What is T.D.E.C?

I’m sure your wondering what in the world a “T.D.E.C” is. If you look online, all you will find is the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. That’s is not what I’m talking about. T.D.E.C is a type of writing and was created by a former Lake Travis High School teacher. T.D.E.C stands for Thesis, Detail, Elaboration, and Commentary. This is the best way to write a paper, or so I’ve heard.

The purpose of a T.D.E.C is to give your writing a sensible order. You start with your thesis, or the answer to your prompt. For example, a prompt that I got in 9th grade was, “Why did William Golding write Lord of the Flies?”. Your thesis would go along the lines of, “Golding wrote Lord of the Flies as a cautionary tale to show that at our heart of hearts, humans are evil,”. Your thesis should be the last sentence in your intro. paragraph, so you need to have a good hook to complement a good thesis.

Next is detail. To pass the second level of T.D.E.C, you need to pick a detail from what ever your writing about. It can’t be any detail though, it has to back up your thesis. If we stick with Lord of the Flies, I essentially have my pick of the book. When you pick your detail, you don’t want, as my wonderful 9th grade L.A teacher put it, a “quote island”. In other words, you want your quote to be short and precise. It should be interwoven in your second paragraph, which may sound confusing given the order of T.D.E.C, but let me explain.

The order of the acronym is misleading. Your second paragraph should not start with your quote, but rather some background information. This is where elaboration comes in. You want your reader to know what you’re talking about. You need to write as if your reader has never read the piece you are writing about. The acronym should have switched the ‘E’ and the ‘D’ because no matter how good the detail, it has no power if your reader has no idea what’s going on.

And finally, we have ‘C’, or commentary. Commentary is probably the hardest part of T.D.E.C, because there is no formula. Commentary is all you. It’s your analysis as to why the author used the detail to accomplish your thesis. Let’s say I picked, LORD OF THE FLIES SPOILER ALERT, the time when the boys killed one of their own. I would explain why Golding used this to show how everyone is inherently evil. Commentary is really your own two sense about the prompt. After all this is done, you would finish off your writing like normal with a conclusion paragraph. Or if you’re really good, you might be able to merge your Commentary and your Conclusion.

Now that you know what a T.D.E.C is and how to write one, the next question is, “Is T.D.E.C really all its cracked up to be?”, the answer? Yes and no. T.D.E.C is very easy to use, but because it was pounded into our skulls for an entire year, most of my peers have a bit of resentment for it. On the plus side, if T.D.E.C is used correctly, its a sure fire way of writing a pretty great academic paper. But back to the question at hand of whether or not T.D.E.C is the best. My peers and I probably not the best people to ask, since most of us have a love hate relationship with it. But if you really want an answer, try it out for yourself! Use it on your next Language Arts paper, mess around and play with it! Since its probably not in your curriculum yet, figure out how to use it to its full potential. Because why not? Maybe you might learn something new.