Rocket slaps a letter on the table. "This one has evidence everywhere. Nine boards, two soft boards, two cans of paint. Heavy!"
Raven reads it slowly. She stops at one line and taps it. "Read this one."
"My cousin's fence is bright blue and looks wonderful." Rocket shrugs. "True, probably."
"What do you notice about what it proves?"
Rocket thinks. "Nothing about our fence. It is about a different fence."
"True, but not relevant," Raven says. "It goes in the cup, but it should not count."
Nova hovers above the balance, her light on the blue-fence card. "Weight is not the only test," she says. "Ask what the card is tied to."
Evidence is relevant when it is connected to the claim it is meant to support. Irrelevant evidence may be true, but it proves nothing about the claim.
Writers sometimes slip irrelevant evidence in because it sounds good. A careful reader notices and sets it aside.
Raven thinks aloud: "The text says nine boards show bare wood. That is tied to the claim that the fence needs paint. The cousin's blue fence is tied to nothing in this garden."
Test each piece of evidence: If this is true, does it make the claim more likely? If not, it is irrelevant.
This letter ran in this week's Signal. Two of its sentences are true but irrelevant.
| Relevant or irrelevant? | True or false? |
|---|---|
| "Two boards near the gate have gone soft" is relevant. | ? |
| "My cousin's fence is bright blue" is relevant. | ? |
| "The shed holds two cans of fence paint" is relevant. | ? |
| Irrelevant evidence must be false. | ? |
Today you trace this argument in a paragraph. Use the checklist before you stop.
True is not the same as relevant. Tomorrow you test whether the reasoning holds and whether the evidence is enough.