Topic
Sentences
Each
body paragraph of your paper builds towards proving one
particular aspect of your thesis, and each of these aspects
should be crystallized into a strong topic sentence.
If
your paper is quite short, these sentences might represent
the main points you mentioned in the blueprint part of your
thesis, but they might each be more specific aspects of
one of those points, particularly if your paper is longer.
Defining your topics - First and foremost, a topic
sentence is a piece of analysis, NOT summary.
Think of it in a similar manner to how you thought of your
thesis; in other words, an original interpretation based
upon the textual evidence of your source. The first of the
following examples illustrates a statement of fact, rather
than an argumentative topic sentence.
Weak Topic Sentence:
"Book Five of Paradise
Lost concentrates on the
conversation between Adam and the
archangel Raphael.”
Strong Topic Sentence:
"Throughout Book Five, Milton
utilizes images of gardening
and nourishment to convey man's
maturing relationship to the
divine."
Relationship of topics to thesis -
Your topic statements should each provide a solid area of
analysis by which your thesis is true. They should, however,
be more specific than a mere restatement of part of it.
Thesis: "In Journey
Through the Twelve Forests,
David Haberman apprehends the
Ban-Yatra pilgrimage as a realization
of the god Krishna's omnipresence,
through separate realizations of the
journey's cyclical nature, the
externalization of the divine,
and the relationship between asceticism
and pleasure."
Topic Sentence for
Second Paragraph: "Throughout
the narrative, the physical relationship
of the pilgrim to the
natural landscape of Braj, as
well as worshipped images of
Krishna and other deities, reflects
the presence of Krishna as
an interactive externality, rather
than the occupant of an
inaccessible sphere."
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