English 10 / Unit 1: Close Reading and Literary Analysis
1.4 Claim, Evidence and Commentary
Notes
Literary analysis makes an arguable claim about a text and supports it.
- A claim (or thesis) is an interpretation others could debate, not a plot summary or a fact.
- Evidence is a direct quotation or specific detail from the text.
- Commentary explains how the evidence supports the claim. It is the most important part.
- A common pattern: claim, evidence, commentary, then more evidence and commentary.
- Weak: "In the story, the boy finds a dog." (summary) Strong: "The stray dog becomes a mirror of the boy's own loneliness." (claim)
Practice
Which sentence is an arguable claim about a story?
It is an interpretation that must be supported with evidence.
In literary analysis, commentary is:
Commentary connects evidence to the claim.
A student writes a paragraph with a claim followed by four quotations in a row and no explanation. The biggest weakness is:
Evidence without explanation leaves the reader to guess the connection.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 1 test.