STUDY

In the last lesson, we practiced looking for the topic and main idea: What is the text about? What does the writer want to say about that topic? The writer then uses specific information to explain general information. These are called supporting details. They help us understand the writer's message.

Use specific supporting details to understand a more general main idea.

Example:

Think about the previous article.

• The topic is: steam engines.
• The main idea is: Steam engines had an unusual use.

As a reader, you want to know:

• What was the use?
• Why was it unusual?

You might notice the verb is in the past tense. So then you might want to know:

• When was this?

As you learn more about the story, you might then want to know: Who did this? Where did it happen? Why did they do this? How did it happen?

If you look closely at the questions above, you can notice that supporting details often answer the basic wh- questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how.

More importantly, however, the answers provide more specific information about a general idea. Compare these two sentences: