Power Verbs in Text Analysis

To show how two characters are alike and different, you would ________ them.

• support

• compare and contrast

• describe

• summarize

When you provide reasons and evidence to back up a claim in an essay, you ________ your thesis.

• explain

• analyze

• support

• trace

To make something clear and provide details about how or why it works, you ________ it.

• summarize

• explain

• evaluate

• infer

When you give a brief overview of the main points of a text, you ________ it.

• describe

• formulate

• summarize

• analyze

To figure out something that is not directly stated in the text by using clues, you ________.

• infer

• predict

• trace

• support

When you provide vivid details to create a picture in the reader's mind, you ________ something.

• compare

• describe

• evaluate

• formulate

To break down a text or idea into its parts and examine how they relate to each other, you ________ it.

• analyze

• predict

• support

• trace

Based on the information in the text, to guess what might happen next, you ________.

• explain

• predict

• evaluate

• summarize

To judge the value or effectiveness of something in the text, you ________ it.

• describe

• analyze

• evaluate

• compare

To follow the development or progression of an idea or event throughout the text, you ________ it.

• infer

• formulate

• trace

• explain