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Main Idea Paragraph Shape

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Topic One or two word description of a paragraph The topic is not a complete sentence

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Main Idea The main idea expands the topic into a complete sentence that SAYS something about the topic. For example, if the topic is vacation, the main idea could be, School vacations are too short this year. There is only ONE main idea per paragraph

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Find Topic and Main Idea Despite the hatred that most people feel toward cockroaches, they do help humans in several ways. For example, they are perfect experimental animals and are used for scientific research in the lab. For one thing, breeding them is easy. Secondly, they do well under most conditions. Furthermore, in studies on nutrition and food, cockroaches are good subjects because they will eat any kind of food. In addition, they can be used to study heart disease. Finally, cancer researchers work with roaches because they grow tumors very much like those that are found in humans. What do most sentences talk about? What point is the author making about the topic?

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Find Topic and Main Idea A species of animal has a better chance of surviving if it is not dependent on one or a few kinds of food. Some animals can eat only one thing and will die if they dont have it. The cockroach, however, is not a fussy eater. With its strong jaws, a roach devours not only meats and vegetables but a whole list of things not usually thought of as food. A hungry roach even eats fingernails and eyebrows when it is visiting sleeping people. Some roaches invade a TV and eat the glue and insulation in it. Still others live in bookcases and bathrooms and find the food delicious. Topic: What do most of the sentences in the paragraph talk about? Main Idea: What point is the author making about the topic?

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Paragraphs support main ideas Proof to support the main idea is offered by details in the paragraph. The reader needs to distinguish main ideas from details to comprehend the material.

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Examples Main idea: People should avoid fast food restaurants. Proof: 1. Food is unhealthy 2. Prices are too high for the nutritional content

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Example 2 My neighbors are inconsiderate Proof: The allow their kids to play on my lawn They often blast their stereo late at night They park their cars on my lawn

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Locate the main idea/proof During the depression, money shortages produced important changes in the lives of people. Car owners often ran their vehicles until they couldnt be repaired. Childrens college educations were postponed because parents could not pay the cost of $100 in tuition. Trips to the doctor and dentist were delayed. Even with help from the government, millions of families had bad diets.