To start talking about topic and main idea of a text is necessary to define each one of them. The topic, it can be defined as the general message, for some people it is called the subject. The main idea is the sentence that gives the most complete information about the whole text; it is the most important piece of information within the text.
How to identify the main idea?
The main idea can be identify because is a sentence that can stand by itself, the other sentences presented in the text are suppose to support it. Another characteristic that the sentence with the main idea has is that the topic or theme can be found there. This sentence provides the focus for both the writer and the reader of the text and it can be found at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a paragraph.
How to identify the topic?
Identifying the topic is the first step to get to the main idea of a text. The strategy to know what is the topic is to ask to yourself, what is the text about? The answer is going to appear clearly if you keep doing the same question while reading. The answer you get must be the topic.
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