Identify Types of Evidence

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

• Statistic

• Anecdote

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

The gap between senior and youth voting rates has consistently remained above 20%. In 2016, for example, 68% of seniors cast a ballot, while only 39% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted (USAfacts.org 2019).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

Voter ID laws have been estimated by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to reduce voter turnout by 2-3 percentage points, translating to tens of thousands of votes lost in a single state. Over 21 million U.S. citizens do not have government-issued photo identification. That’s because ID cards aren’t always accessible for everyone (ACLU.org 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

Angel Sanchez was 17 years old and in prison when he learned that Florida banned anyone with a felony conviction from voting – for life. At the time, that meant 1.4 million Floridians couldn't vote, ever.

He decided that when he got out of prison, he'd find a way to help change this. Which worked! Until the fight stopped being about voting rights... and started to become about money (NPR.org 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is being used in this example: "In 2008, 7.3 million people died of heart disease."

• Anecdotal evidence

• Logical reasoning

• Empirical evidence

• Emotional appeal

Answer explanation

Empirical evidence is evidence that can be experienced or observed. 

Scientific research is considered empirical evidence.

Match the following type of evidence with its example

• Information proven to be true

• Facts

• A scientist speaking on climate change

• Expert opinions

• illustrations of an idea

• Anecdote

• A personal story related to the topic

• Examples

• Percentages, averages, numerical data

• Statistics

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

Four years ago, Lane said, she’d tried to get an absentee ballot in the presidential election but was denied because it was her first time voting. She didn’t have a car, or the time, in between classes, to drive three hours to vote.

“I felt really discouraged. Like it was another way to really limit my vote,” she said. “It’s really hard to say we’re not voting when we’re not allowed to vote,” she said of young people (insidehighered.com 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote? Kaela Bynoe, a medical student in Baltimore, had been checking the mail every day to see whether her absentee ballot had arrived from her home state of Florida. But it never showed up, and she began to worry it would be too late for her to send it back before the state’s mail-in deadline. So Bynoe, 23, made alternative plans: She spent $600 on a last-minute flight to vote in person. Upon arriving in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, she took an Uber straight from the airport to the nearest polling site, cast her ballot and turned right back around to catch a return flight to Maryland (washingtonpost.com 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testiomy

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

Some voters, like Sabrina Epstein, a student at Johns Hopkins University who advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, are physically unable to stand in long lines to vote.

“While it's really exciting to see these images of long lines to vote because so many people are early voting, to people with physical disabilities like myself, that is an image of inaccessibility,” she says (WBUR.org 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic

What type of evidence is presented in the following quote?

“Any change in the mechanics and processes of voting can have an impact,” said D. Sunshine Hillygus, author of “Making Young Voters” and a political-science professor at Duke. “It’s a particularly large hurdle for those who don’t have experience with the process” (NYT.com 2020).

• Anecdote

• Statistic

• Expert testimony

• Logic