| “ | By the grammar of a language is meant either the relations born by the words of a sentence and by sentences themselves one to another, or the systematized exposition of these. | ” |
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—Topic sentence of the Grammar article, Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 Edition |
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The topic sentence is a primarily prescriptive grammatical term to describe the sentence in an expository paragraph which summarizes the main idea of that paragraph.[1][2] It is usually, but not always, the first sentence in a paragraph. The topic sentence acts as a kind of summary, and offers the reader an insightful view of the writer’s main ideas for the following paragraph.[3] More than just being a mere summary, however, a topic sentence often provides a claim or an insight directly or indirectly related to the thesis. It adds cohesion to a paper and helps organize ideas both within the paragraph and the whole body of work at large.[4][5][6]
Its use is considered standard in the American educational system and most venues of writing mainly because it increases reading accessibility.
A topic sentence (also known as a focus sentence) encapsulates or organizes an entire paragraph, and a writer should be careful to include one in most major paragraphs. Although topic sentences may appear anywhere in a paragraph, in academic essays they often appear at the beginning.[7]
The sentence in bold in the first paragraph is an example of a topic sentence.