Mexico

1. As soon as you can define the topic, ask yourself “What general point does the author want to make about this topic?” Once you can answer that question, you have morethan likely found the main idea.
2. Most main ideas are stated or suggested early on in a reading; pay special attention to the first third of any passage, article, orchapter. That’s where you are likely to get the best statement or clearest expression of the main idea.
3. Pay attention to any idea that is repeated in different ways. If anauthor returns to the same thought in several different sentences or paragraphs, that idea is the main or central thought under discussion.
4. Once you feel sure you havefound the main idea, test it. Ask yourself if the examples, reasons, statistics, studies, and facts included in the reading lend themselves as evidence or explanation insupport of the main idea you have in mind. If they do, your comprehension is right on target. If they don’t, you might want to revise your first notion about the author’smain idea.
5. The main idea of a passage can be expressed any number of ways. For example, you and your roommate might come up with the same main idea for a reading, but thelanguage in which that idea is expressed would probably be different. When, however, you are asked to find the topic sentence, you are being asked to find the statementthat expresses the main idea in the author’s words. Any number of people can come up with the main idea for a passage, but only the author of the passage can create the topicsentence.
6. If you are taking a test that asks you to find the thesis or theme of a reading, don’t let the terms confuse you, you are still looking for the main idea.