Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

The "central idea"—now that's a new concept students have never seen before. It's because the central idea isn't really applicable until you're looking at complicated texts that are longer than just a few pages. The central idea of a long text is just like a main idea of a short text: it's the overarching point the author is trying to get across. In a longer text, however, main ideas aren't there throughout the whole text while central ideas are. (Think of a main idea as a section that is too long and has too much explanation to simply be called a supporting point.) The structure of a longer piece of writing goes like this: central ideas > main ideas > supporting points > supporting details.