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Topic sentence, an article I've just now very lightly revised, starts off by telling us that "In prescriptive grammar, the topic sentence is the sentence in an expository paragraph which summarizes the main idea of that paragraph."
A bit of a confusion there, between (A) prescriptive "In prescriptive grammar, the topic sentence is the sentence in an expository paragraph which should summarize the main idea of that paragraph", and (B) descriptive "[cut] The topic sentence is a sentence in an expository paragraph which summarizes the main idea of that paragraph" (if such a sentence is present at all).
The sources given point toward (A); although (as in so much prescriptive stuff) they too are rather muddled.
There's not much in the article that's purely descriptive. My own, underinformed impression is that:
And thus that the insistence (and not mere recommendation) of a "topic sentence" might be a received idea that perhaps should be tossed out together with, say, " learning styles".
But Googling "topic sentence myths" brings lots of hits ... for earnest lessons about topic sentences in the context of writing about myths.
I'm very open to being proven wrong. Is there evidence for the actual (and not merely presumed/desired) near-ubiquity of single-topic-sentence-equipped paragraphs within well-regarded expository/academic English prose? 133.25.247.203 ( talk) 02:47, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
What to say cousin in Tamil? -- Curious Cat On Her Last Life ( talk) 09:20, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
Language desk | ||
---|---|---|
< January 18 | << Dec | January | Feb >> | January 20 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
Topic sentence, an article I've just now very lightly revised, starts off by telling us that "In prescriptive grammar, the topic sentence is the sentence in an expository paragraph which summarizes the main idea of that paragraph."
A bit of a confusion there, between (A) prescriptive "In prescriptive grammar, the topic sentence is the sentence in an expository paragraph which should summarize the main idea of that paragraph", and (B) descriptive "[cut] The topic sentence is a sentence in an expository paragraph which summarizes the main idea of that paragraph" (if such a sentence is present at all).
The sources given point toward (A); although (as in so much prescriptive stuff) they too are rather muddled.
There's not much in the article that's purely descriptive. My own, underinformed impression is that:
And thus that the insistence (and not mere recommendation) of a "topic sentence" might be a received idea that perhaps should be tossed out together with, say, " learning styles".
But Googling "topic sentence myths" brings lots of hits ... for earnest lessons about topic sentences in the context of writing about myths.
I'm very open to being proven wrong. Is there evidence for the actual (and not merely presumed/desired) near-ubiquity of single-topic-sentence-equipped paragraphs within well-regarded expository/academic English prose? 133.25.247.203 ( talk) 02:47, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
What to say cousin in Tamil? -- Curious Cat On Her Last Life ( talk) 09:20, 19 January 2017 (UTC)