A topic sentence is a sentence that introduces a paragraph by presenting the one topic that will be the focus ofthat paragraph.
The structure of a paragraph should imitate the organization of a paper. Just like the thesis statement gives the main idea of the paper at the essay level, the topic sentence gives the main idea at the paragraph level. The rest of the paragraph then supports that topic.
Topic sentences should:
- Be specific and have a narrower focus than your thesis statement.
- Appear in or near the first sentence of the paragraph.
- Introduce the topic of the paragraph.
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