Writing with evidence: Overview

This resource is designed to support you to:  

• Recognise why evidence is used in academic writing. 
• Develop your understanding about methods for writing with evidence. 
• Build skills about how to develop paraphrases and integrate them effectively in academic writing. 

"Almost all writing and speaking at university relies on using ideas and information found in the literature. Hence, there are rules about how to bring the literature into your own work. When these rules are used well, a student clearly shows his or her intelligence and knowledge of the literature. If they are not followed, a student’s work will be seen as weak, and will receive a lower mark" (Turner et al., 2012, p. 97).

Literature in this context includes various types of information and sources (evidence), including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, videos, reports, statistics, websites, and many more. 

It is strongly recommended that you follow course-specific guidance regarding what is considered to be appropriate sources you can use in your assessments.

The four ways to use evidence in your writing are quoting, summarising, paraphrasing and synthesising. A summary of these methods is shown in Table 1 below. Out of these methods, to paraphrase and synthesise demonstrate the highest level of critical thought.

For the following sections in this guide, we will use the excerpt below from Rogerson and McCarthy (2017, p. 2) to identify different ways of using evidence from literature in your academic writing.

“Academic writing is largely reliant on the skill of paraphrasing to demonstrate that the author can capture the essence of what they have read, they understand what they have read, and can use the appropriately acknowledged evidence in support of their responses (Fillenbaum, 1970; Keck, 2006, 2014; Shi, 2012). In higher education, a student’s attempts at paraphrasing can provide “insight into how well students read as well as write” (Hirvela & Du, 2013, p. 88). While there appears to be an underlying assumption that students and researchers understand and accept that there is a standard convention about how to paraphrase and appropriately use and acknowledge source texts (Shi, 2012), there can be inconsistencies between underlying assumptions in how paraphrases are identified, described and assessed (Keck, 2006). Poorer forms of paraphrasing tend to use a simplistic approach where some words are simply replaced with synonyms found through functionality available in word processing software or online dictionaries. This is a form of superficial paraphrasing or ‘close paraphrasing’ (Keck, 2010) or ‘patchwriting’ (Howard, 1995). The question as to “the exact degree to which text must be modified to be classified as correctly paraphrased” (Roig, 2001, p. 309) is somewhat vague, although Keck (2006) outlined a Taxonomy of Paraphrase Types where paraphrases are classified in four categories ranging from near copy to substantial revision based on the number of unique links or strings of words.” (Rogerson & McCarthy, 2017, p. 2) .

Quoting is when you use ideas or perspectives from a source of information to support your interpretation of the topic by repeating the exact words of the original author. Some of the main purposes and benefits of using a quote in your academic writing are that it:

• Supports your position.
• Emphasises a point that you are making.
• Highlights unique phrases.
• Comments on the quote.

Including a quote in your academic writing demonstrates your ability to make connections between your topic and original literature, and it protects you against plagiarism. You should avoid using too many quotes in your academic writing because it may indicate that you have not fully understood the material. A general rule to follow is that quotes should not exceed 10% of your word count. 

It is strongly recommended that you follow course-specific guidance regarding the use and frequency of quotes in your assessment.

If you are going to use a quote in your writing, it is important to put your quote into context, and not just have a direct quote as the full sentence in your writing.

In the table below is an example where Rogerson and McCarthy (2017, p. 2) have quoted Hirvela and Du (2013, p. 88), according to the American Pyschological Association (APA7) referencing style:

Please refer to the Referencing Guides and Academic Integrity webpage and the specific guide(s) relevant to your discipline to find out more about how to appropriately cite quotations.

Summarising is when you explain an idea in a short and concise way. You can do this by identifying and reporting on the main points of a paragraph or an article in your own words.  Some of the main purposes and benefits of summarising are that it:

• Shows that you understand and can interpret an entire theory or framework.
• Demonstrates your ability to make connections between your topic and the original literature.
• Adds credibility to the ideas and arguments in your writing.

In the table below is an example where Rogerson and McCarthy (2017, p. 2) have summarised Keck (2000), according to the APA7 referencing style:

Paraphrasing is when you use ideas or perspectives from one source of information to support your interpretation of the topic. Paraphrasing involves using your own words to re-write the idea instead of the original author's exact words while retaining the original meaning. Some of the main purposes and benefits of paraphrasing are that it:

• Demonstrates your ability to understand and interpret an original text.
• Demonstrates your ability to make connections between your topic and original literature.
• Adds credibility to the arguments and claims made in your writing.
• Ensures that your writing is cohesive.
• Improves readability by maintaining a more consistent writing style.
• Demonstrates academic integrity.

In the table below is an example where Rogerson and McCarthy (2017, p. 2) have paraphrased Shi (2012), according to the APA7 referencing style:

Please refer to Referencing Guides and Academic Integrity and the specific guide(s) relevant to your discipline to find out more about how to appropriately cite paraphrases.

To synthesise is to combine multiple sources with the same ideas or perspectives to support your interpretation of the topic. Synthesising involves using your own words to re-write the idea instead of the original authors’ exact words, while retaining the original meaning. Some of the main purposes and benefits of synthesising are that it:

• Demonstrates that you have read widely on the topic.
• Demonstrates your ability to understand and interpret the original text.
• Demonstrates your ability to make connections between your topic and original literature.
• Demonstrates your ability to connect ideas between literature.
• Adds credibility to the arguments and claims made in your writing.
• Demonstrates academic integrity.

In the table below is an example where Rogerson and McCarthy (2017, p. 2) have synthesised information from Fillenbaum (1970), Keck (2006, 2014), and Shi (2012), according to the APA7 referencing style: