English II: Reading: Module 5: Lesson 1: Section 5
Analyze Controlling Idea or Thesis, Purpose, and Textual Elements in Informational Text
Analyzing a Text for Controlling Ideas and Supporting Details
Instructions: The following excerpt is from the collection of biographical essays Profiles in Courage for
Our Time (Hyperion Books, 2002). As you read the excerpt, look for the author’s controlling idea and
supporting details.
From “Hilda Solis” by Anthony Walton
It was also at La Puente that a significant mentor entered Solis’s life. Robert Sanchez
had been Solis’s social studies teacher in junior high school; she would from time to time,
engage him in spirited but serious arguments over the Constitution and issues of the day, a
Solis family tradition. “My father always said to question everything; don’t just accept other
people’s opinions. There were several times I’d be pressuring (Sanchez) in class on some
topic and the bell would ring and everybody would stay to hear us keep going.” When he
later became her high school guidance counselor, Sanchez was the first person to suggest
to her that she could go to college. “No one in my family had ever attended college. I was
dubious, and not only for financial reasons. I wasn’t in the college curriculum, I hadn’t been
groomed for college admission. There were certain injustices that I saw, which students, for
example, were selected to go to college. Who got promoted by teachers to be in a position
to do more. There was tracking at our school, it was already the haves and have nots.”
Solis considers her own career to have been something of an accident. “It just so
happens I ran into somebody who convinced me I should go to college because there
were programs that existed, I could get my financial aid, and it wouldn’t be a hardship
on my family. My parents were working class and they didn’t have the money. If I hadn’t
known about these programs, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I have.” Sanchez
also made Solis aware of the history and larger social significance of these opportunities:
“They were the result of the civil rights movement and the empowering of communities,
disadvantaged communities, communities of color.”
Reflecting on this experience leads Solis to a very personal defense of affirmative
action. “Bob Sanchez was tenacious. He had me fill out college applications, had me meet
with recruiters. The recruiters took me to the schools and showed me all the opportunities
that were available. They wanted to have minority students attend their campuses. I
thought, “Wow! This is my way to improve my life, to do something.” Solis’s parents were
wary at first, as many members of minority groups are, of disclosing the necessary personal
and financial records, but after a brief trip to reconnoiter the dorms and “make sure it was
legitimate,” they became enthusiastic supporters of their daughter. In 1975, Solis enrolled
in California Polytechnic University’s Pomona campus as the first member of her family to
pursue a higher education.
This excerpt, which is from an essay on Representative Hilda Solis’s experiences, is packed full of
interesting details that tell the reader a lot about her life. These details support the controlling idea and
specific purpose of this writing. On the next page, answer some questions about the controlling idea,
specific purpose, and the details that support the controlling idea.
© 2012 Texas Education Agency/ The University of Texas System. All Rights Reserved.
English II: Reading: Module 5: Lesson 1: Section 5
Analyzing a Text for Controlling Ideas, Specific Purpose, and Supporting Details
(continued, page 2)
Instructions: Write your answers to these questions in the space provided. When you are
finished, mouse over each checkbox for a possible response.
What is the controlling idea of the excerpt?
What is the specific purpose of the passage?
What are four important details from the passage?
What are four less important details from the passage?
© 2012 Texas Education Agency/ The University of Texas System. All Rights Reserved.