Main idea and supporting ideas

Question	Answer
Main ideas are often at the beginning of a paragraph.	Topic sentence
Main ideas can also be found at the end of a paragraph.	Concluding sentence
Some main ideas are implied and no sentence in the paragraph directly gives the main idea.	You have to look at the key words to identify what the paragraph is talking about.
In longer reading passages, a number of paragraphs are talking about the main idea of the entire passage.	Look at the first paragraph in the reading. The main idea of the first paragraph usually introduces the main idea of the whole reading.
The next paragraphs are called the body paragraphs.	Body paragraphs contain the supporting ideas of the whole reading passage.
Supporting ideas of the reading passage help you understand the main idea of the reading passage.	You can identify the supporting ideas by finding out what is the topic sentence of each of the paragraphs.
The last paragraph of the reading passage usually gives a conclusion.	The main idea of the reading passage may also be found in this paragraph.

Resource summary

	Created by Michelle Espique over 6 years ago