Evidence & Objects (ci-evidence-and-objects)
In Critical Inquiry there are no datasets — the evidence is objects read closely: literary
and philosophical texts, paintings, photographs, films, buildings, performances, archival documents,
political or historical cases. This skill helps you pick objects that actually test the intervention,
read them so the claim is earned, and prepare images to the journal's standard.
When to trigger
- Choosing which texts/images/cases the essay will read
- An argument that asserts more than its objects can demonstrate
- A reading that is rich but not visibly tied to the claim
- Preparing figures and image permissions for submission
Choose objects that do work
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The object must test the claim. Pick cases that could in principle resist the argument, not
only ones that flatter it. A reading earns trust when the object pushes back and the claim survives.
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Few and deep over many and thin. CI prizes close reading; one object read to the hilt beats a
catalog of examples skimmed. Let the analysis go far into the particular.
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Right scale of object. Match the object to the claim — a single image for a claim about seeing;
a passage for a claim about a concept's grammar; a case for a claim about a practice.
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Interdisciplinary objects welcome. CI essays routinely cross media — a poem and a painting, a
film and a treatise — when the juxtaposition earns the conceptual point.
Read so the claim is earned
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Show the work. Walk the reader through the text/image; do not assert what it "obviously" means.
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Quote and describe precisely. Exact language, exact visual detail — the analysis lives here.
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Let the object talk back. Note the friction, ambiguity, or counter-evidence and incorporate it;
honesty about the object strengthens the intervention (see
ci-argument-and-intervention).
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Tie every reading to the turn. Each analysis should advance the claim, not display erudition.
Object dossier (one per object, before drafting)
The footnote is CI's only bibliographical record and image rights are the author's problem; settle
these per object before drafting:
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Exact edition, translation, or version. The Chicago note cites what you actually read; for
translated material, decide whose translation carries the analysis.
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Images: locate a source yielding 300 ppi JPEG/TIFF, identify the rights holder, estimate
permission cost now — a reading built on an image you cannot clear is stranded.
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Films / performances: fix the print, cut, or recording analyzed; the frame the claim rests on
may not exist in another version.
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The recalcitrant detail: the feature most likely to embarrass the claim, and where the essay
meets it.
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The falsifier sentence: "if this object does not show ___, the claim about ___ fails." If
nothing could fail, the object is decoration.
Micro-example — illustration vs. test
Illustrating (weak). "The daguerreotype confirms the standard account of the copy: a mechanical
reproduction lacking the presence of an original." The sentence survives with any photograph
substituted, or none — the object merely nods along.
Testing (CI-shaped). "On that account the daguerreotype should have shed its singularity — yet
the creased corner and pencilled date on its verso are exactly what the sitter's descendants travel
to touch; either singularity survives reproduction unpredicted, or it was never singularity, and the
essay must decide." A material detail forces a choice the concept cannot make alone. (Fictional.)
Images to journal standard
- Supply images as separate files, 300 ppi, JPEG or TIFF — not embedded in the Word file.
- Keep a numbered figure list with captions and full credit lines.
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Secure permissions for in-copyright images yourself, before publication — budget time and money
(see
ci-submission and ci-citation-and-style).
- Use figures the argument reads; an image in CI is an object of analysis, not decoration.
Anti-patterns
- Cherry-picking only confirming examples; ignoring the recalcitrant object
- A pile of thin examples instead of one deep reading
- Asserting a text's meaning without showing the reading
- Embedding low-res images or leaving permissions to the last minute
Output format
【Objects】the texts / images / cases the essay reads
【Why these】how each tests (not just illustrates) the claim
【Depth check】close reading, not a catalog? [Y/N]
【Counter-evidence】where the object resists, and how handled
【Images】separate 300 ppi JPEG/TIFF + permissions plan
【Next】ci-theory-and-method
Supplementary resources
