For a paragraph to be meaningful, it must have a main focus. The supporting sentences in every paragraph serve the purpose of expounding on the focus of a paragraph for a better understanding of its proposition. The focus of a paragraph is what is recognized as a topic sentence.
What is a Topic Sentence?
A topic sentence is the major preoccupation of a paragraph. It is a brief statement of what a paragraph entails as well as the main focus or subject of a paragraph. A topic sentence, usually, is the first sentence in a paragraph because it presents an overview of what a paragraph is all about in a single sentence. However, a topic sentence can also appear at the middle or end of a paragraph depending on the creative needs of a writer.
Topic sentences play crucial roles in paragraphs. They provide readers with an insight into the content of a paragraph which can also stimulate their interest in reading the rest of the paragraph. Topic sentences help in breaking down the proposition of a thesis statement into sections to be discussed in the body section of a piece of writing.
Think of a topic sentence as the thesis statement of a paragraph. While thesis statements are the main focus of pieces of writing, topic sentences form the main preoccupations of paragraphs. Writing an effective topic sentence can help organize your paragraphs into meaningful units and provide a framework on which supporting sentences build by providing more information about the topic sentence.
Characteristics of a Topic Sentence
The characteristics of a topic sentence entail the features that an effective topic sentence must possess:
- Clarity: An effective topic sentence must be clear. To achieve clarity in a topic sentence, you must avoid using vague and ambiguous words. Ensure that the proposition of your topic sentence is easily understood by your readers.
- Relatedness: An effective topic sentence must be related to the thesis statement of the writing in question. This is because topic sentences serve the purpose of providing insights into the proposition of a thesis statement, so they must align with the thesis statement of a writing.
- Organization: An effective topic sentence must be organized. This helps to convey the meaning of a paragraph and ensure coherence of ideas. An organized topic sentence makes it easier for supporting sentences to expound on its meaning and further break it down for better understanding. When a topic sentence lacks organization, the rest of the paragraph will lack focus and fail to communicate meaning.
- Precision: An effective topic sentence must be specific. In other words, a topic sentence must not be broad in scope but precise, in order to keep things focused and help readers get a better grasp of what a paragraph entails.
- Engagement: An effective topic sentence is one that is capable of stimulating the interest of readers in the content of a paragraph. Think of a topic sentence as a movie trailer that provides snippets of what to expect in a movie, it should be enticing to the reader and convincing enough for them to engage with the content of your paragraph.
Functions of a Topic Sentence
An effective topic sentence performs the following functions:
- Guidance: An effective topic sentence serves as a guide for readers by providing an overview of what a paragraph entails. This gives the reader an idea of what to expect from reading the rest of the paragraph.
- Building Block: An effective topic sentence serves as a building block for supporting sentences. Supporting sentences provide a more detailed explanation of the topic sentence and so they rely on the proposition of the topic sentence for their outputs.
- Expansion: As the name implies, topic sentences serve the purpose of expanding on the meaning of a thesis statement. They break down the proposition of a thesis statement into meaningful units that are explained in more detail by supporting sentences.
Example of Topic Sentence
"Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions. It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments. Instead of being physical money carried around and exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist purely as digital entries to an online database describing specific transactions. When you transfer cryptocurrency funds, the transactions are recorded in a public ledger. Cryptocurrency is stored in digital wallets."
Extract from kasperky.com
The first sentence in the paragraph above is the topic sentence. As you can observe, it is a brief sentence that presents the main preoccupation of the paragraph. When you read further, you would find that the sentences that follow simply build on the input of the topic sentence by providing more details about the topic sentence.
How to write an effective topic sentence
- Brainstorm: In writing an effective topic sentence, you must brainstorm the thesis statement of the writing in question in order to come up with concepts that you can use to develop its proposition. For instance, if your thesis statement is:
"Social media has done more evil than good to society and the following sections will provide insights into some of the damages it has caused."
From this thesis statement, you can brainstorm damages caused by social media and whatever you get from your brainstorming is what forms your topic sentence.
- Use Specific Words: Writing an effective topic sentence requires the use of specific words to ensure clarity of expressions. This is achieved by using words that clearly express the main focus of your paragraph. You must avoid using phrases to express concepts that could easily be expressed with simple words; the same applies to using clauses or sentences when phrases would suffice.
- Keep it Focused: Do not try to explain everything in your topic sentence—that is the duty of supporting sentences. Rather, you should simply present the main idea of your paragraph, only, in your topic sentence and ensure that the information provided by your supporting sentences align with your topic sentence.
- Avoid Statement of Facts: The purpose of a topic sentence is to present the main focus of a paragraph and stimulate the interest of readers in the rest of the paragraph. That said, you must avoid stating facts in your topic sentence as this may give off information that should be derived from the supporting sentence and so make the reader lose interest in the rest of the paragraph.
A topic sentence is a very crucial part of a paragraph. This is because it contains the main idea or subject of a paragraph and so without a topic sentence, a paragraph would lack direction as well as relevance. An effective topic sentence gives your readers insight into the content of your paragraph, expound on your thesis statement, provide an input on which your supporting sentences will build, stimulates the interest of readers in the rest of your paragraph among others. Writers should endeavour to enhance their writing skills to be able to craft effective topic sentences that not only present the subject of a paragraph but are also captivating and interesting enough to stimulate interest in the readers to read further.