THE PARAGRAPH

• A good paragraph contains several related sentences that support

one main idea, which is limited to and focused on one sentence.
• This sentence helps guide your reader tough the related sentences in
the paragraph. This vital sentence serves as a commitment for the
writer to provide an explanation or illustration of this main idea.
• The term used to identify this main idea is a topic sentence.
• A topic sentence has two essential parts: the topic and the controlling
idea.
• The topic names the subject, or main idea, of the paragraph.
• The controlling idea makes a specific comment about the topic, which
indicates what the rest of the paragraph will say about the topic.

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• It limits or controls the topic to a specific aspect of the topic to be
discussed in the space of a single paragraph.

TOPIC CONTROLLING IDEA Convenience

foods are easy to prepare

In this example, the topic is named: convenience foods. A specific comment is then
made about the topic: They are easy to prepare. From this sentence, the reader
immediately knows that the supporting sentences in the remainder of the paragraph will
explain or prove how quick and easy it is to prepare convenience foods and perhaps
give some examples (frozen dinners, canned soups, etc.)

CONTROLLING IDEA TOPIC

The native foods of America’s immigrant population are reflected in American cooking.

In this example, the topic is American food. The controlling idea of this topic sentence
is that Americans eat many foods from other countries. Therefore, the reader should
expect the paragraph to give examples of popular ethnic foods such as fried rice

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 (Chinese), tacos (Mexican), sauerbraten (German), sukiyaki (Japanese), spaghetti
(Italian), and so on.
EXERCISE 1
Circle the topic and underline the controlling idea in each of the
following sentences.

Example:

Driving on freeways requires skill and alertness.

1.Doing well in college requires organization.

2.Trying to buy house is sometimes frustrating.
3.School board meeting inform parents about the school.
4.Buying furniture can be challenging.
5.Enrolling in college can be a surprising experience.
6.Traveling to a foreign country is enlightening.
7. Riding an airplane can be stressful.

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 8. Going to a high school reunion can bring back many memories
9. Walking to school in the spring saves money.
10. My family enjoys summer fishing trips.
11. Going out to eat can be a cultural experience.
12. Riding a bicycle takes coordination.
EXERCISE 2

In the following lists, circle the letter beside the sentence that does not develop the
controlling idea which appears in the topic sentences. Then write out the paragraphs,
leaving out sentences that do not belong. Write on a separate sheet of paper.

1 . TOPIC SENTENCE: I enjoy weekends.

a. I can sleep late Saturday morning.
b. My friends and I can visit and run around.
c. I can do all kinds of shopping.
d. School assignments are due on Monday.
e. We usually go for a pleasant ride on Sunday afternoons.

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2. TOPIC SENTENCE: Carlos is very interested in cars.
a. He knows all the details about all the manufacturers’ models.
b. His parents allow him $5 50 a week for gas.
c. He spends a lot of time each week making improvements on his old Ford
d. If There is a new-car exhibit in town, you will find him there.
3. TOPIC SENTENCE: I easily give up doing my homework
a. I always start to feel hungry and go into the kitchen for a snack.
b. I'll leave my studying to investigate any noise I hear.
c. While I study, I try to listen to the radio with one ear.
d. For me, physics is the hardest subject.
e. I often leave my desk to go to the mirror to comb my hair. f Often, in the middle
of an assignment, I decide that my shoes need polishing and do instead of the
assignment in front of me.

4. TOPIC SENTENCE: The weather has been changeable.

a. On Sunday we had a high wind that blew down some trees.
b. Monday was so cold we had to turn on the heat and wear our winter coats.
c. Tuesday we formed a group to go roller-skating.
d. By Wednesday the weather cleared and the sun came out.
e. Tuesday was as hot and humid as an August day.

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 f. Friday morning it began to rain, and it looks as if we’ll have a cold, steady wind for
a few days.
5. TOPIC SENTENCE: All the people on our block give us trouble.
a. Mrs. Brown calls the police whenever wee want to play ball on the street.
b. Mrs. Gonzales invites us in for lemonade every day
c. If we happen to stray into Mr. Hardy's yard, he yells at us.
d. Mrs. Johnson complains that skateboarding makes too much noise.
e. Yesterday Mr. Chan kept the Frisbee when it-landed on his front porch.

6. TOPIC SENTENCE: We had a hard time getting Peter out of the hole he had fallen
into.
a. First, we made a rope by linking our belts together.
b. Then we lowered it to Peter, telling him to grasp the end.
c. After he had hold of the belt-rope, we began to pull him slowly out of the hole.
d. As he came up, no one dared to speak a word.
e. The sides of the hole were covered with moss. f Finally, we could grasp his
arms, and with a sigh of relief, we pulled him out onto the grassy bank.
7. TOPIC SENTENCE: Summer vacation always seems short
a. On the last day of school, it seems that the three-month vacation will last forever.

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 b. I wake up on the Fourth of July to find that I haven't really begun any of the things
I'd planned to do.
c. By August 2, my birthday, I feel that there isn't any time left at all.
d. On Labor Day, just before school is to start again, I wonder where summer Could
have gone.
e. It's always fun to have a reunion with my classmates on the first day of school.

8. TOPIC SENTENCE: Different cultural groups in Hawaii organize holiday

celebrations in different ways.
a. The Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans celebrate the coming of a new year by
setting off firecrackers, Roman candles, sparklers, tiny rockets, and aerial lights.
b. The Filipinos have their own celebrations with music and dance exhibitions and
Filipino food, such as quaking (pastries ) and sabao ("soup").
c. Mainlanders like to stroll down Kalakaua Avenue in Honolulu during the warm
evenings.
d. Native Hawaiian gather to eat at a typical luau, sampling poi, lau lau, wild pig, lome
lome, salmon, opihi, raw fish, and other Hawaiian favorites.
9. TOPIC SENTENCE: It is hard to travel to work by bus during the rush hour.
a. You have to wait in long lines at the bus stop.
b. When the bus arrives, someone always tries to push past you to get in first.

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c. After you pay your fare, you are shoved down the aisle by the rest of the boarding
passengers.
d. Sometimes you can read the morning newspaper during the ride.
e. A passenger standing next to you might shove his or her elbow in your ribs, step on your
toes or even drop cigarette ashes on you.
f. It certainly is a relief when you finally reach your stop.

10. TOPIC SENTENCE: You should not trust advertisements.

a. Read advertisements.
b. Look at the products themselves to see if they really are what the advertisers claim.
c. Talk to your friends to find out if they have had success with the products.
d. Switch channels if television program is interrupted by many commercials.
When you write an sentence, remember these two points :

A. topic sentence should be neither too general nor too specific. If it is too general, the
reader cannot tell exactly what the paragraph is going to discuss. If it is too specific, the
writer may not have anything left to write about in the rest of the paragraph.

The reader of a paragraph wants to know generally what to expect in a paragraph, but
he/she does not want to learn all of the specific details in the first sentence.

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Too general :
American food is terrible.

Too specific :
American food is tasteless and greasy because Americans use too
many canned, frozen, and prepackaged foods and because everything is fried in oil or
butter.

Good :
American food is tasteless and greasy.

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Do not include too many unrelated ideas in your topic
sentence ; if you do, your paragraph will not be unified.

Too many ideas:

San Francisco is famous for its temperate climate, its many
tourist attractions, and its cosmopolitan atmosphere.

The three parts of this controlling idea are too unrelated

for a single paragraph. They would require three
separate paragraphs.

Good:
San Francisco is famous for its cosmopolitan atmosphere.
EXERCISE 3
Arrange these groups of sentences by first choosing one as the topic sentence.

1. Then you are ready to start looking for a job.

2. Think about what kind of work you like to do.
3. Next you need to write a resume.
4. Finding a job is often difficult for a young person today.
5. This tells about your education and your earlier job.
6. But it will be easier if you follow these steps.
7. You can also talk to some people with different kinds of jobs.
8. First, you have to decide what kind of job you want.
9. It should be carefully typed.
10. You should talk to your friends and your family about it.
2.) 1. He found out that this was not true.

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 2. They fell at the same speed.
3. Galileo is famous for his study of how things fall.
4. It is an important law for understanding our world.
5. This is the law of failing bodies.
6. This meant that weight is not important.
7. He took a heavy ball and a light ball and he dropped them both from a
high place.
8. Before, people thought that heavy things always fell faster than light
things.
9. He was the first person to do experiments about this problem.
3.) 1. They are not perfect, of course, but they usually do not make mistakes.
2. First, they are fast.
3. Computers are helpful in many ways.
4. Second, computers can work with lots of information at the same time.
5. They can work with information much more quickly than a person.

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6. Third, they can keep information for a long time.
7. Also, computers are almost always correct.
8. They do not forget things the way people do.

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