Developing and Shaping Ideas

1. Developing and Shaping Ideas Using specifics, selecting supporting material, arranging supporting material

2. Using Specifics • Typically, English writers say something fairly general and then they give more specific information to prove, illustrate, or explain that general statement. • The problem is that students do not always know what is more general and what is more specific.

3. Specifics Which is more specific? Nervous Smell of breaking bread A huge, strong dog A room with white bare porcelain walls Hands shaking, voice quivering Good, sweet smell from the oven Many beautiful, brilliant colors A full-grown Cocker Spaniel

4. More examples… • She arrived at the dentist’s office and sat in the waiting room looking nervous. • She arrived at the dentist’s office and sat in the waiting room biting her nails. • A good language class is one in which students are not afraid to ask questions. • A good language teacher knows how to create the right atmosphere for learning.

5. Who does the work? • It is up to you, the writer! • You are expected to do the work of explaining, showing, and proving. • Without specific support or proof or explanation, the reader is unlikely to believe a writer’s generalization or conclusions. • Show and tell= Tell the reader something, but show that the statement is true (evidence).

6. Types of Supporting Material • Examples • Reasons, causes, or effects • Descriptive details • Facts or statistics • Personal experiences, representative cases, observations • References

7. More examples…

8. Amount of Support • How much support is enough? • Answer depends very much on who the audience is and the purpose of the text is. • You need to think about your audience and use your intuition to determine how much support is needed. • You need to decide what type of support or combinations will be most effective to help your argument. • Least to Most: Begin with the least significant and move to the most significant.

9. Questions to ask yourself • Are there any examples I could add to my discussion to make it clearer or more forceful for my audience? • Have I had any personal experience that I could mention? • Can I make my explanation clearer by describing how something works/looks/feels? • Is there anything I need to define more completely in order to explain what I mean?