Hunting the rare topic sentence

As writers revise projects for the final portfolio submission, we start to look at how your ideas and evidence are being delivered to readers. The basic delivery system for human ideas is language. We use language to get ideas out of our own minds and into the minds of other people. ENG 102 is all about using written American English language to convey ideas that you've researched and developed. Written American English uses standards like paragraphing and sentences to deliver these ideas in ways that readers will find clear and understandable.

Last week one of the tips I gave in class was to circle your topic sentence in each paragraph. Try it. Look at each of the three projects you've selected for your portfolio and circle the topic sentence in each paragraph.

Go ahead...do it now and then come back here. (It's easier to understand if you've got one of your papers in front of you.)

Here's what happened:

• You found a topic sentence: one that explains the main point of your paragraph. It might be the first sentence in a paragraph, sort of like an announcement of what will follow. Or the topic sentence may be at the end: something toward which the others sentences build, sort of a "Ta-da!" You may even find the sentence with the main idea buried in the middle of the paragraph, perhaps wedged between explanations of sub-points and evidence that supports them. Wherever it's located, each paragraph should have a topic sentence.
• Perhaps, you didn't find a topic sentence in some paragraphs. All the ideas might still be connected to each other. They might belong together in the paragraph; however, there is no one thought that connects them. These sub-points just sort of huddle together and try to look like they are a real paragraph. It is your job, as the idea-transformer and writer, to turn them into a real paragraph for your reader. Come up with a topic sentence -- a thread, an overview, a question -- to which all the sub-points connect. It may sound different depending on where you position it in the paragraph, but the topic sentence should be there.
• In some paragraphs, you may find a topic sentence to which a few sub-points are connected, but others are not. In these cases, you can of of the following: revising the topic sentence, move the sub-points that don't fit to other paragraphs where they might fit better, or (if you have a few sub-points that relate to each other but not the rest of the ideas) create a new paragraph.

The point is that your readers expect ideas to be delivered to us using language that is organized into sentences and paragraphs that build upon each other. Use these language tools to show us your ideas, to prove to us that you've done your research, and to convince us to believe you.

For this week's blog, one of the topics you might consider is how your topic sentence hunt turned out. Pick one of your projects and try the exercise, then write about it in your blog.

Works Cited

"Topic Sentence Image." Inter-Cultural Communicative Competence. 11.3 Eastern Mennonite U. Web. 10 Apr 2010.