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Do Your Own » Help With Illustrate

Here is an example of a general statement and the many ways it could be illustrated:

General Statement: My grandmother is eccentric.

You could illustrate by providing a list of her eccentric behaviors starting with the way she eats caviar on the subway and ending with the funny hat she wears to bed.

You could illustrate by writing a narrative about the time she wore a clown suit to the opera.

You could illustrate by describing the clown suit in detail or by describing the way grandmother eats her eggs without a fork.

You could illustrate by including dialogue to show what crazy ideas she has.

You could illustrate by including quotations from one of her long rambling letters.

We often use many of these forms of illustration to support a general statement, and often, we use them in combination: we might include a list of a few facts, a quotation or two, and a long exemplary narrative or story.

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