Essay procedure: topic senten, Topic Sentences and Signposting

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In this article, we explain the purpose of a topic sentence, show you how to write a topic sentence and share examples and tips to help you craft strong topic sentences in your own writing. Essay procedure: topic senten

Learn How to Write a Topic Sentence with Examples

Essay writing is an essential part of the academic life of a student. Different types of essays are assigned to the student at different levels of their academic career. Essay writing helps in enhancing the writing, thinking, and analytical skills of an individual.

To write an essay, there are multiple steps that the writer needs to follow. An essay starts with an introduction to the topic. It is further followed by the body paragraphs, which explain each of the key elements one by one. A formal conclusion is written to wrap up the essay.

Body paragraphs are technically the most important part of an essay. Each of these paragraphs starts with a topic sentence. It serves as an introduction to that particular paragraph.

A topic sentence might seem to be a small element of an essay, but it is important in making the paragraph logical.

What is a Topic Sentence?

The topic sentence is an introductory sentence of a paragraph. It is written so that a reader gets an idea about the paragraph by reading this sentence.

A topic sentence must be written in such a way that it should explain an idea in a controlled way. As it is specific to the paragraph, it must only refer to the paragraph only, rather than the entire essay.

A topic sentence is stated at the beginning of a paragraph. Sometimes a topic sentence is also referred to as a focus sentence. It helps organize the paragraph by summarizing the information in the paragraph.

Features of A Topic Sentence

A good topic sentence makes paragraphs logical. It should have the following features:

Be specific to the paragraph.

Appear as the first sentence of a paragraph.

Serve as an introduction to the topic of the paragraph.

Purpose of a Topic Sentence

The purpose of writing a topic sentence is to acknowledge to the reader what the particular paragraph would discuss. Therefore, all sentences that are stated after it is related to the rest of the paragraph.

For this type of sentence, buying an essay online it is important to relate to the thesis statement. As a writer creates a thesis statement Therefore, as a writer, create a thesis statement with respect to the topic sentences.

A topic sentence must have a topic and a controlling idea. The controlling idea is essential because it shows the direction the paragraph will lead to.

How to Write a Topic Sentence?

A topic sentence is a sentence that must introduce a paragraph to the reader in a proper way. Here are a few instructions to help you write a good topic sentence.

1. Clearly State the Main Idea

A topic sentence is the first paragraph of the paragraph. It must clearly explain the particular subject that would be discussed in the paragraph. This should be stated in very clear language so that the reader can easily understand the idea.

Also, it should also include a bit of your personal opinion and also the controlling idea.

A hook sentence helps a writer to grab the reader’s attention. For a topic sentence, it is important to attain the reader’s attention. It would excite and make the reader curious about the content and convince them to read the particular part.

Look out for some amazing hook examples from different sources and see what fits your essay type.

Use a meaningful and relevant question or a fact as a topic sentence of the paragraph. Make sure that you have identified your audience and you are developing everything accordingly.

The paragraph topic sentence must be expressive enough that a reader understands your point of view effortlessly. This is only possible only if you keep everything to the point, short, and meaningful.

Choose the words in such a way that they help you express your idea in an ideal way. Avoid using complex sentences and use independent clauses.

A topic sentence is expected to perform as a middle ground in a paragraph. It should be a little specific or related to the main thesis statement. A short and precise sentence will help you keep the paragraph in a flow and related to the rest of the essay.

The body paragraph explains a topic sentence. This is why it is important that you should write this sentence in such a way that it can be explained in the paragraph. If you are mentioning a fact in the topic statement, make sure that you have authentic evidence to support it.

The topic sentence is a part of the paragraph, but it should be a little different and unique from the rest of the sentence. You can use transition words and make connections between sentences.

The topic sentences that serve as a transition sentence can be considered a guide for the readers. This way, they can help the reader to move through the essay in a flow.

Write this sentence in such a way that it creates a gateway with the previous paragraph and the rest of the essay. Moreover, it will also help keep the essay organized, and the reader understands the point of a paragraph.

Examples can help you learn a thing in a better way. If you are new to writing topic sentences, it can help to look at some examples. Try to look for some good examples of such sentences according to your essay topic.

Topic Sentence Examples

Here are some examples for your ease.

There are many factors that are contributing to global warming.

It is common for fortune hunters to face difficulties when they are exploring a shipwreck.

Dogs are considered to be the best pets because they help you to live a longer life.

Systemic discrimination is the cause of crime in a poverty-stricken area.

Improved sex education can prevent the issue of teen pregnancy.

To become a good cook, one needs to have many skills.

It is important to make up the mind before buying any kind of property.

Graduating from high school is necessary for every individual.

Planning to have a child for the first time is difficult because of the significant changes in life.

A person should have significant skills to redesign any part of the house.

The overall essay writing process is a little bit tricky to do. More than being tricky, it is a time-consuming task. Students already burdened with a bundle of other assignments stress out in such conditions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long is a topic sentence?

A topic sentence can be multiple sentences long. The first sets the context for your ideas, while the second provides more depth on what you are saying beyond just stating it outright.

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Topic Sentences and Signposting

Topic sentences and signposts make an essay's claims clear to a reader. Good essays contain both. Topic sentences reveal the main point of a paragraph. They show the relationship of each paragraph to the essay's thesis, telegraph the point of a paragraph, and tell your reader what to expect in the paragraph that follows. Topic sentences also establish their relevance right away, making clear why the points they're making are important to the essay's main ideas. They argue rather than report. Signposts, as their name suggests, prepare the reader for a change in the argument's direction. They show how far the essay's argument has progressed vis-ˆ-vis the claims of the thesis.

Topic sentences and signposts occupy a middle ground in the writing process. They are neither the first thing a writer needs to address (thesis and the broad strokes of an essay's structure are); nor are they the last (that's when you attend to sentence-level editing and polishing). Topic sentences and signposts deliver an essay's structure and meaning to a reader, so they are useful diagnostic tools to the writer—they let you know if your thesis is arguable—and essential guides to the reader

Forms of Topic Sentences

Sometimes topic sentences are actually two or even three sentences long. If the first makes a claim, the second might reflect on that claim, explaining it further. Think of these sentences as asking and answering two critical questions: How does the phenomenon you're discussing operate? Why does it operate as it does?

There's no set formula for writing a topic sentence. Rather, you should work to vary the form your topic sentences take. Repeated too often, any method grows wearisome. Here are a few approaches.

Complex sentences. Topic sentences at the beginning of a paragraph frequently combine with a transition from the previous paragraph. This might be done by writing a sentence that contains both subordinate and independent clauses, as in the example below.

Although Young Woman with a Water Pitcher depicts an unknown, middle-class woman at an ordinary task, the image is more than "realistic"; the painter [Vermeer] has imposed his own order upon it to strengthen it.

This sentence employs a useful principle of transitions: always move from old to new information. The subordinate clause (from "although" to "task") recaps information from previous paragraphs; the independent clauses (starting with "the image" and "the painter") introduce the new information—a claim about how the image works ("more than Ôrealistic'") and why it works as it does (Vermeer "strengthens" the image by "imposing order").

Questions. Questions, sometimes in pairs, also make good topic sentences (and signposts). Consider the following: "Does the promise of stability justify this unchanging hierarchy?" We may fairly assume that the paragraph or section that follows will answer the question. Questions are by definition a form of inquiry, and thus demand an answer. Good essays strive for this forward momentum.

Bridge sentences. Like questions, "bridge sentences" (the term is John Trimble's) make an excellent substitute for more formal topic sentences. Bridge sentences indicate both what came before and what comes next (they "bridge" paragraphs) without the formal trappings of multiple clauses: "But there is a clue to this puzzle."

Pivots. Topic sentences don't always appear at the beginning of a paragraph. When they come in the middle, they indicate that the paragraph will change direction, or "pivot." This strategy is particularly useful for dealing with counter-evidence: a paragraph starts out conceding a point or stating a fact ("Psychologist Sharon Hymer uses the term Ônarcissistic friendship' to describe the early stage of a friendship like the one between Celie and Shug"); after following up on this initial statement with evidence, it then reverses direction and establishes a claim ("Yet . this narcissistic stage of Celie and Shug's relationship is merely a transitory one. Hymer herself concedes . . . "). The pivot always needs a signal, a word like "but," "yet," or "however," or a longer phrase or sentence that indicates an about-face. It often needs more than one sentence to make its point.

Signposts

Signposts operate as topic sentences for whole sections in an essay. (In longer essays, sections often contain more than a single paragraph.) They inform a reader that the essay is taking a turn in its argument: delving into a related topic such as a counter-argument, stepping up its claims with a complication, or pausing to give essential historical or scholarly background. Because they reveal the architecture of the essay itself, signposts remind readers of what the essay's stakes are: what it's about, and why it's being written.

Signposting can be accomplished in a sentence or two at the beginning of a paragraph or in whole paragraphs that serve as transitions between one part of the argument and the next. The following example comes from an essay examining how a painting by Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train, challenges Zola's declarations about Impressionist art. The student writer wonders whether Monet's Impressionism is really as devoted to avoiding "ideas" in favor of direct sense impressions as Zola's claims would seem to suggest. This is the start of the essay's third section:

It is evident in this painting that Monet found his Gare Saint-Lazare motif fascinating at the most fundamental level of the play of light as well as the loftiest level of social relevance. Arrival of a Train explores both extremes of expression. At the fundamental extreme, Monet satisfies the Impressionist objective of capturing the full-spectrum effects of light on a scene.

The writer signposts this section in the first sentence, reminding readers of the stakes of the essay itself with the simultaneous references to sense impression ("play of light") and intellectual content ("social relevance"). The second sentence follows up on this idea, while the third serves as a topic sentence for the paragraph. The paragraph after that starts off with a topic sentence about the "cultural message" of the painting, something that the signposting sentence predicts by not only reminding readers of the essay's stakes but also, and quite clearly, indicating what the section itself will contain.

Copyright 2000, Elizabeth Abrams, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

Essay procedure: topic senten, Essay procedure: topic senten