Six-Way Paragraphs

1. Six-Way Paragraphs Understanding What You Read

2. Six-Way Paragraphs use six types of questions to help you strengthen the basic skills necessary for reading factual material.

3. Subject Matter • This question looks easy, and often is. • It can help you with the most important skill of all reading and learning: concentration. • Here’s a hint for gaining concentration: • After reading the first few lines of something, ask yourself, “What is the subject matter of this passage?”

4. Supporting Details • Supporting details come in various forms: examples, explanations, descriptions, definitions, comparison, contrasts, exceptions, analogies, similes, and metaphors. • These details are used to back up or support the main idea.

5. Conclusion • The conclusion can be stated or implied. • While reading you must think, “Where is the writer leading me? What’s the conclusion?” • Like a detective you must try to guess the conclusion, changing the guess as you get more and more information.

6. Clarifying Devices • These are words, phrases, and techniques that a writer uses to make main ideas, sub-ideas, and supporting details clear and interesting. • Examples include • similes and metaphors, • transitional or signal words, and • organizational patterns.

7. Vocabulary in Context • You will become a better reader if you learn the exact meanings and different shades of meaning of the words that are already familiar to you.

8. Main Idea • The main idea tells who or what the subject of the passage is. It also answers the question does what? or is what? • The too narrow statement is in line with the main idea, but expresses only part of it. • The too broad statement is in line with the main idea, but is too general in scope.

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