Taking the Guesswork Out of “Add More Details”
Students often hear teachers say, “add more details.” It shows up in the margins of their papers and in conferences about math explanations or science reasoning. Yet students rarely know what that means — or what kinds of details the discipline and the genre require. As a result, students end up writing more. However, writing more doesn’t improve the quality of writing or the types of detail teachers expect from students. Therefore, exactly what is expected becomes a guessing game for students.
For example, students may write a sentence like this in science:
The bulb turned on because the wires were touching. Electricity made it work.
Grammatically, the sentences are perfect; however, the scientific meanings explaining the inner workings of the phenomenon (often called “details”) are missing. Students get their papers back with the teacher's feedback, “add more details,” but they don’t know what it actually means. The teacher might be expecting from students a response that may look like this:
The bulb lit up only when the wire connected both ends of the battery, showing the circuit was closed. The battery acted as the energy source, sending electricity through the metal wire, which carried energy to the light so it could turn on.
While students may understand conceptually how a battery operates, their ability to communicate this idea depends on whether they can express the concept with the necessary scientific details. These details live in the language—in the verbs that show processes, the noun groups that name parts precisely, and the connectors that explain relationships. These features matter not as “parts of speech,” but as meaning-making resources that allow students to add clarity, detail, and precision to their scientific explanations.
The language of details in this genre of science explanation are:
Cause and effect are explained through complex sentences with causal-effect links. Inside those complex sentences, students will need resources like
Doing verbs: lit up, connected, showing, acted, sending, carried
All the objects are named precisely through simple noun groups, such as
the battery
energy source,
the metal wire
closed circuit
the light
Causal connector
So
To help students understand the language needed to convey these details, the teacher needs to explicitly show how scientific explanations are built through language because content knowledge is created with language. This means giving students opportunities to reason their way through what causes what to happen through talk. Students can use everyday language as a powerful resource for learning and reasoning.
We need to rethink the invisible expectations placed on students, asking students to “add more details” and to identify ways to explicitly make the invisible visible. When teachers understand those differences, they can make expectations visible and teach them explicitly. And when we teach explicitly, we remove the guesswork — ensuring students aren’t just adding more words, but adding descriptions in narratives or precision in math.
ADD MORE DETAILS IN THE WIDA ELD STANDARDS
In the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, “adding details” shows up across grade levels, content areas, and Key Language Uses. Figure 1 shows a sampling of the Language Functions and Features concerned with “adding more details.”
Across grade levels and genres, WIDA defines “add more details” as a developmental progression in how students expand meaning through language resources—especially expanded noun groups, but also verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases, adverbials, and visuals.
In the early grades (Kindergarten–Grade 1), students add details primarily by labeling and describing through simple nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases (e.g., on the bus, in the house), and by using adjectives to enrich meaning (It is a sunny day). As learners advance, the expectation shifts from labeling to describing, defining, and comparing through noun groups that build precision (red and yellow feathers, four bright blue eggs) and timeless present verbs that generalize information (swims, eats, migrates).
By upper elementary (Grades 4–5), detail is added through more complex grammatical resources such as expanded noun groups with embedded modifiers, adverbial and prepositional phrases (during the 17th century, throughout Australia), and connectors to compare and contrast (however, unlike). In secondary grades, “adding details” becomes disciplinary—students employ embedded clauses and technical noun groups (greenhouse gases, economic development that changed a nation) to define, classify, or argue with precision. This developmental continuum shows that WIDA treats “adding details” not as mere elaboration but as a language function realized through increasingly complex grammatical and discourse resources that evolve with grade level, content area, and key language use.
Figure 1. Where “Add Details” Shows Up in the WIDA Standards (A Sampling)
Table 1 below shows how the job of adding more details in each genere changes. This is not an exhaustive list.
| Genre | What "Adding Details" Means in This Genre | Language Features | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narrative | Add sensory details, use “vivid language,” internal thoughts, or dialogue to build character or setting. |
|
The loud icy winter wind from the mountains howled through the broken windows as Daria pulled her coat tighter. |
| Informational Report | Provide subtopics or examples to explain different parts of the topic. |
|
Rainforests have layers, such as the canopy, which provides shelter for birds. The multiple rainforest layers with dense vegetation and diverse habitats support a wide variety of animals and plants. |
| Procedures | Provide precise information about the temperature, size, quantity, or amount. |
|
Carefully measure 5 grams of salt using a digital scale. |
| Explanation | Include steps, sequences, or cause-effect language to show how or why something happens. |
|
When water evaporates, it turns into vapor and rises into the atmosphere. |
| Argument | Provide evidence, examples, or reasoning to support a claim. |
|
Plastic bags harm sea animals because they mistake them for food. |
| Response to Literature | Provide text evidence and interpretation to analyze character or theme. |
|
When Jonas refuses to go back, it shows his courage and sense of justice. |
| Math Justification | Add steps in a process or reasoning to explain how an answer was reached. |
|
First I divided by 2, then I subtracted 7 to find the value of x. |
| Science Investigation | Provide data, observations, or explanations to clarify results. |
|
The temperature increased each minute, showing the metal was conducting heat. |
Language Features
- Expanded noun groups
- Saying, doing, feeling, thinking, and relating verbs
- Prepositional phrases of place, manner, and time
Example
The loud icy winter wind from the mountains howled through the broken windows as Daria pulled her coat tighter.
Language Features
- Class–subclass relationships (e.g., rainforest layers: canopy, forest floor, etc.)
- Expanded noun groups with describers and classifiers to add details about the topic
Example
Rainforests have layers, such as the canopy, which provides shelter for birds. The multiple rainforest layers with dense vegetation and diverse habitats support a wide variety of animals and plants.
Language Features
- Adverbials of place and manner
- Noun groups that include information about quantity and size
- Precise verbs in imperative form
Example
Carefully measure 5 grams of salt using a digital scale.
Language Features
- Complex sentences showing cause–effect relationships
Example
When water evaporates, it turns into vapor and rises into the atmosphere.
Language Features
- Causal connectors to add evidence or reasoning
Example
Plastic bags harm sea animals because they mistake them for food.
Language Features
- Representing verbs to express what themes mean (shows)
- Expanded noun groups (his courage and his sense of justice)
Example
When Jonas refuses to go back, it shows his courage and sense of justice.
Language Features
- Steps in the order of operations with precise math verbs
Example
First I divided by 2, then I subtracted 7 to find the value of x.
Language Features
- Technical vocabulary represented as precise verbs
Example
The temperature increased each minute, showing the metal was conducting heat.
Table 1. What Does “Adding Details” Mean in Different Genres
Next Steps for Teachers
Here are six steps you can take as a teacher to help remove the guesswork when adding more details!
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Replace vague feedback like “add more details” with explicit teaching that teaches students what kind of detail is needed (e.g., “Add a reason that shows why this happens” or “Add adverbials of manner, place, or degree”).
Co-create an anchor chart with students showing examples of details that matter in your subject area — for instance, sensory details in narratives, cause-effect links in science, or evidence in arguments.s here
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Use think-alouds to show how writers choose meaningful details: “I’m adding this phrase to show cause and effect,” or “I’ll use a describing word here to make the image clearer.”
Highlight language features that build precision — expanded noun groups, prepositional phrases, and doing verbs — and color-code them during shared writing or text deconstruction.
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Use WIDA’s descriptions of “adding details” to set clear expectations by grade band.
Help students notice how the way they “add details” changes across genres — from labeling and describing in early grades to defining, classifying, and comparing in upper grades.
Reinforce that adding details = expanding meaning through language choices, not just writing longer sentences.
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Discuss with students how different genres require different kinds of detail:
Narratives → sensory or emotional details through expanded noun groups with adjectives
Informational texts → examples, attributes, or comparisons through expanded noun groups with classifiers
Explanations → cause-effect relationships through causal verbs and causal connectors
Arguments → evidence and reasoning linked with the signal words appropriate for the logical relationship
Use mentor texts (like the frog or circuit examples) to analyze how authors use language to serve each genre’s purpose.
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Give targeted feedback on the type of detail added — not just quantity.
Encourage students to ask themselves during revision:
Does this detail help the reader understand why or how?
Did I name the parts and processes clearly?
Celebrate revisions that improve meaning and precision, not just length.
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Work with colleagues to identify what “adding details” looks like in your discipline.
Align language instruction across subjects so students see that “adding details” in science, math, and social studies all involve expanding meaning through disciplinary language.
