Topic Sentence

What is a topic sentence?

A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph: it serves as a mini-thesis for the paragraph. You
might think of it as a signpost for your readersor a headlinesomething that alerts them to the most
important, interpretive points in your essay. When read in sequence, your essay's topic sentences will
provide a sketch of the essay's argument. Thus topics sentences help protect your readers from confusion
by guiding them through the argument. But topic sentences can also help you to improve your essay by
making it easier for you to recognize gaps or weaknesses in your argument.
Where do topic sentences go?
Topic sentences usually appear at the very beginning of paragraphs. In the following example
from Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye establishes the figure of the tragic hero as someone more than
human, but less than divine. He backs up his claim with examples of characters from literature, religion
and mythology whose tragic stature is a function of their ability to mediate between their fellow human
beings and a power that transcends the merely human:
The tragic hero is typically on top of the wheel of fortune, half-way between human society
on the ground and the something greater in the sky. Prometheus, Adam, and Christ hang between
heaven and earth, between a world of paradisal freedom and a world of bondage. Tragic heroes are so
much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power
about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of
course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning: Milton's Samson destroys the Philistine
temple with himself, and Hamlet nearly exterminates the Danish court in his own fall.
The structure of Frye's paragraph is simple yet powerful: the topic sentence makes an abstract point, and
the rest of the paragraph elaborates on that point using concrete examples as evidence.
Does a topic sentence have to be at the beginning of a paragraph?
No, though this is usually the most logical place for it. Sometimes a transitional sentence or two will come
before a topic sentence:
We found in comedy that the term bomolochos or buffoon need not be restricted to farce, but could
be extended to cover comic characters who are primarily entertainers, with the function of increasing or
focusing the comic mood. The corresponding contrasting type is the suppliant, the character, often
female, who presents a picture of unmitigated helplessness and destitution. Such a figure is
pathetic, and pathos, though it seems a gentler and more relaxed mood than tragedy, is even more
terrifying. Its basis is the exclusion of an individual from the group; hence it attacks the deepest fear in
ourselves that we possessa fear much deeper than the relatively cosy and sociable bogey of hell. In the
suppliant pity and terror are brought to the highest possible pitch of intensity, and the awful consequences
of rejecting the suppliant for all concerned is a central theme of Greek tragedy.
The context for this passage is an extended discussion of the characteristics of tragedy. In this paragraph,
Frye begins by drawing a parallel between the figure of the buffoon in comedy and that of the suppliant in
tragedy. His discussion of the buffoon occurred in a earlier section of the chapter, a section devoted to
comedy. The first sentence of the current paragraph is transitional: it prepares the way for the topic
sentence. The delayed topic sentence contributes to the coherence of Frye's discussion by drawing an
explicit connection between key ideas in the book. In essays, the connection is usually between the last
paragraph and the current one.
Sometimes writers save a topic sentence for the end of a paragraph. You may, for example, occasionally
find that giving away your point at the beginning of a paragraph does not allow you to build your
argument toward an effective climax.
How do I come up with a topic sentence? And what makes a good
one?
Ask yourself what's going on in your paragraph. Why have you chosen to include the information you
have? Why is the paragraph important in the context of your argument? What point are you trying to
make?
Relating your topic sentences to your thesis can help strengthen the coherence of your essay. If you
include a thesis statement in your introduction, then think of incorporating a keyword from that
statement into the topic sentence. But you need not be overly explicit when you echo the thesis statement.
Better to be subtle rather than heavy-handed. Do not forget that your topic sentence should do more than
just establish a connection between your paragraph and your thesis. Use a topic sentence to show how
your paragraph contributes to the development of your argument by moving it that one extra step
forward. If your topic sentence merely restates your thesis, then either your paragraph is redundant or
your topic sentence needs to be reformulated. If several of your topic sentences restate your thesis, even if
they do so in different words, then your essay is probably repetitive.
Does every paragraph need one?
No, but most do. Sometimes a paragraph helps to develop the same point as in the previous paragraph,
and so a new topic sentence would be redundant. And sometimes the evidence in your paragraph makes
your point so effectively that your topic sentence can remain implicit. But if you are in doubt, it's best to
use one.
Techniques for Writing: Writing Topic Sentences for
Paragraphs
A paragraph is a sequence of sentences that cooperate in supporting one main point.
Sometimes that point is so obvious that it doesn't need to be stated, but often a
paragraph begins with a topic sentence that states the main point directly. Before you
can write a topic sentence, you must decide what you want to say and what you don't
want to say in your paragraph. In other words, you must first explore your starting
topic and then select your limited topic. The next step is to make a statement about the
limited topic. Keep these points in mind:
1. A starting topic is usually broad, stimulating many ideas.
2. A limited topic is narrow, connecting a few selected ideas.
3. A topic sentence makes a statement about the limited topic.
For example, study this progression:
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.

Exercise A: For each limited topic below, select the two items that could serve as
topic sentences.
Limited topic: how to train a cat.
1. This paragraph is about how to train a cat.
2. Before a cat learns anything, it first teaches its owner a lesson in
humility.
3. Everything you wouldn't have thought to ask about training a cat.
4. Training a cat takes physical stamina.
5. Animal training is a complicated subject.
Limited topic: changes in patients as they settle into convalescent homes
1. Americans are learning how to grow old gracefully.
2. The outside world seems to shrink when seen through the window
of a convalescent home.
3. Closing up a home and moving to a small room can make even an
extrovert turn inward.
4. It is important to look at the changes in patients' attitudes as they
settle into convalescent homes.
5. The increasing delight in daily conversation as patients become
accustomed to life in a convalescent home.
Limited topic: scuba diving
1. The excitement of scuba diving.
2. My childhood fascination with scuba diving.
3. It is very interesting to experience scuba diving.
4. The sport of scuba diving has always excited me.
5. Since I was a child, I've been fascinated by scuba diving.
Notice that choosing a topic sentence helps to focus the topic still further. Using the
same cluster of ideas, the student writing about the role football played in his
education could have chosen one of these several topic sentences instead:
a. My high school football coach transformed a sport into a powerful
mental discipline.
b. The lessons I learned from playing high school football prepared
me for the challenges of college.
c. If it hadn't been for football, I might never have taken school
seriously.
Each sentence declares a slightly different role that football played in this student's
education and alerts the reader to a different focus in the paragraph. Therefore, the
topic sentence acts as a tool for organizing the rest of the paragraph.
Exercise B: Below are three sets of notes for developing the topic, the role football
played in my education. For each one, select which topic sentence will fit the
completed paragraph. Choose a, b, or c from the list above.
1. concentration to learn plays
discipline to follow through
flexibility when plan fails
college classes painful at first
college pressure like my JV year in HS
2. distractions from high schoolsocial life, job, being cool
best friends dropped out
team solidarity, support, tutoring
State Championship goal, whole school cared
coach insisted on better than C average
3. coach's weird warm-up exercises
visualizing ways to overcome hardship
insistence on accuracy
team meditations
application of problem-solving tricks in daily life