Choose textual evidence for a precise claim
Choose evidence that establishes the stated relationship, including its time, population and degree of certainty.
What you will tackle
- Select textual evidence supporting a specified claim
- Distinguish directly relevant support from merely related information
- Evaluate whether evidence strengthens, qualifies or undermines a claim
Translate the claim into evidence requirements
If the claim concerns how a policy affected small workshops after 1910, evidence must address those workshops, that period and an appropriate comparison. A statement about large factories or an earlier year may be relevant background without supporting the requested inference.
Keep evidence and interpretation connected
Evidence may be a quotation, observation, report or example. Explain the step linking it to the claim. A single example may establish possibility but rarely establishes that something always happens. Evidence of an outcome does not automatically identify its cause.
Build your notes, then practise
Work on paper before opening an explanation. Guided tasks provide a starting point; independent tasks remove the scaffolding; application tasks ask you to justify a method or interpretation in context.
Guided practice
Guided 1
Claim: a library's late opening helped evening-shift workers. Which detail most directly supports it: A, the building was renovated; B, evening-shift workers arriving after 6 p.m. borrowed 240 books in the first month; C, the collection grew in 1990? Explain the choice.
Show a starting hint
List the population and outcome the claim requires.
Compare with the explained answer
- The claim concerns evening workers using the service.
- B connects those users and the late period with actual borrowing.
- A and C concern the library without demonstrating the claimed benefit.
Answer / response criteria: B, because it links the relevant users, time and use of the service.
Independent practice
Independent 1
An author claims a town's water-saving campaign reduced household use. Records show use fell, but heavy rainfall also reduced garden watering. Explain what the rainfall detail does to the claim and name stronger evidence.
Compare with the explained answer
- Rainfall provides an alternative cause of the measured fall.
- It weakens an unqualified attribution to the campaign without denying the fall.
- Comparable households or periods with different campaign exposure but similar weather would help isolate the campaign's contribution.
Answer / response criteria: It qualifies the causal attribution; a comparison accounting for weather would offer stronger support.
Application practice
Application 1
A museum argues that access broadened after admission became free. Its total visits rose from 10,000 to 18,000. Propose one detail that would support the claim specifically about broader access, and explain why the total alone is insufficient.
Compare with the explained answer
- More visits can come from repeat visits by the same established audience.
- Evidence about newly represented groups or first-time visitors addresses breadth.
- For example, a documented rise in first-time visitors from previously underrepresented neighbourhoods would be directly relevant.
Answer / response criteria: Visitor-composition evidence would support broader access; a larger total alone does not establish a wider audience.
What can you explain now?
A museum argues that access broadened after admission became free. Its total visits rose from 10,000 to 18,000. Propose one detail that would support the claim specifically about broader access, and explain why the total alone is insufficient.
Compare with the explanation
Visitor-composition evidence would support broader access; a larger total alone does not establish a wider audience.
Explain the reasoning before comparing. This review records your self-assessment rather than an official score or mastery decision.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
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Source and review status
Core coverage follows the detailed SAT skills in Appendix B of the September 2026 framework. The conditional School Day Essay is separate. The framework is maintained rather than issued as an annual subject syllabus.
Original teaching and explained self-check practice are available. Independent subject-specialist review and difficulty calibration remain pending; this is not an exam-board endorsement or a mastery certificate.
Official source specification / guide