Explain / Elaborate

COLLABORATE IN GROUPS/PAIRS...

1. Jot down your thoughts on what elaboration might be. What is it? Where/how might you use it?

2. Compare your thoughts to the thoughts of your partner. What's different and what's the same?

3. Together, write a list of when/where you'd be expected to extend information. Why might you need to do this?

WHAT IS  ELABORATION/EXPLANATION?

Elaboration/Explanation is:

• extending the information

• addition of more detail

• to expand

Elaboration or explanation is usually added after a quote to add your own thoughts and to connect your quote to your original answer/topic. 

WHY IT MATTERS...

Here's the thing....

Elaboration/Explanation is difficult. There are times when you won't know a lot about a topic, so how can you come up with your own thoughts when you just don't know? There will be times when you're simply uninterested in a topic, and how can you be inspired to write about a topic that is uninspiring?  How do you come up with a solid paragraph worth of your own thoughts?

But...you will still have to. Now is the time to find and practice different techniques to help you extend information on a topic you aren't familiar with or aren't interested in. I'll help! :)

• If you don't like a topic or character or whatever, then write about that. But, you have to be specific! What exactly about that topic or character makes you not like it. "I just don't" isn't good enough. There's usually a reasoning behind your thoughts, and that's where you need to dig deeper (elaborate).

• If you don't know a lot about the topic, consider what you do know and connect what you know to what you've learned.

We're going to look at different elaborative techniques to give you the tools to make elaboration easier for you while you're writing.

Elaboration Do's:

1. Write in your own words

2. Make this the longest part

3. Explain your thinking

4. Connect the quote to the question

5. Paraphrase or summarize additional information from the text 

6. Use different elaboration techniques (shown in the Peardeck) to vary your writing

Elaboration Don't:

1. Summarize the quote and that's it

2. Only have a sentence (this is the longest part)

3. Only use information from the sources; use your own thoughts, too

4. Put a random quote that has nothing to do with the question and then explain and elaborate about random information

5. Repeat yourself 13 times; if you said it once, don't reword it and say the exact same thing

HOW TO EXPLAIN AND ELABORATE ON A CLAIM

This video will give you some examples of how to strengthen your elaboration. Even though this is focused on essay writing instead of short answer writing, all of this still applies. He will talk something called a topic sentence. We will get to this when we talk about essay writing, but it is pretty much the same thing as Restate and answer from RICE. 

In this video, pay attention to:

• purpose (many ways to say "elaboration)

• different ways to elaborate:

1. rhetorical questions 

2. concepts or key words

3. explain sources (?)

4. explain the quote

• what questions should you be asking yourself?

ELABORATIVE TECHNIQUES