Evidence, Support, and Cite

Use the academic words evidence, support, and cite precisely.

In school writing, 'evidence' means specific information from a text or source that shows something is true: a quotation, a fact, a statistic, a detail. 'Support' is what evidence does: it holds up a claim, the way pillars hold up a roof. 'Cite' means to name or quote your evidence and say where it came from. A citation is the reference itself. Here is how they fit together. Claim: 'The village depended on the river. ' Weak support: 'The river was really important to them.

' That only repeats the claim in other words. Strong support cites evidence: 'The text states that 'every family fished at dawn' and that 'the market sold river reeds as rope'. ' Now there are two specific details, quoted, from the text. When a prompt says 'cite evidence to support your answer', it is asking for that second kind: exact details that do the holding up, with their source shown.

• 1Evidence is specific information that shows something is true.
• 2Support is what evidence does for a claim.
• 3To cite is to quote or name evidence and its source.