Notes

Suppose you have just read a myth about King Midas. He was the king who wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. You come to the end of it and say, “The best part of the story is when everything that Midas touches turns to gold.” You have just made a statement (and a judgment) about the myth.

Making those judgments is the job of being a good reader. Still, it is only part of the job. That is because your listener or reader doesn’t just want to know what you think but also why you think it.

You tell why you have made a judgment by giving information from the story that backs up or supports your statement. That information is called evidence.

Think of evidence as information that tells why.

You might give evidence by completing sentences like these with evidence from the text.

It is entertaining when _____.

I laughed when _____.

Midas must have thought he was in heaven when _____.

There are two kinds of evidence, explicit and restated.

Sometimes, evidence is explicit, or exactly as it is stated in the story. You quote that evidence, or repeat it exactly as it was given in the text. You put quotation marks around it to show that you quoted it.

Cite is another word for quote. You can use cite as a synonym for quote whenever you refer to copying or repeating the exact words of a text.