Main Idea and Supporting Details

Details

Facts, statistics, examples, stories, quotations, definitions, reasons, comparisons which support your main idea; details help make the main idea clear

Summarizing

Retelling the main ideas of a text in your own words.

supporting detail

a piece of information or example that supports the main idea

interesting detail

a piece of information that does not support the main idea

central idea

a term that means the same thing as main idea

conclusion

an ending or wrap-up for your writing

Supporting Details

information or facts that support or add more to the main idea

Quoting

states word for word from the text and uses quotation marks

Main Idea

the central or most important idea about a topic that the writer wants to communicate to readers.

subject

the topic of the text - usually one or two words at most

Plagarize

to copy the words or ideas of another and claim as your own

Paraphrasing

to rewrite a text in your own words

main idea

what the author wants the reader to know about the subject

Topic

what the story, passage or other text is about