Pride and Prejudice - Illustrating and Supporting Points

How to use evidence to support a point:

You will need to be able to master three key methods of using evidence when writing about a text. These are firstly, paraphrasing; secondly, quoting single words or short phrases; and finally, quoting longer sections of text. Paraphrasing is one of the easiest of these methods and is sometimes overlooked as a way to use evidence. Practise this important skill because paraphrasing is an essential aspect of good writing. By paraphrasing, you clearly demonstrate your knowledge of a text. Being able to use this method can prove crucial in an exam where you do not have the text to hand.

Selecting individual words and phrases is another effective method of using evidence from the text. This skill can also be used in an exam, if you have memorised short, relevant quotes. This method is useful when you wish to draw attention to language choice or perhaps to minor details in the text. Practise using combinations of methods. You can, for example, mix paraphrase and a short quotation in the same sentence. Being capable of this type of flexibility is far preferable to writing long sentences full of multiple quotations. Sentences crammed with multiple short quotations are often awkward and very difficult to read.

The final method of using evidence is to quote a full sentence or more. Sometimes a short phrase will not make sense on its own or it seems impossible to incorporate a short quote grammatically. In these cases, or if you plan to discuss a longer quotation in detail, this is the method to use.

Remember: only use quotation marks around a single word if that word is unusual or significant in itself. Ordinary words only require quotation marks if there is something significant about their use. You wouldn’t need to quote an everyday word such as “garden”, for example, if it is in fact referring to a garden, but only if it is being used in an unexpected or unusual way. You must use quotation marks whenever you use an exact phrase or sentence from the text.

Have a go at this quiz on the best way to use evidence from Pride and Prejudice. Remember, the aim of this quiz is to test your ability to quote and to paraphrase; your knowledge of the text is not being tested here. One helpful tip is that it might be easier to eliminate the incorrect answers first!