EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS
Ms. Spector Room 231
TIQA
Remember the acronym TIQA when writing your body paragraphs!
T = topic sentence
I = intro to quote/paraphrase
Q= quote or paraphrase (with citation)
A= analysis
And then a concluding sentence at the end to wrap it all up!
WHAT IS EVIDENCE?
Your evidence are the quotes and/or paraphrases you include in your paper that
prove and support your thesis
You need a total of 3 quotes/paraphrases in your paper—1 in each paragraph
Each quote/paraphrase NEEDS a citation, otherwise it’s plagiarism and you will
receive a zero!
HOW TO CITE
For a story, you do the author’s last name and page number with no comma in
between.
 “ Quote” (Jackson 15)
 Jackson says in “The Lottery”, “Quote” (15)
For a story in a volume: if you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work,
always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon,
then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the
page number in parentheses.)
 . . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17)
**Purdue OWL is a great resource for MLA format and citations!
QUOTES AND PUNCTUATION
If your quote ends in a period, you move the period to AFTER the citation.
 “The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence” (Poe 3).
If your quote ends in a question mark or exclamation point, you keep that in the
quote and add a period after the citation.
 “And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense?”
(Poe 3).
If your quote ends in an ellipses (…) because you are eliminating some of the quote,
keep the ellipses in the quote and add a period after the citation
 “But even yet I refrained. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless…” (Poe 3).
QUOTES AND PUNCTUATION
Use ellipses (…) if you are cutting out part of a long quote and do not need the
whole thing, whether it is in the beginning, middle, or end.
If you feel it is too long and not all the words are necessary in your paper!
“…It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it…the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120).
Use a comma to introduce a quotation after an introductory phrase, dependent
clause, or a standard dialogue tag.
If you are a quoting dialogue, use 3 quotation marks
 The old man sprang up in bed, crying out, “’Who’s there?’” (Poe 3).
QUOTES
Capitalize the first letter of a direct quote when it is a complete sentence
Do not use a capital letter if it is a fragment or piece of a quote
Women were expected to play a certain role in the 1920s, the role of “’…a beautiful little fool’” (Fitzgerald 17).
If a quote extends more than four lines, use a block quotation. Indent the whole
quote one inch from the main margin.
If you mention the author before the quote, then only the page number is needed in
the citation
If a direct quote is interrupted mid-sentence, do not capitalize the second part of
the quotation
“’So I took o ne look at him,’ said Mr. Wolfsheim, shaking my hand earnestly, ‘and what do you think I did?’” (Fitzgerald 69).
PARAPHRASING
Involves putting a passage from source material into your own words
It is your own version of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else,
presented in a new form
Usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment and
condensing it slightly
It MUST have a citation because these are not your own ideas!
 No citation = plagiarism and a zero!
You do not need quotation marks!
YOUR EVIDENCE
Simply putting in quotes or paraphrases is not enough!!!
You must explain the quote and how it supports your thesis (a.k.a. your analysis)
You must also lead up to your quote, providing context for the reader; without this
your reader will be lost. Do not restate your quote in this sentence.
QUOTE SANDWICH
Think of your evidence
and analysis as a quote
sandwich!
YOUR ANALYSIS
DO NOT restate the quote in your analysis!
DO NOT start your analysis with “This quote shows…” or “This quote states…” or any
variation of that.
It is okay to write more than once sentence for your analysis!
When writing your analysis, ask yourself:




What does this quote show?
What is the significance of this quote?
Why is this quote important?
Does it tie back to my thesis and support it? How?
EVIDENCE EXAMPLES
Thesis - The Tell Tale Heart uses first person point of view to add the effect of horror by
convincing readers he is not mad, while committing a brutal crime.
Lead Up Sentence - While the narrator is in the old man’s room, waiting to kill him, he hears
the old man’s heart beating.
Textual Evidence - “ It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant” (Poe
3).
Analysis - The narrator listening to the heart beating, drives him more mad and when he
can’t take it anymore, he lunges at the old man and kills him. This frightening scene gives off
the perception of that the narrator is insane because though he convinced readers he’s not
crazy, he is driven by the beating of the heart to kill the old man.
YOUR EVIDENCE
Now that you have your topic and your thesis complete, it is time to find evidence to
support your thesis!
Find 3 quotes/paraphrases you would like to use in your paper that proves and
supports your thesis.
After you find your 3 pieces of evidence and they are approved by Ms. Spector,
begin writing your lead in sentence and your analysis for each evidence.
You will need two things checked off by Ms. Spector:
1) Your 3 pieces of evidence
2) Your quote sandwiches (lead in sentence and analysis)