A Christmas Carol - Illustrating and Supporting Points

This high school English Literature quiz is about illustrating and supporting points and looks at A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Whenever you wish to argue a point about a text, you need to rely on evidence. You can strengthen your case by referring specifically and accurately to evidence from a text. Quoting accurately from a text is not the easiest of skills to learn, however. This quiz gives you the chance to test these vital literary skills. See how well you can identify the answers which have incorporated the evidence in support of a point accurately and grammatically. And when writing your own essays or exam answers, don’t forget to follow up your quotation with an explanation, too!

How to use evidence to support a point:

There are three primary methods of using evidence when writing about a text: the first is to paraphrase, the second is to quote single words or short phrases, and the third is to quote longer sections of text. Although sometimes neglected, paraphrasing is one of the easiest methods and is an essential skill in writing. The use of paraphrasing clearly demonstrates your knowledge of a text, even though you do not quote directly. This is the most useful method of using evidence when you do not have the text to hand (especially during an exam).

Selectively quoting single words or phrases is effective and is particularly useful when you wish to draw attention to a specific choice of language. By mixing paraphrase and a short quotation in the same sentence, you can be flexible in your writing and use of evidence. This is much more elegant and clear than writing long sentences full of multiple quotations. Sentences full of multiple quotations can be clumsy and very difficult to read.

The third, and final, method is to quote a full sentence or more. This method is appropriate if quoting a short phrase that would not make sense on its own, or if you would like to discuss a longer quotation in detail.

Remember: only use quotation marks around a single word if that word is significant in itself. Do not quote an ordinary word just because it happens to appear in the text. This is unnecessary and distracting to your reader. If you are using an exact phrase or sentence from the text, remember to put quotation marks around it.

See how you do with this quiz on the best way to illustrate and support points made about A Christmas Carol. Remember, the purpose of this quiz is to test your ability to quote and to paraphrase, rather than your knowledge of the text. One helpful tip is that it might be easier to eliminate the incorrect answers first!