Understanding Topic Sentences

What does a topic sentence inform?

• Explanation and examples of the topic.

• The main idea of a paragraph

• Where the topic sentence is found

What is NOT a feature of a topic sentence?

• It has a controlling idea

• It is not a fact.

• It is vague

Choose the most suitable topic sentence for the topic “soccer”.

• Soccer is popular for many reasons.

• For a soccer game, players need a special leather ball.

• Soccer is a nice game.

Choose the most suitable topic sentence for the topic “Los Angeles”.

• There are many people in Los Angeles.

• People from many different cultures live in Los Angeles.

• Los Angeles is a big city in California.

Choose the most suitable topic sentence for the topic “dictionaries”.

• Monolingual dictionaries have only one language, but bilingual dictionaries have two languages.

• Many language students prefer bilingual dictionaries to monolingual dictionaries.

• Dictionaries that have two languages, such as French and English, are called bilingual dictionaries.