Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Illustrating and Supporting Points

By referring specifically and accurately to evidence from a text, you make your writing much more effective. This essential skill is not the easiest to learn and definitely requires practice. Attention to detail and punctuation is also required in order to get things right. This quiz is designed to test the vital literary skills of quoting evidence from a text in support of a point. How well are you able to identify the answers which have done this accurately? 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 key methods of using evidence from a text and you should practice each of these. These methods are paraphrasing, quoting single words or short phrases, and quoting longer sections of text. One of the easiest of these methods is paraphrasing; it’s amazing how often this useful skill is overlooked. Spend some time practicing paraphrasing because it is an essential aspect of good writing. When you paraphrase some text in your own words, you clearly demonstrate your knowledge. This skill is especially important in exam situations where you do not have the text to hand.

A second method is to select individual words and phrases from the text which support the point you wish to make. This is another very useful skill to possess when faced with an exam, especially if you have memorized short, relevant quotes from the text. If you wish to draw attention to language choice or to minor details in the text, this is the best method to use. Writing essays which use quotes from texts takes plenty of practice and you might like to consider combining methods. Mixing paraphrase with short quotations in the same sentence can be especially effective. Being capable of this type of flexibility will help you to avoid writing long sentences crammed full of multiple short quotations. These sorts of sentences are often awkward and very difficult to read.

The final method of using evidence is to quote a full sentence or more. When a short phrase does not make sense on its own or incorporating a short quote grammatically does not seem possible, this is the method to use. It also works well when you plan to discuss a longer quotation in detail.

Remember: avoid quoting single, ordinary words just because they are used in the text. For single words, quotation marks should only be used if the word itself is significant. An ordinary word only requires quotation marks if there is something significant about its use. You wouldn’t need to quote an everyday word such as “glove”, if it is in fact referring to a glove, but only if it is being used in an unexpected or unusual way, for example as part of a metaphor. You must use quotation marks whenever you use an exact phrase or sentence from the text.

Try this quiz on the best way to use evidence from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The aim of this quiz is to test your ability to quote and to paraphrase; your knowledge of the text is not being tested here. One helpful tip is that it might be easier to eliminate the incorrect answers first!