Elaboration Sentence: What It Is And How to Use It

Elaboration means expanding the sentences to express them with clarity. The elaboration helps to enhance the readers’ understandability and provide clarity to your write-up. Read along the article to understand elaboration sentences and how you can use them in your writing.

What is an Elaboration Sentence in Writing

Elaboration is the process of explaining a sentence with further details. The addition of details to the given information helps to enhance clarity and make your writing impactful.

Elaborating a sentence depends on the purpose and the need of the audience. Generally, sentences can be elaborated using real-life experiences, definitions, examples, facts, stats, anecdotes, scenarios, quotations, etc.

Example – “Saw one mouse”

The above sentence makes no sense as it doesn’t convey who saw the mouse, when and where they saw it, and why they have seen it.

However, if you elaborate the sentence into

“Jack saw a mouse yesterday near his house as the surroundings were filled with litter.”

The sentence is clear now, conveying that there was litter around Jack’s surroundings. Thus, he saw a mouse nearby.

The rule of thumb for elaborating on a sentence is to ask yourself whether the sentence makes any sense. This will help you convey the whole idea.

Elaboration of a Sentence Based on the Genre of Writing

Narration- While narrating an incident, elaboration of a sentence depicts describing an incident that allows readers to imagine the situation and feel like they are in the story.
Informational- While elaborating a sentence that intends to educate the reader, the writer needs to ideate all the details and put them into a single frame.
Opinion- When you are presenting an opinion through your writing, you need to delve deep into the details to bring out the reasons that support your argument.

How to Use Elaboration Sentences?

Ask Questions – Ask what, why, and how while writing.

These questions help the writer to think about the topic and elaborate sentences. They integrate all the information that’s required to convey the topic effectively.

For instance, let’s talk about Hydroponics.

Assume that you have got a question in your exam asking you to write a short essay about hydroponics. So what would you think of hydroponics?

Will you write two lines describing the word hydroponics and leave it? If you do so, you will lose your score. Then what’s the best way to answer this question?

It’s simple! Elaborate on Hydroponics using the questions “what, why, and how.” By asking these questions, you will be able to cover the following.

What – What is Hydroponics – Definition, examples
Why – Why you need Hydroponics – its advantages
How – How you can practice hydroponics – different methods of hydroponics and plants that can be grown through these methods

And with this, your argument will be complete, covering all the critical information, and will help the reader understand the concept of Hydroponics better.

Other Strategies to Elaborate a Sentence

Explanation – Simplify your topic by expanding on what you mean to convey.
Description – Convey the topic using adjectives, metaphors, and related elements to enhance its quality.
Illustration – Integrate examples to present your topic and increase its understandability.
Imagination – Imagine yourself in the shoes of a reader and write about what you would like to know about the topic.
Adding Experiences – Add experiences to your writing to show authenticity and clarity.
Counteraction – When you are writing something, think of the opposite. This will give you a critical analysis of the topic and help you in the elaboration of a sentence.
Reflection – Show how the topic impacts the reader.
Prediction – Tell the reader about what they can expect from your write-up.
Comparison – Differentiate between two subjects, show them how they are relatable, and connect the dots.
Call to action – Think and write about what your readers need to perceive and act upon.

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