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arrested Mr. Ramos for running a gambling establishment. [Writer embeds narrative of racism without commenting on it; notice that she sticks to the vividly evoked facts] After clearing himself of those charges, he went to work in the cutoff department of the Greif/Genesco Corporation where he stayed for twenty-eight years. He and his wife Carmen have raised nine children in Allentown. As one of the pioneers of the Puerto Rican community, Jesus tried to smooth the way for others. [Here, the writer generalizes about her subject, turning him into a representative figure] He lobbied for Genesco to hire more Spanish speaking people and was one of the founders of Casa Guadalupe, a community center dispensing social services. Despite his efforts, things weren’t always easy. “As long as you spoke Spanish, they looked at you different, and you had to work three times harder than the others,” he says in fluent, heavily accented English. [Notice the implied commentary in the fact that after 40 years Ramos continues to sound Puerto Rican but also to speak his new language fluently: he inhabits two worlds, whether out of reluctance to deny his Puerto Rican heritage or inability to do so] He recalls one occasion when a subordinate co-worker quit rather than take orders from a Puerto Rican. [Although use of the word “recalls” tells us that the whole account was told to the writer by Ramos, she is selective about what she actually quotes and exerts her influence in this way]

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Try This 8.2: Finding Kinds of Evidence

Find and examine a piece of writing that makes use of anecdotal evidence. Such evidence can take the form of stories or brief story-like examples in which the writer reports his or her own or others’ experience and observations. You might look for examples of this kind of evidence in a magazine like the New Yorker, in a feature article of a newspaper’s Sunday magazine section, in a chapter from a nonfiction book on some feature of contemporary life and culture, in a historical account (since history-writing often makes use of anecdotal evidence), in a transcript of a radio interview such as the kind Terry Gross conducts in her program “Fresh Air” on public radio, and so forth.

You could also look at a textbook you are using, or seek out a textbook on economics or sociology or anthropology. Try to determine what in a given section of the book might be categorized as anecdotal evidence. Also try to name and categorize the other kinds of evidence the book uses.

Remember that there are more kinds of evidence than we have named and illustrated in this chapter. Start getting into the habit of asking yourself, “What kind of evidence is this, and how is it used?”

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Case Studies: Two Examples

The case study is a cousin of anecdotal evidence in that it relies on in-depth and careful description of a particular case in point. The case study is a common form of what is known as qualitative research, as opposed to quantitative (numerical) research, in the social sciences. Each discipline has its own rules governing the method of conducting a case study.

The first example is a piece of what’s called ethnographic writing wherein the writer uses description to come to terms with and understand some kind of cultural experience. This piece, by Elissa Davidowitz, was written for a course on research methodologies in education. Notice how, in the words of her professor, Pearl Rosenberg, the excerpt combines “ongoing data collection, self-reflexive thinking, and socio-cultural analysis” and captures “her humility in the face of an unfamiliar task in relation to real people.”

I didn’t understand how Kent could give the other students such a hard time for dropping out of school when he did the same thing. Yes, they dropped out of school, but they are here five days a week at 8:30 in the morning to get their GED. Doesn’t that make them somewhat credible? I thought so. After working with Kent I was left with many questions. I knew from my short time with him that he was a man struggling to maintain his self-worth and self-respect.