The Writing Center at Amherst College
MORE ABOUT TOPIC SENTENCES
The topic sentence expresses the main idea of a paragraph. In argumentative essays, which are the vast
majority of the essays you write in college, a successful topic sentence makes a claim that furthers
your argument. The rest of the paragraph develops this claim and supports it with evidence.
Well-crafted topic sentences clearly show the sequence of steps in the argument. Below is the sequence
of topic sentences from the introduction to sociologist and historian James W. Loewen's book Lies My
Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1996). Although Loewen is
troubled by most American students' lack of knowledge about U.S. history and their lack of curiosity,
he does not blame the students themselves. Rather, he examines the ways textbooks present half-truths
(and even untruths) as if they were the whole story, so that students rarely consider asking what might
lie underneath claims that America was first settled in 1620, for example.
¶1. High school students hate history.
¶2. African American, Native American, and Latino students view history with a special dislike.
[…]
¶3. Perhaps I do not need to convince you that American history is important.
¶4. Outside of school, Americans show great interest in history.
¶5. Our situation is this: American history is full of fantastic and important stories.
¶6. What has gone wrong?
¶7. We begin to get a handle on this question by noting that the teaching of history, more than
any other discipline, is dominated by textbooks.
¶8. Textbooks almost never use the present to illuminate the past.
¶9. Conversely, textbooks seldom use the past to illuminate the present.
¶10. Between the glossy covers, American history textbooks are full of information – overly
full. […]
¶11. Textbooks also keep students in the dark about the nature of history.
¶12. As a result of all this, most high school seniors are hamstrung in their efforts to analyze
controversial issues in our society.
Loewen's topic sentences summarize the points of his argument, giving us a clear sense of how it
unfolds. The first five sentences identify the problem: students hate history even though it is important
and fascinating. Sentence six poses a question about the cause of the problem. Sentence seven gives a
summary of the answer: history textbooks are to blame. Sentences eight through eleven develop the
answer through specific criticisms against textbooks. Sentence twelve draws a conclusion: because of
how textbooks present history, students don't know how to analyze contemporary issues.
Note also that Loewen repeats key terms – students, history, textbooks, American – to help the reader
follow the steps in his argument.
Based on Michael Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003, 72-73.
Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2008. 333. Loewen's introduction quoted in Greene and Lidinsky, 333-338.