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1、PartIIHowtoIdentifytheMainIdeaofaParagraphFindingthemainideaisgenerallyinvolvedinatwo-stepprocess:First,identifythetopic.Second,findthemainpointthattheauthorismakingaboutthattopic.Youthenhavethemainidea.1.StatedMainIdeaInaparagraph,themainideaisoften,butnotalways,statedbytheauthori
2、nasentencecalledthetopicsentence.Atopicsentenceisabroad,generalstatement;theremainingsentencesoftheparagraphprovidedetailstoexplain,develop,orsupportthetopicsentence.Thetopicsentencecanbelocatedanywhereintheparagraph.However,thereareseveralpositionswhereitismostlikelytobefound.Topi
3、csentenceatthebeginningAparagraphstartingwithatopicsentencecanberepresentedbyanupside-downtriangle().Inthistypeofparagraph,theauthorfirststateshisorhermainpointandthenexplainanddevelopthatidea.Thisisthemostcommonlocation.TopicsentenceinthemiddleAparagraphwithatopicsentenceinthemidd
4、lecanberepresentedwithadiamondshapeoutline().Whenthetopicsentenceappearssomewherewithintheparagraph,itisprecededbyoneormoreintroductorysentencesthatleaduptoorintroducethemainideabyarousingthereader’sinterestorgivingbackgroundforthemainidea.(1)Sometimesanintroductorysentencelookslik
5、eatopicsentence,butismeanttograbyourattention.It’ssoonfollowedbyasentencethatchangesdirection,whichwillbeexplainedintherestoftheparagraph.Andthis7sentencebecomestherealtopicsentence.(2)Whenaparagraphstartswithaquestion,thetopicsentencecanbefoundinthemiddleofaparagraph,becauseaquest
6、ionwillneverbeatopicsentence.Buttheanswertothequestionwillbethetopicsentence.TopicsentenceattheendAparagraphwithatopicsentenceattheendcanberepresentedbyaregulartriangle().Whenthetopicsentenceislocatedattheendofaparagraph,theprevioussentencesbuilduptothemainidea.Thetopicsentenceofte
7、nserveseitherasasummaryoraconclusion.(Asummarywillbringtogetherallofthepointsmadeintheparagraph.Aconclusioniswhereallofthepointsleaduptoafinal,importantpoint.)MainideainmorethanonesentenceAttimesthemainideaofaparagraphappearsintwosentences,andanaccuratestatementofthemainideawouldha
8、vetoincludetheinformationi
