in the following short argument.  Research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire involved interviewing 100 people aged between 22 and 45 who had been speed- dating. Chat-up lines that are questions rather than statements were found to be more successful. ‘I have a PhD in computing’, is off- putting but ‘What is your favourite pizza topping?’ evokes a positive response. So, if you want to chat someone up successfully, you should give them the chance to respond in a light-hearted way.

Identify the examples in the following short argument.  Research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire involved interviewing 100 people aged between 22 and 45 who had been speed- dating. Chat-up lines that are questions rather than statements were found to be more successful. ‘I have a PhD in computing’, is off- putting but ‘What is your favourite pizza topping?’ evokes a positive response. So, if you want to chat someone up successfully, you should give them the chance to respond in a light-hearted way.

Homework  Complete the worksheet on Evidence and Examples  Read pages in OCR Critical Thinking to prepare for tomorrow’s class.