[MUSIC] English for teaching purposes. [MUSIC] Presenting evidence. [MUSIC] >> When student's faces start screaming, show me the evidence, it may be time to start proving your point. And to prove a point, you need evidence. Let's examine what evidence is. [MUSIC] Evidence. Scientific evidence that is, is what we obtain when we either observe or experiment to gain knowledge about a particular phenomenon. The presentation of evidence is a verb matter. That means that the verbs we use to present it will almost magically encode what our position about such information is. Let's examine an example. When we say, we suppose that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. It's different from saying, we have proved that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Of course, these two sentences are out of context. For the sake of argument, imagine they share one. We're in a physics class, and you're examining the work that led to the formula. In the first sentence, the speaker is only stating that she either assumes that everyone would naturally accept what's stated by the formula to be true. Or she feels skeptical about the statement. The second sentence though, indicates that the process used to verify the truth of the formula has been performed and worked. And so, what it states isn't questionable. Making conscious and intentional verb choices is really important when presenting evidence. Oh, and by the way, the classification of verbs we will be working with is only loosely based on Halliday. It's only intended to help you choose your words carefully. When you report results using verbs of saying, you're merely repeating someone else's words if you use subjects like he, she, or they, as in. Sheldon Cooper said that the universe started with a big bang. Add a reduced passive form, and you will be clearly establishing that rather than endorsing a notion, you're just uttering an idea with which you're not necessarily committed. It has been reported that the Moon is the Earth's satellite. We will now present some verbs of saying. Say, tell, report, explain, express, suggest, argue, allege, stress, emphasize, state, deny, and question. You won't see the next category in any book, but I think it helps to see these verbs as a separate group. What's unique about them, is that they seem to help us draw attention toward something in much the same way we do it if we could physically point at it. These verbs of pointing establish a comfortable distance between the speaker and the finding that she's referring to when used with subject other than I, or we. Laura Ingalls indicated that many trees blossom in spring. When we get involved in the action like in, we pointed out that electricity is needed to run a lab. We take responsibility for drawing our students' attention towards something, but only that. These verbs allow you to take a safe stand and describe any phenomenon from it. Here is the short list of verbs. Indicate, show, illustrate, identify, point out, pinpoint, present, represent, describe, depict, discover, reveal and unveil. Verbs of thinking are also reporting verbs. But they are trickier than the verbs of saying because they also encode beliefs. We tend to express stronger conviction about both someone else's ideas and ours when using verbs of thinking. Hermione Granger thinks that Harry Potter is a hero. I know that four is the sum of three plus one, or two plus two. The following are a few of the most common common verbs of thinking. Think, believe, acknowledge, assume, consider, analyze, evaluate, know, understand, assess, reject, imply, interpret, and justify. These verbs are also a practical category, but by no means a formal one. They highlight the quest accomplished. They also state with little doubt that whatever evidence you're presenting stands as proof. As in all the previous cases, the degree of responsibility and your own commitment with the information being presented depend also on who you identify as the doer of the action. I have just demonstrated that water is made of Oxygen and Hydrogen. Mark Darcy proved that all men are the same. Next is a list of verbs approving. Obtain, get, equal, tackle, conclude, verify, certify, prove, disprove, refute. It takes more than verbs to express how certain you are about the evidence you're presenting. There's a whole system that expresses, how sure you are about the things you're saying. We will explore that on our video expressing certainty. Stay tuned. [MUSIC]