understanding sentence patterns; identifying key ideas and Locating Details.

Understanding Sentence Patterns

(Identifying Key Ideas and Locating Details)

Key Ideas In sentence

Although a sentence may give a great deal of information, it usually offers one key idea. Readers may be able to find key ideas in order to understand sentence meanings clearly. The key idea of a sentence usually Tells :

§  Who a person or what an object is.

§  What a person or an object is doing.

Example           : A tall girl in a white dress rushed away into the trees just

                             Beyond The Gate to Stevens Park.

This sentence tells about a girl. We know that the girl rushed away. All Information about her appearance, about where she ran, and about the name of the park adds details. These are helpful in completing the scene for the reader, and very often we need to rely on details to make the main text clearer. But the key idea, the main thought, in the sentence is simply a girl rushed away. Here is how to find key ideas in the Sentences :

§  Ask who or what the sentence is about.

§  Ask what the person or object is doing or what is happening to that person or object.

§  Learn to separate minor details from the main idea. Many words in sentences describe things about the subject of the sentence and merely add details around it. If you ask when, what kind, where or why, you will find details. This makes it easier to separate the key ideas.

               (why)                      (what kind)                                      (where)

Because of new laws, most foreign automobiles in the United State

(when)                                              (how)

now offer safety features at no extra charge.

Ø Who or what is the sentence about? Automobiles

Ø What do automobiles do ? offer safety features.

Ø The key idea is automobiles offer safety features.

Of course, you can not always easily decide which details are simply descriptive and which contribute markedly to the key idea. You will have to make your own decision about how various elements influence sentence meanings. In stating a key idea, you may have to summarize parts of the sentence, and you may have to put some of the writer’s words into your own words.

The starting point for determining the key idea in a sentence, however, is finding who or what the sentence is about and what the person or object is doing.

Locating Details

After you have identified the key idea, the next step in understanding a sentence is to see how the details affect its meaning. Most details either add to or change the meaning of the key idea. Usually they answer such questions about the subject or predicate as what, where, which, when, how, or why.

                                                             What             where            when

v Examples        : mother cooks Porridge in the kitchen Every week.

         when                                  Where      how

                             Last Year My Family went to Zoo by Car.