What is Topic Sentence?

Topic Sentences

From: Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense by Lawrence Perrine

Fiction, like food, is of different nutritive values. Some is rich in protein and vitamins; it builds bone and sinew. Some is highly agreeable to the taste but not permanently sustaining. Some may be adulterated and actually harmful to our health. Escape fiction is of the latter two sorts. The harmless kind bears frankly on the face of it what it is. It pretends to be nothing else than pleasant diversion and never asks to be taken seriously. The second kind masquerades under the appearance of interpretation. It pretends to give a faithful treatment of life as it is, perhaps even thinks that it does so, but through its shallowness it subtly falsifies life in every line. Such fiction, taken seriously and without corrective, may give us false notions of reality and lead us to expect from experience what experience does not provide. (7)

Comment on Perrine

The topic sentence of this paragraph is the first sentence. In exposition, writing intended to give information, this is usually the case. The subject of both the sentence and the paragraph is fiction. The word "different" indicates that this paragraph is going to be developed using a comparison and contrast approach. Saying that fiction has different "nutritive values" further indicates that the writer is going to develop his comparison and contrast by using an analogy: different kinds of fiction are like different kinds of food.

From: "Four Kinds of Reading" by Donald Hall

But most of the reading which is praised for itself is neither literary nor intellectual. It is narcotic. Novels, stories, and biographies -- historical sagas, monthly regurgitations of book clubs, four- and five-thousand word daydreams of the magazines -- these are the opium of the suburbs. The drug is not harmful except to the addict himself, and is no more injurious to him than Johnny Carson or a bridge club, but it is nothing to be proud of. This reading is the automated daydream, the mild trip of the housewife and the tired businessman, interested not in experience and feeling but in turning off the possibilities of experience and feeling. Great literature, if we read it well, opens us up to the world, and makes us more sensitive to it, as if we acquired eyes that could see though walls and ears that could hear the smallest sounds. But by narcotic reading, one can reduce great literature to the level of The Valley of the Dolls. One can read Anna Karenina passively and inattentively, and float down the river of lethargy as if one were reading a confession magazine: "I Spurned My Husband for a Count." (172)

Comment on Donald Hall

The topic sentence in this paragraph is the second sentence. The first sentence is a transitional sentence; it points back to the two kinds of reading that he has just discussed. Hall begins to define narcotic reading by giving a list of examples. He then comments by saying that they are not harmful, but neither do they qualify as anything more than a mindless pass time. He concludes with the idea that even good literature can be reduced to narcotic reading if we don't engage with it. Hall's paragraph thus demonstrates two methods that good writers use to develop paragraphs: Hall gives examples of what he means by the term he is defining and then he comments on these examples.

From: Understanding Reading by Frank Smith

Experimental psychologists and reading specialists usually talk about letter and word recognition, but the use of the term seems doubly inappropriate. First, they would hardly consider a word to be recognized unless its name could be given; they would not consider that a child recognized a word if all the child could say about it was "That's the very same squiggle I couldn't read yesterday." Second, the skilled reader can very often attach a name to visual information that he has never met before. As a rather extreme case, do you "recognize" or "identify" visual information rEaDiNg as the word "reading"? You almost certainly have never seen the word written that way before. The weight of evidence would see to favor "identification," and the term is therefore used for formal purposes such as chapter headings. But having made a point of the distinction, we need not be dogmatic about it; "identify," recognize." "categorize," "name," and even "read" will, in general, continue to be used interchangeably; it is the process we are concerned with at the moment, not the flexible way in which language is used (Smith 100-101).

Comment on Smith

This paragraph has one of those topic sentences which prompts the reader to ask "Why do you say that?" The author answers the question by giving two reasons which he clearly marks with a numerical sequence. Deductive organization works best in an expository paragraph such as this.

From: "Are Families Dangerous? by Barbara Ehrenreich

There is a long and honerable tradition of "anti-family" thought. The French philosopher Charles Fourier taught that the family was a barrier to human progress; early feminists saw a degrading parallel between marriage and prostitution. More recently, the renowned British anthropologist Edmund Leach stated that "far from being the basis of the good society, the family, with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of all discontents." (189)

Comment on Ehrenreich

The first sentence of the paragraph is the topic sentence. Ehrenreich then develops the idea that there is a long histroy of criticism aimed at the family by giving three examples: Charles Fourier, the early feminists, and Edmund Leach. The specific reference to two authorities gives credibility to her argument.

From: "The Parent Trap" by Karen Kornbluh

A sensible modern family policy -- that supports rather than undermines today's juggler family -- would have three components. The first is paid leave. No American worker should have to fear losing a job or suffering a reduction in pay because he or she needs to care for a child or a parent. Every worker should be entitled to at least a minimum number of days of paid leave for personal illness or that of a family member, or to care for a new child. In September, california adopted the first law in the country that provides workers with paid family and medical leave, up to six weeks' worth. The second component of a smart family policy is high-quality child care. . . .
The third and most important component is more fundamental: we should sever the link between employers and basic benefits. . . . (509).

Comment on Kornbluh

The topic sentence of the paragraph above is the second sentence. The first sentence is like a mini-thesis sentence that states the author's opinion about what would constitute "a sensible modern family policy." This sentence previews the content of the three paragraphs that follow describing the components of such a policy. Just the topic sentences of paragraphs two and three are given.

From: Technical Report Writing Today by Riordan and Pauley

Chapter Title: "Collecting Published Information"
Section Title: "Record Your Findings" As you proceed with your search strategy, record your findings. Construct a bibliography, take notes, consider using visual aids, and decide whether to quote or paraphrase important information.

Comment on Riordan and Pauly

This is an example of a topic sentence that appears as a "topic paragraph" that previews the contents of the textbook section. Following the preview given in this topic paragraph, the subheading of the section are "Make Bibliography Cards," "Take Notes," "Make Visual Aids," and "Quoting and Paraphrasing."

From: Great Experiments in Psychology

Section Title: Pavlov's Method

In his studies of the conditioned reflex, Pavlov worked almost entirely with dogs and with the salivary reflex (Garrett 128). In the topic sentence, the two key terms are "dog" and "salivary reflex." In the paragraph, the salivary reflex gets the greatest emphasis.
In his studies of he conditioned reflex, Pavlov worked almost entirely with dogs and with the salivary reflex. Implicit in all of his work is the notion that everything the dog learns from puppyhood on is a result of the association of certain events (which happen to occur at the same time) with the biologically adequate stimulus to some native response such as withdrawing, struggling, eating, sex behavior, or the like. What the dog can learn, i.e., what stimuli can be conditioned, how fast he learns, and how rapidly he forgets, is studied by measuring the saliva flow under rigidly controlled conditions. Pavlov chose to work with the salivary reflex mainly because the strength -- or the degree -- of a response and not simply its occurrence or nonoccurrence can be determined from the amount of saliva secreted. Besides, the salivary glands form a simple organ and not a composite one consisting of several muscles; there are no tonic reflexes present to interfere with or complicate the experimental control; and the response, a secreation, can be measured with great precision in units as small as one tenth of a drop.

From: "Propaganda Techniques in Today's Advertising by Ann McClintock

In the bandwagon technique, advertisers pressure, "Everyone is doing it. Why don't you?" This kind of propaganda often succeeds because many people have a deep desire not to be different. Political ads tell us to vote for the "winning candidate." Advertisers know we tend to feel comfortable doing what others do; we want to be on the winning team. Or ads show a series of people proclaiming, "I'm voting for the Senator. I don't know why anyone wouldn't." Again, the audience feels under pressure to conform.

Comment on McClintock

This paragraph is taken from an essay that illustrates the division and classification method of development. The topic sentence is the first sentence and it names the technique to be discussed. The writer then develops the paragraph by defining the bandwagon technique: exerting pressure on individuals to conform to what others do.

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