Central Ideas Supporting Details

When trying to find supporting details for a text, what should you ask?

• What are the 5Ws about the central idea?

• What idea or argument is the author trying to convey to the reader about the topic?

• What or who is the paragraph about?

The answers to the 5 Ws are the supporting details of the text.

• True

• False

Which term best describes the main idea of a piece of writing?

• supporting detail

• central point

• broad topic

• statement of opinion

Which of the following is a supporting detail of this paragraph?

• Robots are being used in sumo wrestling contests

• Robots sumo contests are better than human sumo contests.

• Robot sumo uses robots instead of humans.

• Watching robot sumo is boring.

In the phrase, "The main idea is buttressed by supporting details," what is the best synonym for buttressed?

• Backed

• Refuted

• Confounded 

• Weakened

In an essay, details serve a similar function to: 

• An instructional manual for putting together furniture

• The characters in a work of fiction

• Blank pages in a notebook

• The evidence an attorney needs to convict a criminal

What supporting detail might you find in the same article?

• People who eat healthy foods live longer

• Healthy foods include vegetables and protein

• Healthy foods are good for you

• Eating is necessary to sustain life

If you wanted to find the main idea in a piece of writing, where would you look?

• In the first sentence

• In the first sentence of the second paragraph 

• In the last sentence of the first paragraph 

• There's no one place where the main idea is found

If you can't figure out the main idea of a passage, what should you do?

• Try to recall every specific detail in the passage

• Ask yourself general questions about the passage

• Read the passage once and don't look at it again

• Read the passage over and over until you have it memorized

What inference can you make about main ideas in writing?

• They're always based in fact and never opinion 

• To be effective, they must be supported by facts 

• In many essays, they have nothing to do with the topic 

• Most pieces of writing lack main ideas