Finding the Main Idea & Supporting Details

You are on your way to class, and your friend asks you about the movie you saw last night. Your friend doesn't have time to hear about the whole two hours of the movie, but you can tell you friend in a few sentences what the movie is about. WHAT IS THE MAIN IDEA? The Main Idea refers to what a paragraph or an article is about. Ask What s your point? WHERE CAN I FIND THE MAIN IDEA? The Main Idea will most likely be found in one of these five places: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) In the FIRST SENTENCE. In the LAST SENTENCE. In the MIDDLE of the paragraph. In TWO SENTENCES of the paragraph. NOT STATED in the paragraph directly (IMPLIED).

HOW CAN I FIND THE MAIN IDEA? Use one or more of these strategies to help you find the main idea: 1) Some readers begin by unconsciously assuming that the first sentence of the paragraph is the main idea. They test each of the other sentences against it. 2) Others read through an entire paragraph and unconsciously look for repeated words or ideas that suggest the main idea of the paragraph. 3) Another group of readers just reads through each paragraph and intuitively comes up with the main idea without using a particular strategy. 4) Whatever a reader does, his or her goal is the same: to come up with a complete sentence or thought that connects the facts and ideas in the paragraph to each other. HOW CAN I DETERMINE IF I FOUND THE CORRECT MAIN IDEA? To test your main idea, follow these steps: 1) Write a short summary in your own words about what you have read. 2) Does your summary agree with this general topic? 3) Does your summary contain the same ideas being expressed by the author? 4) Could you write a headline (or textbook subheading) that would express your summary in less than five words?

If you are able to rephrase your main idea into a question and if the paragraph answers your question, you have been successful at selecting a main idea.

Unless otherwise specified, this work by Shaunie Decker sdecker@sccd.ctc.edu of the Washington State Colleges is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us

WHAT ARE SUPPORTING DETAILS? The Supporting Details are the facts that describe or explain the main idea.

Main Idea Supporting Detail Supporting Detail Supporting Detail

HOW CAN I FIND THE SUPPORTING DETAILS? To find the supporting details you should: 1) Read the passage. 2) Find the Main Idea. 3) Scan the passage and ask the 5 W s and 1 H: y y y y y y WHOis the article about? WHAT is the article about? WHEN did the event in the article occur? WHERE did the event in the article occur? WHY did the event happen? HOW did it happen?

Supporting Details Answer: WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? HOW?

Unless otherwise specified, this work by Shaunie Decker sdecker@sccd.ctc.edu of the Washington State Colleges is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us