Language:
Matching Claims to Evidence
It is important to be able to control the strength of the claims you make about your findings.
Many writers make claims for which they have insufficient evidence.
You need to show, in your use of language, that you have a fine sense of the relationship between:
- the strength of a claim (a position or assertion) and
- the strength of the evidence that you have for that claim
| For Example: | |
| Evidence: | Out of 30 HKU students surveyed, the largest number (12) reported that they "had few problems with English" (Question 13) |
| Claim: | "According to our study, Hong Kong students have few problems with English" |
- extended the scope of the claim to cover all HK students
- asserted, as a fact, that they have few problems on the basis of what 12 students reported - with no external evidence (e.g. UE grades, and so on)
It is important to remember your teachers will be critical readers.
Their response to any of your claims might be:
I agree (no problem, then!).
It is more likely that they will ask:
- What grounds does the writer have for this assertion?
- How does s/he know this?
- On what authority does the writer make this assertion/assumption?
You need to anticipate this kind of critical question, and be ready to respond by:
- ensuring that your claims are in proportion to the evidence
- following up with the kind of evidence or support expected within the relevant discipline (for example: authoritative citations, elaborating the argument, offering documented examples, and so on)
Go on to Making Recommendations