Meaning & use
textual evidence
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Words taken directly from a written text that are used to support an idea, answer, or opinion.
Grammar: No plural and no article: you say 'textual evidence', not 'a textual evidence'.
Patterns
- textual evidence for something
- textual evidence that ...
- use textual evidence
- cite textual evidence
The teacher asked us to find textual evidence for our interpretation of the poem.
Her essay was strong because she used textual evidence from the novel to support every point.
Without textual evidence, your argument is just a personal opinion.
Common combinations
- cite textual evidence
- You must cite textual evidence when you write a literary analysis.
- strong textual evidence
- The lawyer presented strong textual evidence from the contract.
- textual evidence supports
- The textual evidence supports the idea that the narrator is unreliable.
- find textual evidence
- Students were asked to find textual evidence for each claim.
Synonyms and how they differ
Commonly confused: textual evidence or text evidence?
textual evidence vs text evidence
This is a less formal version of the same idea, often used in schools. 'Textual evidence' is preferred in academic writing.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'textual evidence' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Textual evidence' is uncountable, so it cannot take 'a' or a plural form. Option 3 is correct because it uses the phrase without an article and with a preposition ('from'). Options 1, 2, and 4 are wrong because they treat it as countable.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “textual evidence”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.