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Which Argument Does This Evidence Best Support

Have I backed my point up?

To check if you’re supporting your own points with evidence, imagine that the reader is asking you after each statement that you make, ‘how do you know that? How can you be sure of that?’ If you have included something in your writing which robustly answers this question, then you’ve backed your point up. If not, think about what kind of evidence you could provide that would satisfy the reader.

You may not be able to find a citation that does exactly what you need it to do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t back your point up; a reference isn’t the only way to do this. You don’t have to find someone else who has said it first; you can make your own points in your own right too, if you support them. This becomes more true as you progress to higher stages of study. Think about your answer to the question, ‘How do I know that’, and what kind of evidence would best suit your purpose:

How do I know that?

  • ‘I read it’. Then show the reader where you read it, with a reference
  • ‘I worked it out based on something I read’ Then reference the data or opinion you based it on and explain how you built on that evidence with your reasoning.
  • ‘I worked it all out myself’Then show your reasoning in full.
  • ‘I saw it in my own research’ Then show the reader your own supporting data or sources that you have collected with your analysis (this is more likely in a dissertation or research report or project where you have time to do your own research)
  • ‘I don’t know – I just know! Don’t we all know that?’ Then this might be general knowledge (if you’re sure we all know that!)
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All of these are valid ways to back up your own points, but some require you to do original research, which might be outside the scope of your assignment, or disproportionate to the importance of the point you’re making!

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