Topic Sentences

As the book progresses, you will be asked to read short, interesting paragraphs to find main ideas and topic sentences. Once you are comfortable with these basic skills, proceed to the passages in the last five sections. This is where you will use your skills to tackle longer passages. 

For the following three questions, choose the topic sentence that best fits... 

For the following questions, a topic sentence is given. Try choosing the sentence that best develops or supports it. 

Choices b, c, and d give other details that do not directly support the topic sentence. 

The next passages are based on philosophy and literature. You don t have to be an expert in either subject to answer the questions correctly. All the information that you need is in the passage. Look for the main idea, words in context, and the topic sentence to help you understand the basic information. Then use your ability to make inferences based on the facts in the passage. Using all the available information in the passage will help you identify ideas not expliddy stated in the text. 

For the final two questions, choose the sentence that does NOT support the given topic sentence. 

In this lesson, you ll learn about topic sentences and paragraphing formats, With that knowledge, you ll be able to craft great paragraphs. 

---