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."
