Finding Facts and Details
Facts and details in texts provide more information about the main ideas. Everything you read contains factual information such as the colour of someone's shirt, their age, the time of day or the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In a persuasive text about how students should wear uniforms, for example, the main idea of a paragraph might be that uniforms save money. Facts and details within that paragraph should tell us more about that idea, such as uniforms mean parents do not need to buy as many clothes for their children. Uniforms also tend to be good quality, lasting a long time, so they can be handed down from one sibling to another or passed between families, which saves money.
When answering comprehension questions about facts and details, you need to:
1) work out what the question is asking
2) underline the keywords in the question
3) find those words, or words with a similar meaning, in the text.
4) read what the text has to say about that idea, event etc.
Knowing the main idea of each paragraph helps you find facts and details. If you are looking for information about how uniforms save money, finding the paragraph that talks about saving money is the best place to look. Looking at a paragraph that talks about saving you time in the mornings, would not be the best place to look!
Comprehension Tests
Comprehension tests almost always ask questions about factual information in texts. To answer this type of question:
When answering comprehension questions about facts and details, you need to:
1) work out what the question is asking
2) underline the keywords in the question
3) find those words, or words with a similar meaning, in the text.
4) read what the text has to say about that idea, event etc.
Knowing the main idea of each paragraph helps you find facts and details. If you are looking for information about how uniforms save money, finding the paragraph that talks about saving money is the best place to look. Looking at a paragraph that talks about saving you time in the mornings, would not be the best place to look!
Comprehension Tests
Comprehension tests almost always ask questions about factual information in texts. To answer this type of question:
- Read the question carefully and think about what it is asking you. Underline the key things (keywords) that indicate the information you are being asked to find.
- Look for the keywords in the text and underline them. Sometimes synonyms, words with a similar meaning, are used in the question, so if you don't find the exact words or words you are looking for, look for words in the text with similar meaning. Read what the text tells you about these things.
- If you are answering a multiple choice question, make sure you read all of the possible answers before choosing one.