Topic Sentences

On Topic Sentences

The topic sentence should be the first sentence of your paragraph.

• • The topic sentence should answer a question or present an opinion, idea, or hypothesis that is debatable.

    • This idea should be based on words, phrases, and passages from the text (quotations).

  • The topic sentence should analyze rather than describe.

    • The following sentence describes rather than analyzes the story:

      • "Flurry succumbed to the temptation of the little girl." Tell us why he was tempted by her. What does she represent for him? A good topic sentence presents an opinion or an idea that can be debated and proved.

    • A better topic sentence would be:

      • "Flurry succumbs to the temptation of the little girl, who represents the 'unfamiliar world' of adulthood and adult problems."

  • Topic sentences do not include/embed quotations

    • Quotations (and analysis of quotations) come later in the paragraph

    • Here are some other possible topic sentences:

    • "Flurry's need to please everyone, even strangers, causes him to succumb to the temptation to disobey the doctor's orders and follow his impulses instead."

    • Or

    • "Flurry gives into the temptation presented by the little girl because adult responsibility is thrust upon him too soon."

    • There are many topic sentences that would work equally well; the point is that they all need to tell us something about Flurry that's not obvious from a quick reading the story, something that's a debatable idea.

    • Topic sentences come at or near the beginning of a paragraph. This makes sense since you want to develop and elaborate on the idea your topic sentence presents in the rest of the paragraph. Here's an example from the Random House Handbook:

      • Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider" is built on a comparison of the poet's soul to a spider. Both of them, he says, stand isolated, sending something from inside themselves into the surrounding empty space; in their obviously different ways, they are both reaching for connection. Whitman does not say what the spiritual connection may be, except that his soul hopes to find 'the spheres to connect' the 'measureless oceans of space' out there. He is vague—but so is the unknown realm toward which he yearns. (Random House Handbook, 236)

  • The Handbook continues on to say that "the heart of this paragraph is its opening sentence, which reveals the leading idea: Whitman's poem is built on a comparison of the poet's soul to a spider. Reread the other three sentences and you will see that each of them contributes to that leading idea, remaining within its organizing control" (236).

  • Make sure your topic sentence only refers to the one specific idea you're proving/developing in that particular paragraph.