The Topic and the Main Idea
Publicado por Pedro Pablo Escalante | | Posted On sábado, 20 de noviembre de 2010 at 17:23
The topic is the theme that the author desires to write about. As the topic is the subject of the paragraph, it can be identified making the question; who or what the paragraph is about? Also, you can identify the topic if a word or notion is being repeated several times within the paragraph. The topic has to be clearly stated within the main idea.
The main idea is the most important thing that the writer wants to express within a paragraph. It can be located in different parts of the paragraph such as in the first, middle or last sentence. Also, it can be stated in the paragraph in two sentences or it can be implied, that is to say, it is not directly express within the paragraph but the reader can deduce what the main idea is. Even though when it can be played in different parts of the paragraph, most of the time it is located at the beginning of the sentence. The rest of the paragraph then is used to support the main idea (supporting details). The main idea can be divided into two parts; the topic and the controlling idea that is what the writer is saying about the topic.
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