We have measured the spectra of electrons scattered from 6 Li and 12 C for invariant masses of the hadronic system W ≦ 1.5 GeV and four momentum transfers in the range 5 fm −2 ≦ q 2 ≦ 12 fm −2 . We compared the shape of the spectra with different nuclear models. The Fermigas model of the nucleus cannot reproduce the data. A shell model with short-range correlations fits the data with a correlation parameter q c ≈ 250 MeV/ c . From the absolute cross section the effective number of nucleons was derived for quasi-elastic scattering and found to be compatible with A , whereas the effective number of nucleons derived for the excitation of the Δ(1236) resonance was found to be 0.6 A
