MAIN IDEAS

Source: More Reading Power by

Beatrice S. Mikulecky& Linda
Jeffries, Unit 6
What is a main idea ?
• In a paragraph, authors express their idea about
a topic. The idea is called main idea.
• For example, when talking about a cat, an author
may have a main idea that “Cats are usually very
clean animals”, “Cats have very expensive faces”,
or Cats are very adaptable animals.
• Can you express your idea about a cat?
• You can compare your idea with your classmates
• The main idea can be found in the topic sentence
of a paragraph. You will find the examples in
exercise 1 (page 90).
• However, it is also possible that the main idea is
not completely expressed in the topic sentence.
An example of this can be found in your
textbook page 91.
• An author’s main idea about a topic must be
written in a complete sentence.