U1 The King of Mazy Maze Textual Evidence

Define

Any time you’re explaining something about a text, you need to cite, or point out, textual evidence to support your ideas. Textual
evidence may be a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph that led you to make an inference or draw a conclusion. When you cite
textual evidence, someone else can look back at a particular part of a text you read and understand how you came to your inferences
or conclusions.

When you make inferences while reading or analyzing a text, you use the text and your own background knowledge to make logical
guesses about what is not directly stated by the author. When you are explaining these inferences to someone else, it is important that
you use textual evidence to show how and why you analyzed a text in the way that you did.

For example, an analysis of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” in which the speaker describes coming to a fork on a forest
path and having to choose which one to take, might state:

The difficulty of making choices is an important theme of Frost’s poem.

The same analysis is strengthened by going on to cite textual evidence:

Frost establishes this theme in the first few lines. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” the speaker begins, “and sorry I could
not travel both / and be one traveler, / long I stood . . . .” Immediately, we see that the speaker is faced with a tough choice:
which way to go.

Whether you’re making inferences from a short passage or drawing conclusions based on an entire text, textual evidence is the most
important tool for helping you explain your ideas.

Identification and Application:

●Inferences are logical guesses about what is not directly, or explicitly, stated by the author. To make
an inference:

○Read closely and critically. Consider why an author gives particular details and information.

○Think about what you already know. Use your own knowledge, experiences, and observations
to help figure out things that the author doesn’t directly state.

●Readers should cite the specific words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs from a text that led them
to make an inference. This is the textual evidence that supports their inference.

○Find the most relevant textual evidence that supports your inference.

○Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support what the text says explicitly as well as the
inferences you draw from the text.

○Analyze textual evidence closely to determine whether an inference is valid.

Model

Making good inferences can help readers of “The King of Mazy May” gain a deeper understanding of the story’s setting,
characters, and plot. Consider the second paragraph of the story:

Walt has walked all the fourteen years of his life in sun-tanned, moose-hide moccasins, and he can go to the
Indian camps and "talk big" with the men, and trade calico and beads with them for their precious furs. He can
make bread without baking-powder, yeast or hops, shoot a moose at three hundred yards, and drive the wild
wolf-dogs fifty miles a day on the packed trail.

By paying close attention to the textual evidence in this paragraph, readers learn numerous details about Walt. While these
details are interesting in their own right, the author has chosen to include them for another reason. It is the reader’s job to
use the details as textual evidence to support inferences about what kind of person Walt is.

Model

A good reader makes inferences that tell as much about Walt as is explicitly stated. For example, readers know that Walt
has worn “sun-tanned, moose-hide moccasins” for “all the fourteen years of his life.” These facts are good textual evidence
to support the inference that Walt’s family relies on local resources and traditional methods for making clothing. That
inference also suggests that they have adapted well to life in the Klondike.

That Walt “can go to the Indian camps and ‘talk big’ with the men,” as well as trade with them, is solid textual evidence to
help the readers infer that Walt is mature for his age and that adults respect him. Also, based on the evidence that Walt
“can make bread without baking-powder, yeast or hops, shoot a moose at three hundred yards, and drive the wild
wolf-dogs fifty miles a day,” readers can infer that Walt has survival skills necessary in the wilderness.

When choosing which textual evidence to cite, readers should look for the passages that most strongly support their point.
For example, while it is interesting that Walt “can make bread without baking-powder, yeast or hops,” this information is not
really essential to the plot. On the other hand, the fact that Walt can “drive the wild wolf-dogs fifty miles a day on the
packed trail” is very important. Readers can use this textual evidence to infer that Walt is experienced at driving a sled-dog
team, and this inference about Walt’s ability as a musher is relevant later in the story.

Your Turn

Your Turn

Read this section (paragraphs 4 and 5) from “The King of Mazy May” to make an inference that is based on textual
evidence. Then answer the follow-up questions.

. . . Last year they and several others had spent much toil and time on the Mazy May, and endured great hardships; the
creek, in turn, was just beginning to show up its richness and to reward them for their heavy labor. But with the news of
their discoveries, strange men began to come and go through the short days and long nights, and many unjust things they
did to the men who had worked so long upon the creek.

Si Hartman had gone away on a moose-hunt, to return and find new stakes driven and his claim jumped. George Lukens
and his brother had lost their claims in a like manner, having delayed too long on the way to Dawson to record them. In
short, it was an old story, and quite a number of the earnest, industrious prospectors had suffered similar losses.

Multiple Choice

Part A

Which of the following BEST explains why Si Hartman’s claim was jumped?

• 1. He had not recorded his claim.

  
  

• 2. He was away on a moose-hunt.

  
  

• 3. He could not get to Dawson.

  
  

• 4. His neighbors did not protect his claim.

  
  

Multiple Choice

Part B

Which sentence or phrase from the passage supports your answer to Part A?

• 1. “ . . . strange men began to come and go. . . and many unjust things they did to the men who had worked so long upon the creek.”

  
  

• 2. “Si Hartman had gone away on a moose-hunt . . .”

  
  

• 3. “George Lukens and his brother had lost their claims in a like manner, having delayed too long on the way to Dawson to record them.”

  
  

• 4. “ . . .quite a number of the earnest, industrious prospectors had suffered similar losses.”