Specifics
Specifics are the key to elaboration.
Elaboration comes in several different forms: lists, quotations, facts, statistics, descriptive imagery. All of these tools create details and thus support in your essay.
Your goal is to clarify your train of thought to your reader; that means explaining everything that leads you to your perspective. There are, however, several different, equally effective methods of elaborating. Which method you choose depends upon your targeted audience and the type of essay.
Narrative
Elaboration in a narrative essay, as in an autobiographical essay or a personal journey essay, might include descriptive imagery.
Narratives tell a story, and the reader must be able to see, hear, and feel everything you or the characters involved experience.
Once you compile all of your details, sift through them. To do so, keep only the details that somehow move the story forward and are relevent to the topic. No more, no less detail.
If you need help thinking of details, consult the five W's plus H.
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Answer all of those questions, decide which details are most pertinent to your point, and use them.
Informational or Expository
Informational writing must include information from dependable sources--information that people can trust is true. These facts may include statistics or specific facts.
Informational writing includes research reports, as in strictly communicating facts with no conclusion of your own. Research papers might also be informational if their objectives aim at explaining the consequences or causes of an event, etc. Expository writing usually refers to an essay that explains your view on an issue. Expository writing also includes literary analysis.
Feel free to use personal anecdotes if explaining an aspect concerning yourself such as a favorite of something, a personality trait, or an obstacle you overcame. Also, remember the situation. If you are writing a college application essay, the readers want to hear about you, so give them personal details. If a prompt on a history exam asks for your opinion, it is best to stick to facts and third person because of the formality of the subject.
In analyzing literature, the support should come from the text because that is the source of message you wish you communicate through your essay.
Argumentative or Persuasive
Think about the details that might convince you to agree with a writer.
Dependable facts. Descriptive imagery. Even the occasional personal anecdote. A persuasive essay may contain any of these forms of elaboration in accordance with the targeted audience and topic.
A historical or scientific research paper--not a report!-- such as one on stem cell research would require facts in order to persuade its reader. Selling a product would might call for descriptive imagery of a situation in which a person might need the product or in which you personally found the product useful. Remember: formal writing calls for formal details.
The Old "Hypothetical Sequence Trap"
Especially in timed writing, it is easy to get carried away with your paragraph and thus be tricked into thinking you elaborated on the topic. One form of "getting carried away" is what I call a hypothetical sequence:the writer details a series of events, leading the reader on a wild goose chase that begins with a small catastrophe or glimmer of hope and escalates to either a ridiculously unfortunate or ridiculously happy situation, respectively. Consider the following paragraph about why the governor should not cut funding from education:
Additionally, reduced funding for education would harm students and therefore society at large. Unfortunately, funding for education is directly proportional to class sizes. Class sizes increase and, naturally, interruptions in the classroom increase with it; thus, the students would become distracted. Unable to focus on their work, students' grades would drop and their over all intelligence lags behind their peers in other states. Though the students may have been just as capable of scholarship as the students from wealthier school systems, they leave high school at a disadvantage. Colleges would not accept these students in comparision with their better-educated peers. Ultimately, lowering educational funding robs society of scientists, novelists, and other great thinkers since a lack of proper education prevented them from reaching their potential.
Note the lack of specific examples and the perpetual passive voice. Without specifics, the situation appears as if the writer simply pulled the experience from his imagination; the writer assumes that the reader will accept his train of thought as support. More often than not, however, the writer's experience does come from some past situation. The trick here is to realize the reality and actually write about the specific situation rather than a hypothetical one.
Additionally, reduced funding for education would harm students and therefore society at large. Unfortunately, funding for education is directly proportional to class sizes. In my personal experience at school, the amount of interruptions in class also increase with the class size. I find myself and my fellow students more distracted in my Algebra I class, which contains thirty two rambunctious students, in comparison to the math class, which contains fifteen diligent students, across the hall. The students in my class, if not struggling to stay focused, feed off of the harried atmosphere and ignore their studies. Consequently, the average grade in my math class is generally lower than the grade across the hall. Though the students in each classroom are just as capable of scholarship, my fellow algebra students leave their class at a disadvantage. Without a proper foundation in algebra, I found myself failing miserably in geometry and Algebra II--both of which are required for graduation. I became discouraged from my dream of studying engineering in college. Ultimately, lowering educational funding robs society of scientists, novelists, and other great thinkers since a lack of proper education prevented them from reaching their potential.
In this situation, the writer injected a specific personal experience and thus provided firsthand evidence to support his argument. The events generally follow the same sequence and work just as well with the same topic and concluding sentence. Also, the specifc case eliminated the use of passive voice in the form of "would have" and thus created firmer, positive writing.
Remember that the example does not need to come from personal experience. If the writer can think of an experience of someone close to him, statistics from a study, or examples from another credible source, then he should by all means employ one of those. Here is an example without personal experience,
Additionally, reduced funding for education would harm students and therefore society at large. Unfortunately, funding for education is directly proportional to class sizes. An article from the local newspaper in Orange County, FL, where public education currently suffers from budget cuts, compares the success of students from a small private school to that of students from an overcrowded public school. Upon observing two Algebra I classes, the reporter observed that the amount of interruptions in class increase with the class size. The public school students struggle to keep up in their algebra class, containing thirty-two rambunctious students, whereas the private school class, containing fifteen diligent students, encourages quiet studiousness. If not struggling to stay focused, the public school students feed off of the harried atmosphere and ignore their studies. Consequently, the average grade in the public school class is generally lower than the grade in the private school class. Though the students in each situation are just as capable of scholarship, the public school students leave their class at a disadvantage. Without a proper education in fundamental courses such as Algebra, the reporter quotes the public school students as feeling discouraged from attending college. Ultimately, lowering educational funding robs society of scientists, novelists, and other great thinkers since a lack of proper education prevented them from reaching their potential.