More on Topic Sentences

Topic sentence practice

• Starting topic: Football
• Limited topic: The role that football has played in my education
• Topic sentence: If it hadn't been for football, I might never have taken school seriously.

Note: A topic sentence is always a complete sentence expressing an idea about the limited topic. It is not a title (What football means to me), or an explanation of the writer's plan (I am going to tell you about the role football played in my education.) The more clearly it focuses the reader's attention on the points covered by the paragraph that the writer wants to make, the better.

Now let's talk about how to FIND a topic sentence in a paragraph.  


Topic sentences express the main idea of a paragraph. They are usually stated in the first sentence (Pattern A) or last sentence (Pattern B) of the paragraph.  A topic sentence rarely ever appears in the middle of a paragraph (Pattern C); it is possible to do if there is a good reason for it, but it usually isn’t an effective place for it.


PRACTICE