Kinds of Supporting Details

Identify how authors support central ideas with facts, statistics, examples, anecdotes, and expert voices.

Supporting details are the evidence that makes a central idea believable. Recognizing their types helps you judge how strong the support is. Facts are statements that can be checked. Statistics are facts expressed as numbers. Examples are specific instances that illustrate a point. Anecdotes are short true stories, often personal. Expert quotations bring in someone with special knowledge.

Here's an original paragraph supporting the idea that reading aloud helps young children: 'Children who are read to daily hear thousands more words each year than those who aren't (statistic). A librarian in one town noticed that toddlers in her story hour began repeating words from books at home (anecdote). A reading specialist explains that hearing language patterns prepares children to decode them later (expert). ' Each type does a different job.

Statistics show scale, anecdotes create connection, experts add authority. When you analyze support, name the detail type and explain how it strengthens the central idea.

• 1Facts, statistics, examples, anecdotes, expert quotes
• 2Each type does a different job
• 3Name the type and explain how it supports the idea