Chapter 5: Focus on Supporting
Details
From this chapter, you’ll learn
1. how topic sentences and supporting
details work together to create
meaning.
2. how to tell the difference between
major and minor details.
3. how writers rely on readers to infer
supporting details.
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5.1 Defining Terms
Supporting Details
• are specific sentences that explain, prove, or
suggest the main idea.
• can be reasons, illustrations, statistics,
definitions, etc.
• change according to the main idea they explain,
prove, or imply.
• clarify key terms and prove the author’s point.
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5.1 Connecting Topic Sentences and
Supporting Details
Topic Sentences
• use general language.
• make statements that raise questions.
Supporting Details
• place limits on how the general language can
be understood.
• answer the questions.
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5.1 Topic Sentences Raise
Questions
Topic Sentence:
Lyndon Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the
United States, did much good and even more
harm during his term in office.
Questions raised:
1. How did Johnson do good?
2. How did he do harm?
3. How is it possible to do both at the same time?
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5.1 Four Supporting Details Answer
The Three Questions
1. Johnson was responsible for the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
2. Thanks to Lyndon Johnson, those over the age of
sixty-five now have federally funded medical
assistance in the form of Medicare.
3. Yet, although all the signs were there that the
Vietnam War was disastrous for the United States
and for Vietnam, Johnson kept the war going.
4. His stubborn determination in the face of
guaranteed failure cost immeasurable suffering.
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Just so You Know
In 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson won the presidential
election by so many votes, he was nicknamed “Landslide
Johnson.” But by 1967, he had mired the United States
in the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia, a war that he
himself had worried would prove disastrous for the
country and for his presidency. As public opinion turned
against him, Johnson wasn’t sure he could win a second
term. On March 31, 1968, he announced on television
that he would not be a presidential candidate.
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5.2 Defining Terms
Major Details
• refer directly to the topic sentence.
• clarify or prove some part of the topic
sentence.
Minor Details
• follow and further develop major details.
• are the most specific sentences in the
paragraph.
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5.2 Major and Minor Details Work
Together to Develop the Topic
Sentence
If diagrammed, the topic sentence along with
the major and minor details, would look something like the ladder-like diagram that follows:
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5.2 Diagram of Major and Minor
Details with Topic Sentence
Main idea: Most people don’t realize that the holiday we call
Labor Day began under very sad circumstances.
Major Detail: It got its start when President
Grover Cleveland sent troops to break up a
railroad workers’ strike, and many striking
workers were injured; the strike was broken but
the public was angry.
Minor Detail: To calm the public’s
outrage, Congress rushed the
national holiday, called “Labor Day,”
into law.
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A Word to the Wise
Don’t be misled by the words major and
minor. Minor details can add important
information as they do in the previous
example. While some add just emphasis or
repetition, others provide key details.
Always evaluate the minor details.
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5. 2 Can you Identify the Topic Sentence
Along with the Major and Minor
Details?
1. The e-mail usually includes quotations from the
Bible.
2. With this scam, the target receives an e-mail from
someone, supposedly a foreigner, who wants to
spread the word of God but needs financial help
because of illness, age, or government interference.
3. One popular Internet scam involves people of the
Christian faith.
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5.2 Topic Sentences Can Offer Clues to Major
Details.
Some topic sentences provide explicit clues
to major details. These topic sentences
•
include very general words and phrases that are
plural and need individual examples to become
meaningful, for instance, “various characteristics,”
“new studies,” and “typical practices.”
•
leave it up to the major details to define each
characteristic, study, and practice.
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5.2 Which Topic Sentence Provides a
Clue to the Major Details?
• The American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
became a superstar in the art world practically over night,
after his picture appeared in a 1949 issue of Life
magazine.
• History has not been kind to John C. Calhoun (1782-1850),
the former vice-president and senator from North
Carolina.
• Early in the twentieth century, the Supreme Court’s rulings
in a number of key cases put teeth into the Constitution’s
guarantee of free speech.
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5.2 Recognizing Major Details
• The correct answer is the third sentence:
“Early in the twentieth century, the Supreme
Court’s rulings in a number of key cases put
teeth into the Constitution’s guarantee of free
speech.”
• The topic sentence announces to readers that
each ruling or case will be a major detail.
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5.2 Recognizing Major Details
Here’s a topic sentence. Read it carefully so you can
determine how it relates to the sentences that follow:
“For centuries, Chinese tradition celebrated the birth of
a male child but despaired over the birth of a female,
encouraging families to give male children better care than
females, but as the society suffers a growing shortage of
women to men, the government has launched a campaign
designed to counter the traditional view of female
insignificance.“
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5.2 Recognizing Major Details
Which sentences would be major details in
relation to the previous statement?
1. The government has begun offering bonuses to
families with more than one female child.
2. The government has also changed inheritance laws
making it easier for daughters to inherit family
property.
3. The bonuses are not large but they are an incentive
for most families.
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5.3 Questions to answer when
reading a sentence or paragraph:
1. What does the writer talk about in this sentence?
2. What does this sentence add to what came before?
3. What does the author want us to understand?
4. Why is this sentence here? What does it contribute
to meaning of the previous sentences?
5. Based on this sentence, what does it look like the
writer will discuss next?
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5.3 How to Question
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
1Many parents have noticed that their children do not pay attention
to them—they run around and do things in their own way. Summarizing: This
sentence just talks about ordinary kid behavior. It must be an introduction
because it doesn’t address the heading. Predicting: The next sentence will
probably explain when this kind of behavior gets labeled attention deficit
disorder. 2Sometimes this inattention is a function of age; in other instances,
it is a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, in which a child
shows a developmentally inappropriate lack of attention, impulsivity, and
hyperactivity. Questioning: How do they know when it’s a function of age
and when it’s a symptom of ADHD? The various symptoms of ADHD are
described below. Clarification: The writer must mean that when these
symptoms come together, then it’s ADHD rather than a stage the child is
going through. (Larry Siegel, Criminology, 10e © Cengage Learning.)
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5.3
1When
antibiotics arrived in the 1940s, they were hailed as wonder drugs. 2At the
time, they seemed a miraculous drug capable of curing bacterial-caused diseases like
tuberculosis and pneumonia, which had previously posed deadly threats. 3Currently,
though, antibiotics, while still essential to curing many diseases, are viewed with a
good deal more anxiety, and doctors are worried that antibiotics are losing some of
their healing power due to increasingly potent bacteria. 4Bacteria can mutate, or
change, over time. 5Unfortunately, some bacteria have undergone mutation and
adapted to the antibiotics that once destroyed them. 6The presence of antibacterial
Topic?
agents in soap and antibiotics in animal feed haven’t
helped the situation. 7Bacteria
a.pass
antibiotics
and super-bacteria
that survive an onslaught of antibiotics breed and
on their immunity
to their
offspring. 8As a result, there are some serious super-bacteria roaming the world, and
b. antibiotics
asfor
wonder
drugs.
9Vancomycin,
they are much less vulnerable to existing antibiotics.
instance,
was
once a magic bullet in the war on staph infections. 10But since 1996, a number of
c. newtoand
incurable
diseases
untreatable staph cases have been reported as resistant
Vancomycin
treatment.
11The hope was that the injectable antibiotic Synercid would step into the breach and
In your
own
idea
kill Vancomycin-resistant bacteria. 12Unfortunately,
Synercid
haswords,
seriouswhat
side effects.
about
topic
doescan
the
author
13More importantly, though, there are already signs
thatthe
some
bacteria
stand
up
want to communicate?
to even this potent antibiotic. T.S. ______
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5.3
1High
credit card balances could be costing you hundreds of dollars in
interest payments each year. 2To pay off your credit card debts and save
yourself money, create and then stick to a strict payment plan. 3The first step
in paying off your debts involves making a firm resolution to do so. 4Make a
promise to rid yourself of the extra expense of owing creditors. 5As part of
this resolution, avoid adding more changes; you may need to destroy your
credit cards in order to resist the temptation to use them again. 6Second, if
you have several credit card debts, you may want to consider consolidating
them. 7If possible, use a card with the lowest interest rate to pay off the
Topic?
others, or obtain a lower-interest personal bank
loan to pay off all of your
a. 8getting
rid of pay
debtmore than
cards and to reduce your overall interest rate.
Third, always
b. getting
rid of credit card debt
9This will
the minimum balance required by each creditor.
allow you to pay off
c. 10
buying on credit
the cards more quickly and save more money. Once you pay off all of your
11Plan to save money to
debts, save credit cards for emergencies only.
In your
own words, what idea
purchase items rather than obtain them on about
credit.the
T.S.topic
_____
does the author
want to communicate?
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A Word to the Wise
Although they aren’t as reliable as the topic
sentences just covered, transitions are also
clues to major details. Transitions like next,
first, second, and finally frequently introduce
major details. In effect, they say to readers,
“Here’s another one. Pay attention.”
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5.3 Writers Often Expect Readers to
Infer Some Supporting Details.
Where in the following passage does the
author tell readers that the second sentence
illustrates the first?
“Cross training is used by many organizations
to eliminate job tedium. At Ciba-Geigy, an
agricultural chemical plant, workers set schedules,
handle costs, and do job training.”
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5.3 Inferring Supporting Details
The correct answer is nowhere, because the
writer expects readers to infer that the second
sentence illustrates the first. Writers don’t put
all the supporting details on the page. They
often expect readers to supply a few, so be
prepared to supply the necessary connections and
details that the author suggests but does not
express in words.
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5.3 Inferring Supporting Details
What inferences is the reader expected to
supply in order to make the following
passage meaningful?
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5.3 Inferring Supporting Details
In 1965, John Lewis, Georgia’s long-time congressional
representative, was a passionate civil rights activist, who
participated in the march over Selma, Alabama’s blockaded
Edmund Petrus bridge. During the march, Lewis and 90
other demonstrators were badly hurt. But the televised
violence against the demonstrators, outraged the public,
and increased support for African-American civil rights.
Twenty-three years later, when Barack Obama was
inaugurated, Lewis said, “Barack Obama is what comes at
the end of that bridge in Selma.”
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Finishing Up: Focus on Supporting Details
You’ve previewed the major concepts and skills
introduced in Chapter 5. Take this quick quiz to
test your mastery of those skills and concepts, and
you are ready to read the chapter.
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting
Details
1. If this is the topic sentence—”Prior to 2001,
women in the American military rarely saw
combat, but that is no longer true today.”—
which one of the following sentences should
be the major detail?
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details
a. In the military, women are barred from
joining combat branches like the infantry and
special forces.
b. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Army commanders,
short of male soldiers, have quietly
“attached” women to combat units.
c. In 1948, women were granted permanent
status in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and
Marines.
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting
Details
2. In the the following topic sentence, what
words would you expect the major
details to further develop: “Giacomo
Rizzolatti of Italy’s University of Parma
has done some very interesting research
on “mirror neurons.”
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details
Explaining Answer 2: The most obvious phrase
to be addressed by the major supporting details is
“mirror neurons.” Even an audience of experts
would expect some kind of definition. But
“Rizzolatti’s interesting research” would also require
some explanation. Without a definition of mirror
neurons and an explanation of the research, the
topic sentence would raise expectations in the
reader that go unanswered.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
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Just So You Know
Mirror neurons are nerve cells activated in the
brain when animals, including humans, watch
someone else perform an activity. For instance, if
you were intently watching someone putting
together the pieces of a book shelf, the neurons
firing in your brain would resemble those of the
person you are watching.
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details
3. In this pair of sentences, sentence a is a
major detail and sentence b a minor one.
Can you explain what makes the difference?
a. Abraham Maslow was a psychologist, who tried
to explain the commonly reported of experience
of being suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of
wonder and happiness.
b. Maslow called that feeling a “peak experience.”
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting Details
4. In the two topic sentences that follow, which
word or phrase provides a clue to the major
supporting details?
a. Astonishing though it might seem, many
industries have begun advocating for more
government intervention.
b. The early twentieth century saw the emergence
of several significant art movements.
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting
Details
5. What follows are two supporting details for
this topic sentence: “The Civil War that tore
the country apart had a powerful impact on
the country’s farmers.” After you read the
topic sentence, explain what information the
reader has to supply to make the three
sentences make sense.
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Finishing Up: Focusing on Supporting
Details
a. The Civil War had ravaged the countryside,
leaving thousands of farmers with barely
enough money to make ends meet.
b. From that desperation emerged “The
Farmers Alliance,” an agricultural
organization determined to gain political
power and change how the nation was run.
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Brain Teaser Challenge
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Brain Teaser Challenge
Read the following four quotations. Then decide
which more general main idea they illustrate.
a. “I don’t care if a dude is purple with green
breath as long as he can swing.” ( Miles Davis)
b. “So what if we’re Asian. Listen to the flow of our
rhyme, and you’ll forget what color we are.”
(Chops, former member of the Asian-American
rap group, Mountain Brothers)
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Brain Teaser Challenge
c.
Long before the Civil Rights Act, long before Brown
vs. The Board of Education, and long before
President Truman’s integration of the armed forces,
black and white musicians were breaking social
taboos to learn from each other. (Jeff Perry,
diversity trainer)
d. “I don’t care if he’s purple [referring to white
rapper Eminem], as long as he can rap!” (Dr. Dre)
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The four quotes about music and musicians
provide support for which more general
quotation?
1. Music of all the arts has the most influence on the
passions. (Napoleon Bonaparte)
2. If music be the food of love, play on. (Shakespeare)
3. Music is the universal language of mankind. (Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow)
4. I don’t know anything about music. In my line, you
don’t have to. (Elvis Presley)
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