Central Idea

Summarizing

After reading a piece, you summarize by shortening the text into just the most important points.

Central Idea

Also known as the main idea; this is the most important thought of the entire text and tells the reader the author's main point in writing

Objective Summary

An objective summary is objective, meaning it does not contain your opinion. A good objective summary will only contain facts from the article, story, or text.

Details

Examples, facts, statistics, quotes, and explanations that an author includes in their writing.

Support

Information in a text is called support when the information helps to explain the central idea and topic of the story.

Thesis Statement

The last sentence of an introduction paragraph. This sentence sums up the author's main argument (central idea) and supporting details.

Author's purpose

The reason that an author is writing a certain piece--author's usually write for one of these purposes: 1. To persuade 2. To inform 3. To entertain

Supporting Details

These are facts, information, examples, etc. that help give the reader a full understanding of the central idea. They will clarify, explain, and describe the main idea so the reader understands it fully.

Development of an Idea

This is how the author "grows" the central idea and topic throughout their piece. At the start of the text, the central idea will be unclear, but by the end of the piece the reader will have a good understanding of it.

Topic Sentence

Usually the first sentence of a body paragraph. It tells the central idea or topic of that paragraph.

Topic

the subject that the article, writing, story, text focuses on