Lesson 14 — Activity 2:

The Topic Sentence and Introduction


At this point in high school, you have had to write many introductory paragraphs for many assignments! You already know that it is the first part of what your report needs to focus on. To review, the introductory paragraph is a paragraph that tells the reader what you report is about.

Every paragraph begins with a topic sentence. Let's look at some examples of topic sentences. Start small and build up!

Topic sentences should always contain both

  • the topic

  • the controlling idea


Read the following topic sentences. They all contain a topic (bolded) and a controlling idea (underlined):

  1. People can avoid home break-ins by taking certain safety precautions.

  2. There are some advantages to growing up in a small town.

  3. Fixing a flat tire on a car is easy if you follow these steps.



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The topic sentence contains the ingredients for the paragraph. The rest of your introduction will list exactly what you are going to talk about in the rest of the report.

For example:

There are some advantages to growing up in a small town. The five main areas that I think about when I remember my childhood in a small town are: there is very little crime, there is a strong sense of community, there is little traffic so you can always find parking, there is lots of fresh air, and life is simpler!




Now it's time to work on writing the introduction to your career report.


Self-check!


Click on the Play button below to watch a video on the proper structure of an introductory paragraph.