Improving Reading Comprehension

TOPIC AND MAIN IDEA

Read the notes below. After each section, click on the picture for practice.

First step in finding the topic of a paragraph is being able to distinguish between general and specific ideas. 

The General Idea: the idea that is broad in scope. It is the topic.

The Specific Idea: supports and explains the general idea; it is much narrower in scope.

Example:

General                                    Specific

Birds                                        robin, blackbird, jaybird, eagle

Creatures                                 dogs, animals, humans

Flowers                                    rose, daffodil, daisy

Liquids                                    water, juice, soda, vinegar

Sounds                                     screams, yell, music, whisper

Determining the Topic

Identifying the topic is the first step you need to take towards understanding a paragraph.

Look at the title for clues to the topic of a reading selection.  The topic of a paragraph is the subject under discussion.  It’s the subject most frequently discussed or referred to by the author.  

Readers can usually discover the topic by asking themselves:

1. “Who or what is most frequently mentioned in the paragraph?”
2. “Who or what is the paragraph/passage about?”

The main idea is the author's point about the topic. The topic and main idea are different.

The main idea is the overall point the author is trying to make; it will always be in the form of a complete sentence. The topic is the subject of the paragraph; it can be a word or word phrase. 

Identify the Main Idea Ask Yourself Two Questions:

1. What is the topic?
2. What is the controlling point about the topic? In other words, what is the author saying about the topic.