TOPIC SENTENCES AND CONTROLLING IDEAS
The topic sentence informs the reader what the paragraph will be about. The topic sentence
- is the most general sentence in the paragraph; all the sentences that follow it are less general, more specific.
- states the purpose of the paragraph for the audience.
- is the most important sentence in the paragraph; it acts as an "umbrella" that "covers" all of the ideas in the paragraph.
- contains controling ideas that control the information in the paragraph.
Controlling ideas (sometimes called "key words") are words or phrases that give the main ideas in the paragraph. The sentences that follow the topic sentence will then EXPLAIN, DEFINE, CLARIFY, ILLUSTRATE.
Source: The Process of Composition. Joy M. Reid. 2000. Prentice Hall Regents.
posted by Marisol Alvarenga_Guzmán at
6:50 AM
3 Comments:
I really like the comparison, between the umbrella and the Topic Sentence.
I think the topic sentence is a very important part in the paragraph since it informs to the reader what the paragraph will be about.
This is wonderful, it helps me a lot to understand very well, what the topic sentence is about. If we put in practice all this the reading will be more coherent and interesting to read.
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