This document discusses elaboration, which is adding supporting details and explanations to develop a description, narration, or argument. It provides examples of different types of elaboration, including descriptive details, facts and statistics, incidents or anecdotes, specific examples, quotations, and visuals. The document encourages the reader to consider these elaboration techniques when writing and revising to enrich their writing.

1. Elaboration

2. Elaboration
Elaboration is the addition of
supporting details and explanations
to develop a description, a
narration, or an argument.
Elaboration

3. Imagine that you would like to get a dog.
Elaboration

4. Here are two
ads you might
see in the
local paper.
Which ad is
better?
Why?
DOGS FOR SALE
Dog for sale. $150.
Lucky Call 555-8652
FUN-LOVING Golden/Yellow Lab
named Spot loves cats and children,
plays catch. Spot is 1 1/2 years old,
weighs 55 pounds, and is in good
health. Shots current. $150.
Call 555-3223.
Elaboration

5. DOGS FOR SALE
Dog for sale. $150
Lucky Call 555-8652
Types of
Elaboration
Descriptive
Details
Facts and
Statistics FUN-LOVING Golden/Yellow Lab
named Spot loves cats and children,
plays catch. Spot is 1 1/2 years old,
weighs 55 pounds, and is in good
health. Shots current. $150.
Call 555-3223.
Elaboration

6. As you write and revise, remember to elaborate.
Consider using...
Elaboration

7. Elaboration
Elaboration
Sensory Details
Facts and Statistics
Incidents or Anecdotes
Specific Examples
Quotations
Visuals

8. Use details to enrich your descriptive
and narrative writing.
Sensory details are bits of information
you can collect through
your five senses.
Sensory Details

9. LITERARY MODEL
SENSORY DETAILS
The black stove, stoked with coal and firewood,
glows like a lighted pumpkin. Eggbeaters whirl,
spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar,
vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting
nose-tingling odors saturate the kitchen. . . .
—Truman Capote, “A Christmas Memory”
Sensory Details

10. Use facts and statistics to support
your opinions, arguments, and ideas.
Facts are statements that can
be proved, and statistics are
facts expressed as numbers.
Facts and Statistics

11. STUDENT MODEL
FACTS AND STATISTICS
The Panama Canal is among the greatest
engineering feats in the world. Begun in 1904, it
took ten years to build. By 1913 more than 43,400
workers were employed on the canal. They had to
drain swamps and cut through jungles. In all,
5,600 workers died from accidents or disease.
Facts and Statistics

12. Use them to round out your
descriptions of people or events.
Incidents or anecdotes are
brief accounts of single events.
Incidents or Anecdotes

13. PROFESSIONAL MODEL
ANECDOTES
Show business tradition holds that whatever happens,
“the show must go on.” . . . Once flutist James Galway
was performing in an outdoor concert at Ravinia, just
north of Chicago. At one point in the show, when Galway
opened his mouth to take a breath, a large bug flew into
it. For a moment, he stopped playing and considered what
he might do. Then realizing the show must go on, he took
a great gulp and continued with his playing.
—Bob Sheperd, “The Show Must Go On”
Incidents or Anecdotes

14. Use specific examples
to illustrate general
statements or to show
the characteristics of
a group.
Specific Examples

15. PROFESSIONAL MODEL
SPECIFIC EXAMPLE
The insurance industry has been burned recently by
earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Florida’s
Hurricane Andrew alone bankrupted nine insurance
companies.
—John F. Ross, “Risk: Where Do Real Dangers Lie?”
Specific Examples

16. Use quotations to illustrate ideas or
to lend authority to your opinions.
Direct quotations are records
of people’s exact words.
Quotations

17. STUDENT MODEL
QUOTATIONS
The author Ambrose Bierce knew how to put
people in their place. In his humorous dictionary,
he defined edible as “good to eat and wholesome
to digest, as a worm to a toad, and a toad to a
snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a
man to a worm.”
Quotations

18. Use charts, graphs, and other
visuals to present complex
information more simply.
Visuals

19. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Mouse Dog Cat Sheep Buffalo Whale
Days
Gestation Periods for Mammals
19
61 63
148
275
365
Visuals

20. Use an example to elaborate the
following sentence.
The woman spoke to her neighbors often.1.
Practice and Apply

21. Provide facts or statistics to support the
following statement.
To see statistics you can use, click here.
Michael Jordan is one of the best
basketball players of our time.
2.
Practice and Apply

22. Use back button to return to Practice.
return to
Practice and Apply
Practice and Apply
All-Time Top NBA Scorers
Players Average Points per Game
Points 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
Michael Jordan 31.5
Wilt Chamberlain 30.1
Elgin Baylor 27.4
Shaquille O’Neal 27.2
Jerry West 27.0
Bob Pettit 26.4
Karl Malone 26.2

23. Add an incident to the following
story idea.
Some days I wish that I’d never got
out of bed. Yesterday was
one of them.
3.
Practice and Apply

24. Add sensory details to the
following statement.
Tofu has never been my favorite
food.
4.
Practice and Apply

25. Use a quotation to support the
following essay topic.
Students in our class have strong
opinions about mandatory after-
school activities.
5.
Practice and Apply