Glossary
supporting detail
A supporting detail is a fact, example or reason that holds up the main idea of a passage rather than adding a new point of its own.
A supporting detail is a piece of evidence inside a passage — a fact, an example, a number, a reason — whose job is to hold up the main idea rather than to stand as a point of its own. The main idea is the claim; the details are what make it believable, and a question can ask about either. A detail question is usually phrased as according to the passage and wants a restatement of something actually on the page, which is what separates it from an inference question, where the answer is unstated but supported. Two traps are worth knowing. A true statement that is not in the passage is not the answer, however sensible it sounds, and a detail that appears in the passage but supports a different point is a distractor. Locate the sentence, read the line before and after it, and check which paragraph's claim the detail belongs to.
Taught in
Related terms
- main idea — The main idea is the claim a passage was written to deliver — broad enough to cover every paragraph, narrow enough that no paragraph sits outside it.
- inference — An inference is a conclusion the passage supports without stating — one step past the text, using only what the text gives.
- fact and opinion — A fact can be checked and shown true or false; an opinion is a judgment, preference or prediction that a reader could reasonably dispute.
- summary — A summary states the main idea and the few details needed to support it, in your own words and much shorter than the original.
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)