When you are writing a paper about literary works, it is important to identify appropriate evidence, or examples, to support your thesis. Some evidence might be stated directly, but others may be less clear. This lesson will show how to select and organize information from a text.
Explicit information is written out clearly, whereas implicit information is not. Compare the two examples:
Explicit: It was raining when the man left the building.
Implicit: The man sighed and opened his umbrella when he left the building.
In the second example, you can get the idea that it was raining because the man was not happy (he sighed) and used his umbrella. You know this without the exact words being written.
When you are writing a paper, it is important to choose evidence that supports your thesis. Both explicit and implicit ideas are acceptable, as long as they relate to the topic. You can use the information either as a quote, which is directly copying the text, or by paraphrasing, which is giving the meaning using your own words.
Quote: The narrator begins Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird by saying, “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”
Paraphrasing: The narrator begins Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird with a story about the brother’s arm being badly broken.