Transcript Chapter 7: Focusing on Supporting Details in Longer Readings From this chapter, you’ll learn • how to adapt what you know about supporting details.

Chapter 7: Focusing on Supporting Details
in Longer Readings
From this chapter, you’ll learn
• how to adapt what you know about supporting
details in paragraphs to longer readings.
• how opening sentences of supporting
paragraphs guide your understanding of the
author’s thought.
• how the location of the thesis statement
affects the placement of supporting details.
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A Quick Overview of the Similarities Between Single
Paragraphs and Multi-Paragraph Readings
Individual paragraphs and multi-paragraph readings both
1. generally focus on one central idea.
2. move back and forth between general and specific levels of
thought.
3. make use of introductions that pave the way for the main
idea.
4. sometimes introduce or restate the main idea at the end.
5. employ transitional devices that help readers follow the
author’s train of thought.
6. sometimes imply rather than state the overall main idea.
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What are the Differences?
1. Thesis statements expressing the main idea of a longer
reading often extend beyond a single sentence.
2. Major and minor details are entire paragraphs rather than
single sentences.
3. Titles frequently introduce the topic or even the main idea.
4. Headings in longer readings frequently help readers identify
the point of the supporting detail paragraphs.
5. The purpose of the reading is easier to identify.
6. The opening sentence of supporting detail paragraphs
frequently tell you how the new paragraph connects to the
previous one.
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The Key Difference: The Importance of
Developing Double Vision
• With multi-paragraph readings, you have to keep
an eye on how the overall main idea is developed
paragraph by paragraph. However, you also have
to understand each individual paragraph in its
own right.
• Put another way, you have to figure out how the
overall main idea controls the individual
paragraphs and how the individual paragraphs
develop the main idea of the entire reading.
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Controlling Main Idea Determines
What Appears in the Supporting
Detail Paragraphs.


Supporting Details Make the
Controlling idea Meaningful by
Answering Questions it Raises.
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A Six-Step Outline of the Thought Process Appropriate
for Multi-Paragraph Readings With a Thesis Statement
1.
Start reading with the intention of finding a sentence or group
of sentences more general than the rest.
2.
Once you find one or more, check to see if the idea expressed
continues to be developed in more specific detail.
3.
If it is, then you have probably found the thesis statement.
4.
Consider what you need to know to make that statement
convincing.
5.
Read to see if the remaining paragraphs provide answers to the
questions raised by the thesis statement you have identified.
6.
If they don’t, re-think your first idea about the thesis
statement.
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© Ulrich Flemming
A Few Words to the Wise
• Pay special attention to how the
paragraphs following the thesis
statement begin.
• It’s at the beginning of those
paragraphs that you are most likely to
find clues to how the new paragraph
connects to the previous one.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
© Ulrich Flemming
• BUT if you think the thesis statement
opens a chapter section or reading,
then start looking for the supporting
details in the very first paragraph.
• In other words: Be a flexible reader
and adapt your strategies to the
material.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Here’s the first paragraph of a four-paragraph reading.
Is there one or more sentences in this paragraph that could function
as a thesis statement?
Searching for Romance on Craigslist
Pretty much everyone who uses it agrees. Craigslist, the free Web
classifieds offering everything from used bikes and laptops to apartment
rentals and antiques, is a godsend. There’s nothing that can’t be found on
Craigslist, and that even includes romance. Scan the “Missed Connections”
section, for instance, and you’ll spot ads like these: “I was wearing a black
suit and a blue tie. You were walking along West 45th. I told you that you
had the legs of a dancer. You smiled at me but said you were in a hurry.
Your last words were, ‘Too bad, I can’t chat.’ If you meant what you said, can
you get in touch with me here?” And who knows, maybe the guy in the
black suit and blue tie did get the response he wanted. For him at least,
posting on Craigslist may have been the right thing to do. But if it was, was
he just a lucky exception, or is Craigslist a convenient and appropriate place
to go when romance isn’t turning up close to home?
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Does this paragraph continue the same train of thought? Why is the
word “advice” highlighted? What does the word “however” signal?
Do you see a general sentence you think might be further
developed?
Paragraph 2: Certainly, many people seem to think so,
and the Web is filled with advice about how to find a date
on Craigslist. However, much of that advice is also tinged
with a warning: Be smart about how you go about it
because there are dangers. One piece of advice is to meet
initially in public places. And whatever you do, don’t give
out all your contact information right away. Make sure,
too, that you let a friend or family member know where
you are meeting someone you’ve met through a Craigslist
posting.
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Where do you see the author’s train of thought going now?
Paragraph 3: While many of the men or women
answering ads may be perfectly delightful, it’s still
true that Craigslist does not vet any of the people
who submit or respond to ads. Thus, it’s perfectly
possible for a psychopath to slip through the safety
net, because, in point of fact, no safety net exists.
It’s also true that those who are mentally disturbed
enough to commit assault, rape, or murder don’t
have the words “certified crazy” tattooed on their
foreheads, so one meet-up before a date is
probably not enough.
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Is this a major or a minor detail? What train of thought does it
develop? What does the phrase “after all” signal? How does the last
sentence connect to the opening paragraph?
Paragraph 4: After all, it’s unlikely that troubled
individuals will give themselves away in one short
meeting, and when they do reveal themselves, it
just might be too late. Thus, it’s smarter to meet
the person you are interested in several times
rather than just once before actually going out on a
date. And when you do get together, make it for a
party or a movie, or some other nice public place.
In other words, if you do turn to Craigslist for
romance, make sure to play it safe.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
© Ulrich Flemming
Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details in
Longer Readings
You’ve previewed the major
concepts and skills introduced in
Chapter 7. Take this quick quiz to
test your mastery of those skills
and concepts, and you are ready
to read the chapter.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details in
Longer Readings
1.With longer readings, what does the title
usually do?
2.Should readers expect longer readings to
focus on several key ideas rather than one?
3.Why do you need double vision when reading
a multi-paragraph selection?
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details in
Longer Readings
4. What word or words would you expect to be
developed in the supporting details following
this thesis statement? What questions do
you think the supporting details would need
to answer?
“Wallets are fast becoming a thing of the past
as smartphone apps offers us more and more
ways to make purchases.”
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5.
Here’s a scratch outline for a brief paper. Of the main ideas shown for the
paragraphs supporting the thesis statement, which two would you
eliminate and why?
Thesis statement: A new study suggests that happiness can be contagious. In
other words, if we are around people who are happy, we start to feel happy too.
Supporting Main Ideas
1. An additional study reveals that pet owners experience less anxiety and live longer
than non-pet owners do.
2.
In the study, American researchers tracked close to 5,000 people to answer this
question: “Does your happiness depend on your actions and thoughts or the actions
and thoughts of others?”
3.
The study showed that being around happy spouses was important but being around
happy friends of the same gender was even more important.
4.
Money did not seem to play as significant a role in making people happy as being
around other happy people did.
5.
Almost every study on the effect of children on marriage suggests that the arrival of a
child does not enhance marital happiness.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
© Ulrich Flemming
Brain Teaser Challenge
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Sentences a and e would be unlikely to appear in the supporting
details for the opening thesis statement. Can you explain why would
they be ineffective as supporting details?
“Wallets are fast becoming a thing of the past as smartphone apps
offer us more and more ways to make purchases.”
a. Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, is also the creator of Square
app.
b. With a few taps of your Smartphone, you can order a meal, buy a
movie ticket, or loan your friend twenty bucks.
c. Starbucks alone has processed more than 45 million digital
payments made by customers using a smart phone.
d. With the StubHub app loaded on their phone, movie goers can
purchase tickets without standing in line.
e. In 2010 the number of individuals who got hacked via
applications installed on their Smartphone doubled.
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