Claim:

Tips and hints:
Reasons
There are two questions to ask as you examine the reasons you have listed. First, Are they really good reasons? A reason is only as good as the values it invokes or implies. A value is something we think is good, worth pursuing for its own sake or because it leads to attaining other goods. For each reason you should specify the values involved and then determine whether you accept those values as generally binding.

Second, ask Is the reason relevant to the thesis? In other words, does the relationship between the claim and the reason hold up to examination? For example, the claim "You should buy a new car from Fred Feed." cannot be supported by the reason "Fred is a family man with three cute kids." unless you accept a realtionship between an auto dealer's having three cute kids and his or her reliability in dealing with customers.

The following example is from The Aims of Argument (Crusius and Channell)
Claim: Everyone, gay and straight will benefit from extending the basic human right of marriage to all couples, regardless of sexual preference.
Reason: It would reinforce family values such as monogamy and the two-parent family.
Reason: It would provide a means of keeping beople from burdening society.
Reason: Denying them the right to marry is discrimination
Reason: The love homosexuals have for one another is not different from love between heterosexuals.

Evidence
You want to examine and choose the evidence by asking two questions: Is the evidence good? (read: sufficient, accurate and credible) and It is relevant to the reason it supports?

Here is an example that illustrates reasons and evidence in action (from Aims of Argument):

Claim: Everyone, gay and straight will benefit from extending the basic human right of marriage to all couples, regardless of sexual preference.
Reason: It would reinforce family values such as monogamy and the two-parent family.
Evidence: Marriage stabilizes relationships (Sources: Rauch 23; Dean 114) - Be sure to include the author's name and the page number in your outline, so finding the exact information when you begin drafting will be easier.
Evidence: Children of gays and lesbians should not be denied having two parents. (Sources: dean 114; Sullivan; salholz)
Evidence: If gays can have and adopt children, they should be able to marry.

Reason: It would provide a means of keeping beople from burdening society.
Evidence: Spouses take care of each other (Sources: Rauch)

Reason: Denying them the right to marry is discrimination
Evidence: Marraige includes rights to legal benefits (Source: Dean 112)
Evidence: Domestic partnerships fail to provide these rights. (Sources: Dean 112; Salholz)
Evidence: Barring these marriages voilates many democratic principles. (Sources: "Declaration"; Dean 113; Salholz)

Reason: The love homosexuals have for one another is not different from love between heterosexuals.
Evidence: Many gays and lesbians are in monogamous relationships (Source: Ayers 5)
Evidence: They have the same need to amek a public, legal commitment (Source: Sullivan)