The main idea or main idea is a topic that will be discussed in a paragraph. A good paragraph has a main idea and a few explanatory sentences. The main idea serves as the topic of discussion, while the explanatory sentence serves to explain the topic. A paragraph must have a main idea and explanatory sentences that are correlated or related. Then, how do you determine the main idea of a paragraph?
Types of paragraphs based on the location of the main idea are divided into three, namely deductive, inductive, and mixed paragraphs. A deductive paragraph is a paragraph where the main idea is at the beginning, while a paragraph whose main idea is at the end is called an inductive paragraph. Then what about mixed paragraphs? Yes, a mixed paragraph is a paragraph that has at least two main ideas, namely at the beginning and end.
How to Determine the Main Idea
Determining the main idea of a paragraph is not too difficult. Accuracy is one of the things that you must have to be able to find a main idea easily. To make it easier for you to determine the main idea of a paragraph, there are several ways you can do it, such as
1. Separate the Main Sentence from the Special Sentence
The main sentence will usually be followed or preceded by a special sentence. To be able to recognize a special sentence, you can pay attention to one of its characteristics, which is a sentence that contains examples, evidence, or special details, so that if you see a sentence with these characteristics, it is a special sentence. After that separate the two, then you will get a main idea in the form of the main sentence.
2. Read Carefully
Maybe this is the simplest way, you only need time and a little concentration to do it. In this way, you can determine which one can be called the main idea or which includes an explanatory sentence.
3. Concluding a paragraph
The main idea can determine a conclusion from the paragraph. Therefore, by reading a paragraph and then concluding it, you will get a main idea.
Those are three ways to determine the main idea easily that you can put into practice, now let’s look at some examples in determining the main idea of a paragraph.
Examples of Finding Key Ideas in Paragraphs
Heavy rain for four consecutive hours caused the river to overflow at several points. This causes flooding and can hinder daily activities. This overflowing water caused the streets in the village to inundate, thus narrowing the space for the residents to move. Even the protocol roads were flooded and further hampered traffic in Jakarta. This situation is expected to take place within the next 24 hours. If there is no effective handling from the DKI Jakarta provincial government.
Based on the sentence above, we can recognize the characteristics of a special sentence. The special sentence here serves to explain the meaning of the main sentence in the form of a further description of the problem alluded to in the main sentence, namely the flood that hinders activity. The second to the fourth sentence is a special sentence that will support the main idea in the main sentence.
We can also draw a conclusion from the example of the paragraph above, that the floods that occurred caused obstruction of residents’ activities, this conclusion fits the first sentence of the paragraph above, so the first sentence is the main idea of this paragraph.
If there is a question how to determine the main idea, the answer is these three things. By utilizing these methods, you can answer various questions easily.
Do you have any questions about this? Please write your question in the comments column and don’t forget to share with others about this knowledge!