Evidence: what supports the statement you are reading?

When we read about ADHD, we want to know more than whether a page contains references. We want to find the support for the particular statement in front of us. You can start with one sentence instead of trying to evaluate a whole subject at once.

Three statements about one reading corner

Imagine a fictional community newsletter describing a new reading corner. It contains three different statements: the room has six seats; one visitor enjoyed the quieter location; the change made everyone's reading better. These are not three versions of the same question.

In this example, a dated photograph shows six chairs, although it does not tell us whether every chair was available during the event. A visitor's message records their own reaction. Neither item establishes the broad claim about everyone's reading. The newsletter provides no study or other analysis for that last assertion.

Jordan, a parent, leaves a note asking what was measured before and after the change. Their teen notices that the visitor's positive account still matters as that person's experience. They can respect the account without enlarging it into a finding about every visitor or every person with ADHD.

An evidence-to-statement card

Choose one factual sentence from something you are already reading. On paper, record:

• Statement: what exactly is being asserted?
• Support supplied: which passage, observation, document, or analysis?
• Connection: how does that support address this statement?
• Scope: whose experience, which setting, and what dates are described?
• Remaining gap: what does the material leave unanswered?

For the invented newsletter, the final field might say: “We found a personal account, not a measurement of everyone's reading.” Keep that wording separate from “Nobody benefited,” which the same material also does not establish.

Questions can differ within a family

A sibling might want to know whether there is space to sit together. A grandparent might ask whether the description is current. An educator might need the actual research report behind a teaching claim. The relevant question changes what each person looks for; no relative has to become the household's permanent research checker.

If a source is inaccessible, record that limit. Reading a headline or abstract is not reading the methods and full results. You may leave a judgment open rather than filling the gap with an assumption about what the unseen material probably says.

What this page does not decide

This is a reading exercise, not a clinical evidence-grading system or a legal standard of proof. We are not deciding whether a treatment is suitable, whether a service works, or whether a personal account is admissible anywhere. Keep those questions outside the newsletter example. Its purpose is simply to make the connection between a statement and its offered support visible.

Source

[1] Bermingham R. Understanding research evidence. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; September 8, 2020; accessed September 6, 2026. Opening explanation supports [1]. This is research-reading guidance, not a clinical guideline. The newsletter and card are original illustrations.

Related guides

• Primary source
• Hypothesis
• Systematic review
• Note-taking