FINDING MAIN IDEAS - HANDOUT

9 FINDING MAIN IDEAS

When you have finished reading this chapter, you will know how to:
1. Find the main idea in each paragraph you read.
2. Analyze how that idea is developed or explained in the rest of the paragraph.
3. Recognize when an author uses several paragraphs to develop an important
idea.

1 The Paragraph from the Reader’s Point of View

After you have surveyed a chapter, the next step is to turn back to the beginning
and start to read it, paragraph by paragraph. The intent of this chapter is to teach you to
comprehend ideas as you read those paragraphs. All of us are in danger of staring at
paragraphs and seeing masses of words instead of ideas.

10 In order to learn to find ideas in paragraphs, think back a moment and remember
what you already know about paragraph construction. English teachers tell you to
confine yourself to one idea in each paragraph. You have also been told to introduce
that idea in the topic sentence, which is usually the first sentence in the paragraph, but
can be the second or even the last sentence in the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph
develops or tells more about the main idea in the topic sentence.

20 Everyone is taught to write paragraphs this way, and for one important reason. If
there is one main idea per paragraph, and if it is introduced immediately and then
developed in the rest of the paragraph, it is easier for a reader to understand that idea.
Summary paragraphs are, of course, an exception to this rule, since they contain several
main ideas.

30
The Organization of the Paragraph
The topic sentence is usually a general statement that gives control and direction to the
rest of the paragraph. It is most often placed at the beginning of the paragraph so that you
will have an idea to which you can relate the more specific material that follows. In all
communication writers and speakers present a general idea, support that idea with
40 specific materials, and then go on to present another general idea. Figure 9-1 shows a
conventional outline that visually represents such a pattern of ideas.
The most general ideas on the diagram in the figure are the main ideas. They are outlined
at the Roman numeral level (I, II). Notice that by themselves they are abstract, almost
meaningless. They don’t tell you much. Subideas are more specific than main ideas and
are outlined at the A, B level. They tell you more about the main idea. Many paragraphs
50 contain only a main idea and one or more subideas. When this is the case, it may be the
author’s judgment that no additional explanation is required. Or the author may continue
development of the idea in the same or in later paragraphs with any of the various types
of specific supporting material. Such material is entered on an outline as 1, 2, or a, b.
The authors of the textbook Biology begin a paragraph: “Adaptations may be broadly
classed as anatomical, physiological or behavioral.” You have, at this point in your
60 reading, a topic in mind (three types of adaptations) that provides you with a mental
focus for reading the remainder of the paragraph. You need to know more, however,
before you will understand or remember the idea and terms presented in this sentence.
These authors continue their paragraph with material at the subidea level: “Anatomical
adaptations are those involving the physical structure of the organism.” The authors are
aware that the reader may still not understand what is meant by anatomical adaptations.
70 Thus, the next sentence in the paragraph is an example: “For instance, a penguin’s
flippers are an anatomical adaptation that permits it to swim.” They continue the
paragraph with another subidea followed by examples. Look at the entire paragraph and
notice how it moves from the general main idea in the topic sentence to the subidea level,
then to the supporting material level, and then again to subidea and supporting material
levels:

80

90
100

Topic sentence- Adaptations may be broadly classed as

main idea anatomical, physiological or behavioral.
Anatomical adaptations are those involving the
Subidea physical structure of the organism. For instance,
a penguin’s flippers are an anatomical adaptation
Example that permits it to swim. An organism’s
physiology is all of the internal workings of its
110 Subidea body: the biochemistry of its cells and the
processes that allow it to digest food, exchange
gases, excrete wastes, reproduce, move and sense
and respond to the outside world. An example of
an extreme physiological adaptation to
temperature is seen in the ability of the blue –
green bacterium Synechococcus to live in hot
springs at temperatures up to 80 C (175 F), which
Examples would destroy all biochemical activity in most
other organisms. An example of an impressive
behavioral adaptation is the ability of a kangaroo
rat to eat the leaves of the desert saltbush. No
other animal can eat this plant since its leaves are
full of salt crystals. The kangaroo rat flakes off
the salt-filled outer layer of the leaf with its front
teeth, and then eats the salt-free inner part. This
ability to prepare its food is a behavioral
adaptation that allows the kangaroo rat to eat a
food which is completely unavailable to other
animals.

The Types of Supporting Material

The above paragraph contains a very common type of supporting material – the example.
Following is a list of types of supporting material that authors use. When you learn to
recognize supporting material, you won’t get it confused with main ideas and subideas,
and you can better comprehend what you read.

1. Examples or specific instances may be long, brief, made-up, or real. (The examples in
the paragraph above are real and go into some detail.)
2. Comparisons show how one thing is like another (Skilled college students are like the
unskilled college students in their common desire for a diploma).
3. Contrasts show how one thing differs from another (Skilled students are different from
unskilled students in that they use a method to read a textbook).
4. Statistics and other factual material (75% of the students who do not attend class
regularly receive grades of C or worse).
5. Graphs (Figure 9-1 is one type of graph).
 6. Quotations from authorities (Professor Smith admits, “I tell students they don’t need to
attend my class if they don’t want to. I know, however, that if they don’t come, they
don’t pass”).
7. Vivid description (The student took the exam from the professor’s hand, quickly looked
at the grade, gave a sigh of relief, and began to smile).

Supporting material is used above all to make general ideas clear. Whenever a writer
uses an example or a statistic or a quotation, you understand him better. Supporting
material also makes general ideas more interesting because it is usually concrete – it can
be visualized, imagined, perceived with the senses. Besides making ideas clear and more
interesting, supporting material can also be used to prove a general point. Most often
used as a proof are statistics, graphs, and quotations from authorities. The final function
of supporting material is to make general ideas more memorable. A complex idea that is
accompanied by an example will stay in your memory longer than one not so illustrated.
 The Outline Example

I. Main Idea (most general) In college you will have to develop

two types of vocabulary.

A. Subidea (less general; more One of these is specialized

especific) vocabulary.

1. Supporting Material (most You will need to know what your

especific) bilogy professor means by DNA.

B. Subidea You will also need to develop a

general vocabulary.

1. Supporting Material If someone calls you ingenuous, you

will know what he means.

II. Main Idea You will need a method for

developing both types of vocabulary.

A. Subidea A method that won’t work is reading

and listening to new words without
looking them up.

B. A method that will work better has

four steps. Let’s look at these specific
steps.

1. Supporting material Consciously look for a word you don’t

know.

2. Record the context in which you find

it.

3. Look it up in the glossary or

dictionary.

4. Associate it with something familiar

to you.

Figure 9-1 A typical pattern of ideas