1. Citing Text Evidence
Adding Commentary

2. What is commentary?
Just as its name suggests, commentary is when you comment on the text evidence.
Again you will need to start the sentence with a lead.
This shows ______.
This means ______.
This is because ______.
This illustrates _______.
This proves ________.
One can clearly see ________.
From this one can learn _______.
As a result _______.
Therefore _______.
In other words ______.
Here the author proves _______.
This is a benefit/disadvantage because _____.
This highlights the difference between _____.

3. Notice how the commentary helps explain the text evidence.
For example:
According to the story, “Stephanie hated watching scary movies” (Jones, 4). This explains why she refused to go with Rachel and Emma to the movie theater.
Notice how the commentary helps explain the text evidence.

4. Why do you need it? Commentary has various purposes
To explain text evidence
To support text evidence
To make clear why that text evidence was used
The author wrote, "here is a piece of cake and a bottle of milk" (Grimm, 1). This proves Little Red was trying to help her grandmother when she went to visit her.
Here the commentary is supporting the text evidence.

5. The big picture
When writing, you will need to include everything you learned about text evidence, citations, and commentary.
To help you remember this, I will use the acronym LECC (Lost Evidence Can’t Count)
lead, evidence, citation, commentary
In the text it described, “Her only happiness was being outside” (Sims, 43). In other words, she could never be truly happy indoors. Grace needed to be outside and explore the world around her.
Notice how the commentary is further explaining the text evidence.