CU DEVELOP RELEVANT DETAILS OR REASONS IN A MANNER THAT MEETS THE NEEDS OF THE AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE. SPECIFIC, CONCRETE DETAILS vs. GENERAL LANGUAGE

Words are like rocks. They come in all sizes. Small rocks represent small words. Big rocks represent big words. BUT...

Rocks are not as strong as CONCRETE. CONCRETE details are the specific, exact names of things. Using CONCRETE details will make your paper stronger, just like CONCRETE makes a building stronger. Concrete details are SPECIFIC.

Look for the SPECIFIC details. Meredith and Maria slammed their lockers and ran down the Freshmen Hall toward the lunchroom. How much longer until they would have their official Driver’s License and could eat off campus? They could barely stand the thought of eating hot lunch pizza, a fruit cup, and washing it down with a 6-ounce carton of chocolate milk. Three more months until they turned 16. Agony.

Using Specific Details School lunches are (good) (bad). Choose either side. Rewrite the sentence on the left, using specific language. Write more than one sentence to elaborate.

Be specific. Your word choices do not have to be  Big words  Fancy words  Words from a thesaurus Remember, to elaborate powerfully and effectively, you need to be SPECIFIC. Use concrete, specific details.

Work with a partner. Find the specific, concrete details in the following student sample. Write these specific details on your notes sheet.

Find the concrete details & write them down. My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. On either side of this river, which is 175 feet wide, are many willow trees which have long branches that can move gracefully in the wind. In autumn the leaves of these trees fall and cover the riverbanks like golden snow. This landmark is truly amazing and makes my hometown a famous place.

Your Turn Add specific, concrete details to make the following paragraph effective. Besides helping to forget the problems life throws at us for a while, acting is a fun learning experience. You get to pose as characters much different from yourself and for a short period of time, get to walk in someone else’s shoes. You can be famous or live in a foreign country. With acting you can be whatever you like.