Understanding the Topic Sentence

A paragraph is usually composed of multiple sentences. Obviously, all sentences don’t have the same role to play. While one of these sentences in a paragraph could be giving us the main idea—the central message of the writer, others might serve to flesh out the principal idea. Such sentences adding details can take a variety of forms, such as reasons, explanations and categories. The sentence that represents the central idea and is written explicitly in a paragraph is called the topic sentence. Look at the following sample paragraph. Studying in government schools has two major benefits. One of the advantages is that studying in such schools is cheap, therefore would be suitable for low-income families and even the families who want to economize. Besides, passing out from a government-funded school can entitle deserving students to a host of scholarship schemes, which are hard to avail in profit-oriented private educational institutions.

In the above paragraph, the very first sentence is the topic sentence, because it’s what the paragraph is about. The rest of the sentences in the paragraph give us the two benefits. Remember! There is no guarantee that the topic sentence always comes at the beginning of a paragraph. It could come anywhere: in the middle, or even at the end. Let’s look at the following sample paragraph, which is a modified version of the above paragraph.

Studying in government schools doesn’t cost much, therefore would be suitable for low-income families and even the families who want to economize. Besides, passing out from a government-funded school can entitle deserving students to a host of scholarship schemes, which are hard to avail in profit-oriented private educational institutions. Clearly, studying in government schools is cheap and can provide students with scholarship opportunities.

In the above sample, the topic sentence is the last sentence of the paragraph, which comes in the form of a conclusion.

However, not all well-written paragraphs have a topic sentence though they will inevitably have a main idea. The reason being that there isn’t a sentence conveying the main idea in the paragraph. This means if a paragraph has an implied main idea, it, by virtue of the mere implication, is considered as not having the topic sentence. As simple as that!