TOPIC SENTENCES

One easy way for engineers to improve their writing is to begin their paragraphs with topic sentences that summarize the purpose and content of a paragraph. Topic sentences present the main idea or a claim that controls the rest of the paragraph. A good topic sentence has four characteristics:

  1. The topic sentence is usually (but not always!) the first sentence in the paragraph.

  2. It makes a general statement that is wider in its scope than the rest of the sentences in that paragraph. In other words, the topic sentence should be general enough so that it can be supported by specific details in later sentences.

  3. Topic sentences should always contain both a topic and a controlling idea. The topic typically occurs before the verb and is “what the paragraph is about”, while the controlling idea is “what you want to say about the topic”.

  4. The controlling idea should be repeated (preferably, in “subject” position) in each
    of the sentences that follow the topic sentence.

Click the 'start' button to learn about the different types of topic sentences.

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