1.2: The Main Idea
1.2.1: Identifying the Main Idea
The active reading strategies you practiced earlier are designed to help you identify, understand, and remember the most important ideas in an article or lecture. Now, you will learn to identify the main idea, topic sentence, and theme of a paragraph. To begin, read this lecture and complete the included activities, in which you identify the main ideas from the excerpts of "A Scandal in Bohemia", which is part of the active reading assignment later in this unit.
- Receive a grade
It's well known that effective readers make effective writers. Throughout ENGL000 you will be applying your active reading skills to your own writing. For your first ungraded writing exercise, read the prompt and write a paragraph using the information you learned about main ideas. When you are done, check your work against the Guide to Responding for Paragraph Writing Assignments.
1.2.2: Supporting the Main Idea
In this course, you will practice writing analytical paragraphs in which you state the main idea clearly in a topic sentence and support the main idea with evidence and examples. Read this lecture and complete the included activities, in which you identify the main ideas and supporting details of different paragraphs. When you are done, check your work against the Answer Key.
1.2.3: Topic Sentences
Now that you understand how to break down a paragraph into the main idea and supporting sentences, we'll learn some tips for developing effective topic sentences in your own writing. After you read, take a few moments to reflect and apply what you've learned. For practice, try writing a topic sentence that summarizes the main idea of Unit 1 of this course.