COMM 2045: How to Use Evidence

Claim

A claim is a statement of your understanding about the problem. You can think of this of dividing up your topic into 2-3 problems.

Evidence

You will then use evidence from your scholarly sources to support your claim.

Reasoning

The reasoning is what ties together the claim and the evidence.  This is the most important part of using evidence because it shows how or why the evidence supports the claim.  The reasoning provides the justification for why this evidence is important to this claim.

Student Example Using Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

Below is a student example of how they used Claims, Evidence and Reasoning in their speech outline.  

1. Homeless children endure many problems throughout their lifetime that are passed down from their parents, such as lack of education and physical and mental problems.

1. Homelessness makes it very difficult for one to gain an education. (CLAIM)

1. Classroom.com states that there are over 200,000 homeless children in the U.S. alone meaning that the majority of them lack an education (Smith, 2018). (EVIDENCE)

1. We need to be concerned about the rise in homeless children because children are at the highest risk for a lack of education because according to Tenisha Powell from the NHSA Dialog, their brains are within the most critical developmental period. The study goes on to acknowledge that without an education these children have increase risk of incarceration and being homeless as an adult.  In other words the cycle continues, if we do not step in and stop the rising tide of childhood homelessness (Powell, 2018). (REASONING - why it matters)

Complex problems need complex solutions. To help ensure that your solutions are well developed consider having both individual and group solutions, that are backed with evidence. Every solution you put forth must be backed with evidence.

Individual Solutions

These solutions focus on what each person in the audience can do on their own.  Think of it as solutions they can enact that impact their own lives.

Here is an example of an individual solution, backed with evidence for a persuasive speech about the problems of homelessness.

Group Solutions

These solutions focus on how we can come together to enact change for the betterment of society.  These can be laws but often can be activities or initiatives instituted at a local level. 

Here is an example of a group solution, backed with evidence for a persuasive speech about the problems of homelessness.

B. But what can you do as an individual to help? Does it bother you at all that there are over 200,000 homeless kids in the U.S. alone? And that that doesn’t even account for all of the parents out there and other homeless adults. The solution is easy but you have to want to be the change.

1. Go out and volunteer.

1. Be involved in the homeless shelters when they serve food. 

1. thedataface.com shows that America’s homeless problem is getting worse every day as there were roughly 1.5 million homeless people in the U.S. in the last year. I can’t even begin to comprehend that number. We can make a difference by going to shelters and helping (dataface, 2019).

1. We need to come together as a nation to enact some basic rights for homeless individuals such as ensuring priority access for services for homeless families including after school programs, parenting support, and the access to monitor and assist children’s development.

1. Providing educational access for these families and their kids is the most effective solution to the problems that arise within their lack of education.

1. Giving these children the ability to be enrolled in something like an after school program would allow them to become educated from the little that they know and help them to learn the things they miss out on in school or struggle to learn.

1. Classroom.com states that there is over 200,000 homeless children in the U.S. alone meaning that the majority of them lack an education (classroom, 2019).