Writing an effective topic sentence is trickier than it appears. You want a sentence that grabs the reader’s attention and tells them what to expect from the essay. You also need the sentence to be concise and clear. Plus, it is not enough to develop a single topic sentence. You need a topic sentence for each paragraph in your essay. These sentences serve as guideposts, helping your reader quickly and reliably navigate your essay. No wonder writing effective topic sentences is crucial to a good essay.
What is a Topic Sentence?
A topic sentence is a sentence that tells the main point of a paragraph. Typically, it is the first sentence in the section. However, you might use a different hook, making the topic sentence the second or third. Some professors refer to topic sentences as focus sentences. That is a great way to think about them because the paragraph should focus on the information in the topic sentence.
In expository writing, each paragraph should have a topic sentence. In addition, the topic sentence in your introductory paragraph should focus on the entire essay. What is the paper’s topic, and what approach will the author take in the paper? The reader should be able to answer those questions by reading the topic sentence.
While a topic sentence needs to provide a focus for your essay or paragraph, you want to avoid making it too narrow. Instead, you want to give the reader a general idea of your topic. The topic sentences in your supporting paragraphs can be more limited because the focus in each supporting section will concentrate on bolstering the point you are making in that paragraph. However, the topic sentence for the entire essay needs to be sufficiently broad to let you introduce all of the supporting paragraphs.
Topic Sentence Structure
Structuring an essay is one of the most critical roles for a topic sentence. Suppose you are a person who outlines your papers before writing them. In that case, your topic sentences should be able to provide the skeleton of your essay. They are too broad or narrow if they cannot, so you will want to adjust them accordingly. So, one of the answers to “What’s a topic sentence?” is a skeleton. With your topic sentences, outlining your essay should be easy. You can also go in the opposite direction. Writing your topic sentences should also be easier if you have outlined your essay.
Topic Sentences v. Thesis Statements
Many students struggle with the difference between topic sentences and thesis statements. One of the significant differences is the placement in your paper. Your topic sentence for the entire essay will be in your introductory paragraph’s first or second sentence. You will also have topic sentences for each section of the paper.
However, the difference is about more than placement. Your thesis statement should be more focused and nuanced than your topic sentence. Furthermore, the topic sentences of each supporting paragraph will support your thesis.
To understand the difference, you need to understand the difference between your essay’s topic and your paper’s narrow focus. For example, if you write an example essay about how dogs help humans, dogs helping humans is your topic. If you provide a specific example of a friend’s service dog, the service dog would be in the thesis. Then, your supporting paragraphs would show a connection between your thesis and the overall topic.
How to Write a Topic Sentence
Before writing a topic sentence, you must decide on your topic. What is the main point of your essay? Let us return to our example essay about dogs helping humans. A bad example of a topic sentence would be:
Dogs are good.
While most people agree with that statement, it is too broad to make a good topic sentence. Yes, it lets the readers know that you will be writing about dogs and that it will be positive, but they have no idea where that topic will go. Your topic sentence needs to do more than tell the reader what your essay is about; it also needs to tell them why you are writing it.
A better topic sentence would be:
Since their relationship with man began, dogs have been helping humans.
That sentence lets the reader know that you will discuss not just dogs but the helpful relationship between dogs and humans. It enables you to introduce the idea of service dogs so that you can narrow the focus to create your thesis statement. If you wanted to narrow your topic even more, you could hone your topic sentence further and make it something like:
For some people, dogs are more than man’s best friend; they are essential companions that help them live an everyday life.
Where to Place Your Topic Sentence
Generally, you want your topic sentence for the essay to be the essay’s opening sentence. There are exceptions, where you might choose to open with a hook statement instead. In those instances, your topic sentence should immediately follow your hook. That way, it serves as a bridge between your hook and the rest of the essay.
For complex writing, you could also begin each supporting paragraph with a hook. However, that approach will be overly complicated and seem disorganized for most academic writing. Instead, for most people, we suggest using the topic sentence as the first sentence for each of your introductory paragraphs. It will help provide structure for the readers. It can also help you identify and stick to a form as a writer.
What is an Effective Topic Sentence for an Essay?
You already know that good writing should feature many sentence types and structures. However, do you know you should avoid simple sentence structures for your topic sentence? While it is not a hard-and-fast rule, the reality is that using compound or complex sentence structures elevates your writing.
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Topic Sentence Examples
Remember, your goal in an argumentative essay is to support a particular viewpoint. So, your topic sentence needs to contain that viewpoint. It should not simply be a fact. The stronger your perspective, the more likely you can convince the reader to agree, as long as you support it with evidence in the essay.
Ten examples of good topic sentences for argumentative essays, some of which we included above, are:
#1. Although people may be worried about overt racism, most of the discrimination in the criminal justice system is the result of covert racism.
#2. Abstinence-only education is bad for children because it stigmatizes sexual behavior while doing nothing to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
#3. Abstinence-based education is suitable for children because it delays the onset of sexual activity by approximately a year.
#4. 1 in 4 men have experienced domestic violence from a partner, which means you know a man who has been victimized.
#5. While many people think of domestic violence as a woman’s issue, the reality is that you know a man who has been victimized since 1 in 4 men will be a victim of domestic violence.
#6. For some people, dogs are more than man’s best friend; they are essential companions that help them live an everyday life.
#7. While often used to insult women, single female cat owners’ self-reported happiness rates suggest that becoming a cat lady may be a goal, not a curse.
#8. While it is important to respect individual choice, the tradwife trend is a warning sign of a culture embracing misogynistic ideals about a woman’s role.
#9. While the pro-choice argument hinges on when life begins, that is irrelevant; the issue concerns bodily autonomy and the ethics of forcing one human to use their body to support another, not about when life begins.
#10. The combination of sweet and savory flavors is well-known in the culinary world, so it seems clear that pineapple belongs on pizza.
Effective Topic Sentences
Looking at topic sentence ideas is looking at essay ideas. Once you get an idea for your essay, you can choose a direction and structure your topic sentence around that idea. Look at these two examples of a topic sentence to see different approaches:
Most of the discrimination in the criminal justice system is due to covert racism, not overt racism.
Although people may be worried about overt racism, most of the discrimination in the criminal justice system is the result of covert racism.
When discussing topic sentences for supporting paragraphs, it is essential to think about the flow of your essay. You want the paragraphs to transition naturally into one another while their first sentences should still announce the paragraph’s topic. One way to do that is to include transition words in your topic sentence. Those transition words can link the paragraph to the one above it, providing a smooth, seamless, and logical transition between thoughts.
How do you write an engaging first sentence in an essay?
One of the biggest challenges for writers is making their topic sentences attractive. That is especially true if you are writing about a topic your audience knows reasonably well. So, avoid making apparent statements when writing your topic sentence when possible. If you can, use a fact or a perspective that might be new to your readers. If you cannot do that, try to give the audience something to consider. You want your topic sentence to tell the audience what you are writing about and why they should give a damn.
To do that, you may want to link a fact to something relevant to your reader. For example, if you are writing an essay about domestic violence, your topic sentence could be:
1 in 4 men have experienced domestic violence from a partner.
That is an interesting fact that most people do not know since most domestic violence information focuses on violence against women. However, it is just a fact. You could make it more personal to the reader by stating:
1 in 4 men have experienced domestic violence from a partner, which means you know a man who has been victimized.
Now, this example sentence could be problematic, depending on the formality of the essay, since we generally avoid the second person (you) in formal, academic writing. However, it does provide food for thought since most people can probably name a woman they know who has been victimized but not a man. So, link the fact to something personal and thought-provoking.
Four Characteristics of an Effective Topic Sentence
An effective topic sentence has four primary characteristics:
- It is straightforward to follow.
- It has a main idea and a central idea.
- It uses engaging vocabulary.
- It signals the reader about the content and tone of the essay or paragraph.
Understanding the difference between a main idea and a controlling idea can be confusing. Think of the main idea as your broader topic. Returning to our service dog essay example, the main idea could be something as comprehensive as dogs are good. The main idea would be that dogs are good because they help people. You would not state a sentence in such primary language, but you can base your sentence on those ideas.
Some topic sentence examples that contain these four characteristics include:
Abstinence-only education is bad for children because it stigmatizes sexual behavior while doing nothing to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
Abstinence-based education is suitable for children because it delays the onset of sexual activity by approximately a year.
Notice that both sentences above have the same topic or main idea, abstinence-based sex education, but their main ideas differ. One of them is the introduction to an essay against abstinence-only education. At the same time, the other is the introduction to an essay for abstinence-only education. Those two directions are why you want to do more than introduce your main idea or topic; you also want to include a controlling idea.
Vital Topic Sentence in an Argumentative Essay
Remember, your goal in an argumentative essay is to support a particular viewpoint. So, your topic sentence needs to contain that viewpoint. It should not simply be a fact. The stronger your perspective, the more likely you can convince the reader to agree, as long as you support it with evidence in the essay.
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