Topic Sentences

In most essays, each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. Works of fiction and very stylized writing, like personal essays, do not always follow this rule, but expository and persuasive essays are typical most effective when they are well organized and topic sentences really help essays stay organized. NOTE: standardized tests highly value organization and readability in essays, so when writing an essay for a standardized test, use topic sentences!)

What does a topic sentence do?

  1. Topic sentences establish the main point of the paragraph to follow.
  2. Topic sentences tie the point of the paragraph back to the thesis of the essay.

With these two functions, topics sentences really provide the structure of the essay.  If you pulled out the thesis and the topic sentences, you should have a good outline or concise summary of the essay (though it will lack the punch that your specific examples in your body paragraphs will provide. 

Good topic sentences are broad.  They give the overview of the entire body paragraph.  When writing a topic sentence, think of it as the one sentence you'd want to keep if you had to delete everything else in the paragraph.  Your topic sentence should make your general point.

Example:

Refugee policy is always difficult to devise and maintain. Refugees are immigrants unlike other immigrants.  While countries admit immigrants because they hope that the immigrants will help the country (join the workforce, pay taxes, etc.), countries admit refugees to help the people who are immigrating.  Thus, policies that admit only high-skilled immigrants, or only immigrants with sufficient funds or social connections to sustain them once they arrive cannot apply to refugees.  Almost by definition refugees have no funds and many are low skilled with no social connections.  Refugees also have baggage. They have not left their homes by choice.  They have been driven out, often by war or by threat. Refugees require resources and any refugee policy must balance the desire to help with the political will to support those we let in.

This paragraph discusses refugees and why refugee policy is complicated.  All of the reasons come down to one main idea: Refugee policy is always difficult to devise and maintain.  The following details are important, but none of them main the main point on their own.  The topic sentence ties all of the following details together.

In the context of a larger essay, the other purpose of the topic sentence is to tie the paragraph to the thesis.  If the paragraph above was part of an essay that was explaining why US refugee policy has changed dramatically over the years, a better topic sentence might read: American refugee policy has been volatile because refugee policy is always difficult to devise and maintain.

Test Prep Practice

  • Topic Sentences Test Prep

    Each of the following questions presents a passage with a missing sentence indicated by a series of dashes.  Read each passage and the four sentences that follow it.  Then chose the sentence that can best be inserted in place of the dashes.

    1. _________________________________________. The last surviving species in its genus, the platypus is one of only two surviving monotremes on earth.  What is a monotreme?  It's an egg-laying mammal. Not only is the platypus one of only five remaining monotreme species, it is also one of the only venomous mammals.  While we expect snakes to have venom, who could presume that a kick from a platypus could be extremely dangerous?

    1. Echidnas are the only other surviving monotremes.
    2. Their duck-bills seem to perform an important role in the survival of the platypus.
    3. Truly one of a kind, the platypus is an evolutionary survivor.
    4. There are two kinds of monotremes left on earth.

     

    2. _________________________________________. These fairy tales are all familar to us.  Many have come to use through beautiful and charming Disney princess movies, or beautifully illustrated story books.  We think of them as truly childish.  But most of these tales have been deeply altered to make them palatable to young American children.  The young German tykes who heard the original Cinderella would have fallen asleep not to "happily ever after" but to "and the birds pecked out the eyes of the evil step-sisters."

    1. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel are all Grimm fairy tales that survive to this day.
    2. Though Grimm's fairy tales survive to this day, they have been significantly softened for modern ears.
    3. The Grimm brothers would be appalled at what we have done to their stories.
    4. Child are not as tough as they used to be and you can see it in the stories they enjoy.

     

    3. _________________________________________. Although several countries have research stations on the continent and have claims to portions of the land, no country owns or officially occupies Antarctic.  Nor does anyone call Antartica home permanently.  During the summer months, there can be as many as 5,000 people living there, mostly doing research, but that number drops to about 1,000 in winter when the cold is nearly unendurable.

    1. Many countries fight over ownership of Antarctica.
    2. Basically a no-man's land, Antarctica is largely uninhabited.
    3. Research on Antarctica is critical for understanding global warming.
    4. Many species of animals live on Antarctica.

     

    4. _________________________________________. It was John Haldane who first suggested that coal miners bring canaries down into the mines with them to check for carbon monoxide.  Haldane experimented a lot with noxious gases, including locking himself in small rooms as they filled with gas, so he could note the effects on his body, and recognized carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms in miners.  He also knew that canaries, who, like most birds, take in air both when they inhale and when they exhale, would show the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning before humans would, acting as tragic but effective warning signals.

    1. One must risk one's life to make scientific breakthroughs.
    2. Canaries remain indispensable in coal mining.
    3. Small birds have given their lives to save the lives of many miners.
    4. Science can lead to very strange ideas.

     

    5. _________________________________________. Like small, cone shaped volcanoes, limpets cling to rocks with such force that one must imagine that they are attached permanently, like muscles or barnacles.  But in fact, limpets are sea snails and capable of moving along the rocks just like other sea snails, or garden snails for that matter.  But when they determine to stay put, a combination of suction in their muscle foot and very strong adhesive mucous make them near permanent fixtures to whatever surface they prefer.

    1. Limpets' closest relatives are barnacles.
    2. Limpets look deceivingly stationary.
    3. Limpets only stick firmly to rocks when they are dead.
    4. Tidepools contain a wide tapestry of sea life.

    Answer Key:

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