Thinking about evidence

As you think about evidence and the semiotic method, let's review the three major types that we have identified:

Examples:

The dominant form in the semiotic method, examples--large and small, contemporary and historical, personal and popular--provide immediate relevance, a connection to the reader's own observations, and cultural context for any semiotic analysis.

Strengths: Examples often persuade readers because they provide directly relevant support for the author's argument, include striking, memorable details, and confirm the reader's own experiences / expectations.

Weaknesses: All examples raise questions about applicability--questions we should be particularly careful to ask when an example seems to closely align with our own experiences, emotions, or values:

• Does the example apply broadly across the culture or cultural subgroup being discussed or is the example an exception or unique incident that may not have broad applicability?
• Has the author addressed all the possible interpretations of the example or might other people read this same example in an alternative way?

Statistics:

Although not as common as examples in semiotic reasoning as in other academic disciplines, statistics often still play a key role in semiotic arguments.

Strengths: Statistics provide a sense of quantitative assurance. They feel more solid to readers exactly because they appear more generally applicable than specific examples. Indeed, statistics operate primarily to put things in what we perceive as documented broader contexts. In this way they can powerfully support specific examples and/or rhetorical appeals to our values and beliefs.

Weaknesses: In general, the key questions about statistics involve reliability, relevance, and comprehensiveness.What binds all of these questions together are concerns about bias and balance. So when you evaluate a statistic, ask questions like these:

• Does the statistic come from a reliable source or one with a particular bias that should be discussed / disclosed?
• Is the statistic relevant to the argument being made? Sometimes author's will wow us with an impressive number, but when we look more closely at that number we find no essential relationship between the argument and the statistic.
• Is the statistic presented in its full context or is the number presented in isolation from numbers we would need to know in order to evaluate the significance of the cited statistic? Are there other numbers we need to know in order to put this one into context?

Expert Testimony

Fundamentally, appeals to experts are appeals to outside authorities: "if you do not believe me yet, maybe you will believe me when I tell you that this expert agrees with me!"

Strengths: Expert testimony can provide powerful validation for an argument when the expert is an expert in a field relevant to that discussion and when that expert's conclusions come from comprehensive and carefully documented study of an issue.

Weaknesses: Expert testimony does not strengthen an argument 1) when the expert's expertise is not in a relevant field or 2) when the expert has a particular bias that the writer does not share with the reader or 3) when the expert's opinion is not based on comprehensive and careful study of the issue. As you think about the merit or value of expert testimony

• Is this expert studying a field that is relevant to the topic discussed in this essay?
• Does the expert have a bias or political / theoretical alliance that I should know about?
• What kind of support does the expert have for his or her views--detailed data, long-term study, broad reading and analysis, etc.?

Evaluating Evidence:

Remember that when you evaluate a piece of evidence you should do the following:

1) Identify the type of evidence that the particular piece you are discussing is so that you have a broad framework of strengths, weaknesses, and questions to consider as you evaluate the overall impact of the piece of evidence you are discussing.

2) Carefully consider and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a the piece of evidence you are considering. All evidence has both. Carefully work through / write about both the strengths and weaknesses before you come to an overall judgement

3) Assert your overall judgement in your topic and clincher sentences. Ultimately, you need to decide does this piece of evidence--given its strengths and weaknesses--support or weaken the writer's argument and why. In the topic sentence you assert that overall argument and in the clincher you explain the how and why behind that judgment you asserted in your topic sentence.