CONCRETE SUPPORT Facts versus Opinions Concrete Supporting Details

CONCRETE SUPPORT Facts versus Opinions Concrete Supporting Details

Introduction One of the biggest problems in student writing is that student writers often fail to prove their points. They fail because they do not support their points with concrete details. Their papers are too often full of opinions and generalizations without the factual details needed to support them.

Facts Versus Opinions FACTS OPINIONS Objective statements of truths Subjective statements based on a person’s beliefs • At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. • The fire is hot. • Lung cancer among women is increasing. • Engineering students do not need to take a lot of English courses • Riding a motorcycle quickly is a happy action. It is certainly acceptable to express opinions in academic writing. In fact, most professors want you to express your own ideas. However, you must support your opinions with factual details. In Very formal academic writing, even some statements that are considered facts need further support. In ohter words, they need specific supporting details in order to be completely convincing.

SUPPORTING THE FACTS

CONCRETE SUPPORTING DETAILS � There are several kinds of concrete supporting details that you can use to support or prove your topic sentence. Among the most common are examples, statistics, and quotations (quatations provided in the next lecutre).

Concrete Supporting Detail: Examples � Examples are perhaps the easiest kind of supporting details to use. You don’t have to search in the library for information; you can often take examples from your own knowledge and personal experiences. Furthermore, examples are usually interesting and make your writing enjoyable to read. � There are cautions you should keep in mind if you use example in academic writing: (1) personal examples are considered weak, so use the sparingly. (2) Be sure that your examples really prove your point.

Read and find the examples

Concrete Supporting Detail: Statistics � In business, engineering, and the sciences, statistics are often used for support. It makes the writing convincing for the readers since there are statistics supporting the writing such as chart and graph.

Statistics

PRACTICE � Write a paragraph that is supported by: � EXAMPLES � STATISTICS