WR 121 Fierman Letter Genre: Finding Evidence
Tailor evidence to your audience
In order to effectively persuade your audience in an open letter or op-ed, you must support your claims and arguments with evidence from outside sources in addition to using personal experience.
To find convincing evidence, consider what kinds of information and sources would be most convincing to your audience. What do they already know? What do they care about? Whose voices are compelling to them? See "Tailoring an Argument to an Audience" for great guidance on this process.
This page provides guidance on where to look for different types of evidence based on your audience analysis.
Find opinions and testimony in the news
- Alt-PressWatch This link opens in a new windowA full text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. View the Alt-Press Watch handout.
- Ethnic Newswatch This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic minority and native press. Provides a rich collection of articles, editorials, and reviews with a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. Also a good source of ethnic recipes. Coverage is from 1980 to the present. View the Ethnic NewsWatch handout
- New York Times Online This link opens in a new windowUnlimited access to the New York Times on NYTimes.com. See Get Started with the New York Times Online to set up your subscription through PCC Library. Once you have set up your subscription, you can go directly to NYTimes.com and sign in using your personal account.
- US Major Dailies This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers from five U.S. national and regional newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune
Find personal experiences and expert testimony
People you know -- reaching out to those in your personal, college or work life circles is a great start (think: Social Media connections, too!)
News or social media -- trending stories or interviews with people that have first-hand experience
TED Talks -- an example of where experts might be sharing viewpoints based on their experience
Interviews -- call an expert
Find analysis in articles through the PCC Library
Use fancy Google searching to find statistics, trends, data
Add site:edu or site:gov to limit your search to .edu or .gov sites
Limiting your search to the areas of the web where the information is most reliable, such as education sites or government sites is a good way to find credible sources.
For example, a search for nutritional supplements, will bring up many commercial (.com) sites trying to sell you vitamins. If you search for nutritional supplements site:gov , the top results (except for the sponsored ads) will be sites such as the National Institute of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which are authoritative, unbiased sources that are not trying to sell you anything.
If you search for nutritional supplements site:edu, your top results will be from universities providing research on nutritional supplements.
Add research OR study OR data OR statistics OR trends to ask Google to find any of those words in a search.
Use a minus sign to exclude words.
For example, if you are looking for weather information in Portland, Maine you could add -oregon to your search to exclude web sites with the word "oregon."
Or to exclude commercial web sites, add -site:com to your search. For example, nutritional supplements -site:com
- "How To Google Like A Pro! Top 10 Google Search Tips & Tricks 2020"Video tutorial (5:40 minutes)
Find data and statistics in repositories and research institutes
- Center for American ProgressThe Center for American Progress is an independent, progressive, nonpartisan policy institute dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans.
- Gallup PollCurrent polls and research on a wide variety of topics. They often track polling responses over time, so you can see shifts in public opinion.
- PEW Research CenterPew Research Center is an independent center that conducts polls and studies. Social issues and technology focused.
- Portland Metro and Oregon Research: Data and statisticsSupport for research about local issues, places, laws, people, history, and more.