Using Evidence

When writing an argumentative essay, you’ll definitely want to locate quality sources to support your claims, and you have a lot of options for sources. You can look for support for your argument in journal articles, magazine articles, documentaries, and more. You may even be allowed to use personal experience and observations, but this isn’t always the case. No matter what, you’ll want logical, clear, and reasonable evidence that helps you support your claims and convince your audience.

It’s important to review the logical fallacies before you develop evidence for your claims. If you’re using personal experience, you have to be careful that you don’t make claims that are too broad based on limited experiences.

The following pages provide you with information on the types of sources you may be able to include, how to decide if your sources are credible, and how to make good decisions about using your sources.