Search results
Jul 3, 2019 · By Kelly Roell. Finding the main idea is critical to understanding what you are reading. It helps the details make sense and have relevance, and provides a framework for remembering the content. Try these specific tips to pinpoint the main idea of a passage.
- Kelly Roell
What's the main idea? On a Reading test, you might come across questions that ask you to identify the main idea of a passage. Examples: Which choice best captures the central idea of the passage? What is the author's main point in this passage? The main idea of the passage is...
The main idea is the point or message - what an author presents and what a reader takes from a text. Searching for that main idea is a very important activity in understanding a text. It is usually found in the opening paragraph when the author is setting up the topic and expressing the thesis.
Main Idea Definition. Main Idea includes the overall message of the text that a writer intends to convey to the audience. Almost all genres of literature have one or two main ideas in them. However, the main idea in literature is not limited to one sentence or paragraph; instead, it develops and grows throughout the text.
How to find the main idea in five easy steps. Now that you have a basic understanding of what the main idea is, you’ll need to start learning ways to identify it when you encounter it in the wild. Follow along as we walk through some helpful tips on pinpointing the main idea of a passage. 1. Identify the topic.
No matter what type of expository text you read, the primary comprehension goal is to identify the main idea: the most important point that the writer wants to communicate. Main ideas are often stated toward the start of a text, usually in an introductory paragraph.
Central idea: Sometimes called "main idea," the central idea of a text is what a piece of writing is mostly about. It's the big point or the most important thing the writer wants to tell you about the topic. It's usually written in a single sentence. Show me an example!
