How to Write Topic Sentences | 4 Steps & Examples
Published on January 21, 2019 by Shona McCombes. Revised on October 15, 2020.
Every paragraph in your paper needs a topic sentence. The topic sentence expresses what the paragraph is about. It should include two key things:
- Thetopic of the paragraph
- The central point of the paragraph.
After the topic sentence, you expand on the point with evidence and examples.
To build a well-structured argument, you can also use your topic sentences to transition smoothly between paragraphs and show the connections between your points.
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Introductions
For the first paragraph of anessayto actually be a proper introduction [in other words, for it to fulfil the requirements of an effective introduction], it must have two elements:
1] a thesis statement
2] a preview or essay plan for the essay.
So, what are these two elements?
1] A thesis statement tells the reader about your position on the topic as the author. It serves to focus your ideas on the topic and to indicate why your essay is worth the reader’s time. When you are given an essay question, the thesis statement is your clear and concise answer to the question. For example, for the essay question ‘What were the causes of the Holocaust in World War II?’, your thesis statement could be something like this: ‘There were many complicated and interrelated causes of the Holocaust, including the economy of Germany, the ideology of the fascists and Hitler’s personal racism.’
A ‘thesis’ is an ‘argument’, and the thesis statement indicates what the argument of the essay is, or what argument [or viewpoint] the author of the essay will be putting across to readers. Thus, the thesis statement also keeps authors from wandering off topic. A thesis statement can be short—just one sentence—or long—two or more sentences—depending on the points to be covered. Always include it at the beginning of the essay, within the first paragraph. For short essays, the thesis statement can list the two or three key points that the essay covers, but for longer essays that typically cover more key points, it can broadly state the central theme.
2] An introduction must introduce all the main points that you will discuss in the remaining sections of the essay. For instance, argumentative essays must provide evidence to back up or support the thesis statement. This means you have to provide proof to back up your answer to the essay question. So, if your essay is on the causes of the Holocaust, and your essay is going to discuss six main causes [two paragraphs on each], then your introduction must list [or introduce] each of these six main causes. Thus, this list acts like an essay map or preview and provides your reader with an idea about the topics that your essay will discuss. Usually, this list is linked to your thesis statement or comes straight after it.