Skip to main content

Evidence Format

Here is one possible way to gather evidence while researching that ensures a speaker will have all the relevant materials necessary to support the arguments made in their speech. Evidence must be in print form (meaning that it is either typed OR it is photocopied, cut and pasted/taped to the page). (If you’ve chosen to photocopy & paste, claims & source citations may be handwritten –neatly of course).

Evidence may be either on 8 ½ x 11 paper OR it may be on notecards. This is your choice because you may find one easier than the other to use in your forum debates. Each piece of evidence should be 4-5 sentences in length. They may be longer.

Evidence Structure

  • CLAIM: (argument you are making/synopsis of statistic/quotation/data/evidence)
  • SOURCE: Author; date of source; author’s qualifications; article/chapter title; journal/magazine/book title; page number. For WebSources, provide the same in the same order if available, especially if Dr. Soandso is quoted on a website; Also provide: website name, web address, and the DOWNLOAD DATE)
  • DATA: (the actual statistic, quotation, data that you are using)

Example:

US MARAD Loans guarantee commercial OTEC development

WU ’94 (Chih, Prof. Of Mechanical Engineering at the US Navel Academy, Renewable Energy From the Ocean: A Guide to OTEC, p. 369)

Loan guarantees available from MARAD for ship construction can be arranged to cover 87.5% of the total investment… Such loan approval…carries a guarantee backed by the government. The project will have a negative cash flow in the early years. For investors who have profits in other operations, OTEC losses can be deducted from the total income, thereby reducing the investor’s total taxes, in effect providing income from the operating losses via the tax benefit. Other sponsors will invest because, if profitable operation is attained, the receipts from product sales can lead to a large rate of return on their investment.