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Prognosis:

If the patient is treated cognitively and chemically through drug therapy, vast improvement may be achieved. However, if criminal behavior persists, treatment may not be as effective. Similarly, if patient does not continue consistent treatment indefinitely, a relapse of symptoms is highly probable.

TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Types of evidence, as we’ve been noting, can be divided into two broad categories: quantitative (numerically based) and qualitative (based on interviews and other kinds of non-numerical data). Those who work with qualitative data tend to focus closely on words. We are using the term “textual evidence” to designate instances in which the language itself is of fundamental importance: both how things are worded and the range of meanings that key words might possess. Insofar as the actual language of a document counts, you are in the domain of textual evidence.

Perhaps the profession that most commonly uses textual evidence is the law, which involves interpreting the language of contracts, wills, statutes, statements of intention, etc. Similarly, diplomats, accountants, people in business—all those who must rely on written documents to guarantee understanding—need to be adept at textual analysis. People in such fields as literary study, media studies, and public relations also engage in textual analysis.

Notice in the following excerpt from a student paper how the writer focuses on particular words as evidence.

Excerpt from “Women and Nature in Lessing and Chopin”

Susan tends to fear everything connected to the natural world [General claim about feature of text she wishes to understand]. The heroine first shows signs of irrationality as she refuses to sit in her garden. Lessing describes, “She was filled with tension, like a panic: as if an enemy was in the garden with her” (Doris Lessing, “To Room 19” 2306) [Writer selects evidence]. This “enemy” is a threat to Susan’s carefully planned and structured life, and so she attempts to avoid nature. This becomes an interesting idea as the story clearly shows that Susan longs to yield to that “enemy” and to destroy her ordered existence. [Explains quoted evidence, selecting a particular word that organizes thinking in the text and that she proceeds to apply to the text as a whole] Susan decides she must have a holiday to free herself from the bondage that her children represent, and so she goes on a walking tour of Wales. But she never can truly be unfettered; even on a mountainside, her family is capable of dragging her back to her obligations. In this case, the telephone becomes Susan’s downfall, as Lessing writes, “Susan prowled over wild country with the telephone wire holding her to her duties like a leash” (2313). [Distinguishes organizing contrast in the language of additional evidence (freedom in nature vs. entrapment in domesticity) and uses it to develop claim] […] Susan is forced to deal with an unfaithful spouse instead of being the adulterous one herself. In her mind, sex does have close ties to nature, but she chooses to ignore it as her husband has hurt her by acting upon his passions. It does not seem to be a coincidence that room 19 is entirely green; the curtains, the bed, and the wicker chair all share the same hue. And when Matthew practically forces Susan to create an imaginary lover, she selects the name Michael Plant, an obvious reference to the natural equaling the sensual. [Locates additional evidence to confirm the pattern and further develop her claim]

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Try This 8.3: Using Textual Evidence

Here is another excerpt from the paper on women and nature. Study the passage and answer the following questions. Where do we see the writer’s general claim about the evidence? Where does she select the feature of the text she wants to focus on? How does the cited evidence organize her thinking—on what pattern or organizing contrast?

Chopin also applies the imagery of birds to her heroine, symbolically alluding to Edna’s wish to fly, in a sense, from all her responsibilities.