Definitions for "Topic sentence"
Related Terms:
Paragraph, Main idea, Definition, Predicate, Parenthesis, Subject, Verbosity, Thesis statement, Sentence fragment, Grammatical, Sentence, Article, Misplaced modifier, Headword, Dangling modifier, Postposition, Coherence, Independent clause, Dependent clause, Clause, Gloss, Function word, Referent, Modifier, Syntax, Conjunctive adverb, Parenthetical, Skimming, Determiner, Adjective, Predicates, Head, Prepositional phrase, Simple sentence, Case, Preposition, Parallelism, Syntactic category, Substantive, Verb phrase, Quotation, Wordnet , Pronoun, Clitic, Paraphrase, Gist, Pangram, Parts of speech, Appositive
A statement of the central thought of a paragraph, which, though often at the beginning, may appear anywhere in it. Some paragraphs may not have a topic sentence, although the main idea is clearly suggested.
the sentence in a paragraph that expresses the main or controlling idea.
a sentence that states the topic of its paragraph
a complete sentence that states the main point of the paragraph
a mini-thesis that acts as the controlling idea for that paragraph
a sentence that captures the meaning of the entire paragraph or group of sentences
a sentence that expresses the main idea of a paragraph
a stated main idea for a paragraph
a summary of the ideas in the paragraph
The sentence encapsulating the focus, or main idea, of each paragraph of an essay.
A statement of the direction for the development of a paragraph.
is the central idea around which a paragraph develops. A topic sentence controls a paragraph in the same way a thesis statement unifies and governs an entire essay. See also induction and deduction. Transition
the sentence in a paragraph that gives the main idea for the paragraph and sets the limits for the material that can be discussed. It is often, but not always, the first sentence of a paragraph because this helps the reader follow the writer's argument Example: If the topic sentence was "I hate cafeteria food", that paragraph would have to discuss cafeteria food and why you hate it.
a sentence in a paragraph that states the topic or subject of the paragraph and the idea(s) it focuses on
A sentence intended to express the main idea in a paragraph or passage.