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Basic Reading and Writing

Module 2: Critical Reading

Supporting Claims

Introduction

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

identify various forms of support that can be used in a text to validate a thesis

identify use of personal forms of support (narrative, anecdote)

identify use of research-based forms of support (facts, statistics, outside authority)

identify relationship between the rhetorical context of a text, and the effectiveness of the types of support used

It’s very easy to make a bold claim and walk away. But how many people will be convinced by such a claim, all on its own?

The HEAVY lifting of most writing comes in the form of supporting DETAILS. Support allows a claim to be verified, proven, and CONVINCING to an audience.

Consider a recent example of an unsupported claim from early in the 2016 US Presidential campaign:

Photo of Carly Fiorina in red dress holding microphone

Carly Fiorina

Main Ideas and Supporting Details

Main Ideas

This video draws a helpful distinction between main ideas and supporting details, to show the connection between the topic SENTENCE of a paragraph and other contents in the same paragraph.

Supporting Details

To dive in more deeply to the concept of supporting details, view the following video. It describes the techniques of outlining and mapping a paragraph for greater understanding.

Relationship Between Purpose and Supporting Details

As you might imagine, some types of supporting details work more appropriately than others, given the purpose of the writing overall.

These two videos show the connections between the purpose of a piece of writing and the supporting evidence that appears inside the paragraphs. They also address the ways in which supporting ideas are “stacked” together inside a paragraph, with transitions to help a reader make sense of their internal relationships.

Explanation:

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