Digital SATReading and Writing: Craft and StructureHard
A student is writing an argumentative essay about the necessity of preserving endangered languages. They have drafted the following topic sentence for a body paragraph: "The loss of indigenous languages represents an irreversible diminishment of human knowledge and cultural diversity." To effectively support this topic sentence, which of the following would be the most relevant type of evidence to include in the paragraph?
- AHistorical accounts of efforts to revive languages that were once thought lost.
- BAn analysis of the grammatical structure of a particularly complex endangered language.
- CExamples of unique ecological or medicinal knowledge encoded only in specific indigenous languages.
- DStatistics on the number of languages spoken globally versus those at risk of extinction.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Examples of unique ecological or medicinal knowledge encoded only in specific indigenous languages.
The topic sentence claims 'diminishment of human knowledge and cultural diversity.' Examples of unique knowledge (ecological, medicinal) directly demonstrate *what* is lost when a language disappears, thus providing the most direct and specific support for the claim.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Historical accounts of revival efforts are relevant to the broader topic but do not directly support the claim about what is *lost* when a language dies, which is the focus of the topic sentence.
- B. An analysis of grammatical structure, while interesting, doesn't directly support the claim about lost *knowledge* or *cultural diversity* in a broad sense.
- D. While relevant to the 'loss' aspect, statistics alone don't directly illustrate the 'diminishment of human knowledge and cultural diversity' as powerfully as specific examples of what is lost.
Relevant Evidence
Information, facts, or examples that directly support or prove a claim or argument.
- Must directly relate to the topic sentence or thesis.
- Strengthens the credibility of the argument.
- Can be statistics, examples, expert testimony, or anecdotes.
Memory trick: Evidence builds your argument, brick by convincing brick.