Strategies for Elaborating on Reading Sources

1. Agree or disagree with a statement in the text and give reasons for your agreement or disagreement.
2. Compare or contrast your reactions to the topic.  (For example, “At first I thought . . . , but now I think . . . .”)
3. Extend one of the author’s points.
4. Draw attention to what the author has neglected to say about the topic.
5. Discover an idea implied by the text but not stated by the author.
6. Provide additional details by fleshing out a point made by the author.
7. Illustrate the text with an example, incident, scenario, or anecdote.
8. Embellish the author’s point with a vivid image, metaphor, or example.
9. Test one of the author’s claims.
10. Compare one of the author’s points with your own prior knowledge of the topic or with your own or others’ experiences.
11. Interpret the text in the light of your prior topic knowledge or experiences.
12. Personalize one of the author’s statements.
13. Question one of the author’s points.
14. Speculate about one of the author’s points by:
    • Asking questions about the direct consequences of an idea.
    • Predicting consequences.
    • Drawing implications from an idea.
    • Applying the idea to a hypothetical situation.
    • Giving a concrete instance of a point made in the text.
15. Draw comparisons between the text and books, articles, films, or other media.
16. Classify items in the text under a superordinate category.
17. Discover relations between ideas in the text that are unstated by the author.
18. Validate one of the author’s points with an example or prior topic knowledge.
19. Criticize a point in the text.
20. Create hierarchies of importance among ideas in the text.
21. Make a judgment about the relevance of a statement that the author has made.
22. Impose a condition on a statement in the text.  (For example, “If . . . , then . . . .“)
23. Qualify an idea in the text.
24. Extend an idea with a personal recollection or reflection.
25. Assess the usefulness and applicability of an idea.