Finding Topic & Main Idea

Ø  Topic

Topic is the main core of the entire content of the writing to be conveyed or better known as the topic of conversation. Topic is a special subject that you will write about or discuss

Ø  Requirements for determining the topic

·       The topic must catch the writer’s attention.

·       The author must understand the topic

·       Don’t be so new, technical and controversial

·       Beneficial

·       Don’t be too “bored”

Ø  How to limit topics?

Limiting the topic aims so that the reading we make doesn’t go out of topic

·       When we worked, the topics must be in a central posisition

·       Asking the question, the topic should be able to be in a central position and place the detail around the first topics circle

·       Decide from these detail  which one to choose

·       Asking the question whether the sector can still be detailed further or not.

Ø  How to determine the topics?

·       In each paragraph read the first and second sentence

·       Look for the most frequently repeated keyword in the passage

·       The topics or theme of a paragraph is the subject of the article which can be the main body of the article (text) or the tittle of the text

Ø  What is the main idea ?

The main idea is the central point or thought the author wants to communicate to readers. Often the author states the main idea in a single sentence.

Ø  How to determine the main idea ?

Find the topics from first paragraph, pay attention to words / phrases that are often repeated by the author

Ø  What are the kinds of main ideas?

·       A deductive paragraph has the main idea in the first sentence of the paragraph

·       The inductive paragraph has the main idea in the last sentence of the paragraph

·       A mixed paragraph has the main idea in the sentence in the middle of the paragraph

Ø  Conclusion

Topics is a particular subject that you write about or discuss. One of the requirement to determine the topics in the topic must be able to get the attention of the author, limiting the topic is also needed so that what we write doesn’t get out of topic. We can determine the topic of a text by reading the first and second sentences in the paragraph and finding the word that is most often repeated. The main idea is the central point or thought the author wants to communicate to readers. Determine the main idea can be seen from of the paragraph. If the main idea of deductive paragraph is in the front, the main idea of inductive paragraph p is behind, while in the mixed paragraph the main idea is in the middle.