Free Resource
The Evidence Quality Checklist
A print-ready checklist students can use to test a quotation they've already chosen: is it related, supporting, or strong, and have they kept only the words that do the work?
3-page printable
Students support a claim with a quotation that's only on the right topic, or copy back a whole sentence when the point really lives in three or four words.
What it helps students do
The checklist takes a quotation a student has already chosen and runs it through five ordered checks, then a short worked example. Each check that reads Not yet points to one specific thing to fix, so students can strengthen their evidence on their own rather than waiting for it to be marked.
It helps students:
- tell a related quotation, one that is only on the same subject, from one that genuinely supports the exact claim;
- notice when a quotation is strong, meaning it also gives them something worth analyzing;
- understand a line before judging it, since evidence can only be weighed once its meaning is clear;
- keep only the words that carry the point, trimming a long quotation to the phrase that does the work;
- test a quotation of their own against the same checks.
It works with any text and needs nothing more than a claim, a chosen quotation, and a few minutes.