Have you ever heard the term “Exhibit A?”

Here are some examples: In a movie review we read: “Nothing to Lose is Exhibit A in what’s right and what’s wrong with current Hollywood comedy.”^[1]  A news article quotes a Senator as saying: “The massive data breach at Equifax Inc. is ‘exhibit A‘ on the need for strong U.S. regulation, including higher fines against companies that mishandle consumers’ personal information.”^[2] An article about football claims that “Green Bay is Exhibit A in an NFL trend that emphasizes mesmerizing passing games above all else.”^[3]

The term “Exhibit A” comes from courtroom trials. Wikipedia tells us that “an exhibit, in a criminal prosecution or a civil trial, is physical or documentary evidence brought before the jury. The artifact or document itself is presented for the jury’s inspection. […] The exhibits in any one law case are often labelled Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, etc. to distinguish between them.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhibit_(legal))

In a trial, lawyers use “exhibits,” or evidence, to try to make their case to the jury. Evidence is extremely important in a jury trial: jurors are instructed that they should “base their conclusions [only] on the evidence as presented in the trial.” American Bar Association “How Courts Work” (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_related_education_network/how_courts_work/juryinstruct/)

When you read an academic article, you, the reader, are the jury. The author is making a claim, and they will present their evidence to support their claim. As you read through the paragraphs of an essay, you can imagine that each paragraph is labeled “Exhibit A, Exhibit B,” and so on. Like the “exhibits” in a trial, the paragraphs contain information to try to convince you that the author’s claim is correct. Each paragraph will have a topic or key sentence that gives you a sense of the main point of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph is supporting details, or evidence, that supports the claim of the paragraph.

Figure 1. Just as the key sentences in the paragraphs support the overall thesis claim of the essay, the supporting details in each paragraph support the key sentence of the paragraph.

The key sentences in the paragraphs support the overall thesis claim of the essay, and the supporting details, or evidence, in the paragraph support the key sentence of the paragraph.  If the argument is a pyramid, evidence is the bottom layer; it holds everything up.

When writing an essay, you want to start with the evidence. Before brainstorming about the claim you’ll be arguing, you need to gather the evidence you have and think about how to fill in the gaps. Even a narrative essay telling a story is built on evidence. Were you ever given the writing advice “show, don’t tell?” Rather than telling the reader “I was scared,” you show the reader how scared you were: “my knees trembled, my voice shook, and my dry mouth tasted like aluminum.” In other words, these physical  effects are evidence of the emotion.

Evidence is what a writer uses to support or defend his or her argument, and only valid and credible evidence is enough to make an argument strong. What is valid or credible changes, however, according to the academic discipline.

Evidence in the Humanities: Literature, Art, Film, Music, Philosophy

Let’s practice moving from our initial questions to thinking about evidence.