ACT Preparation / Unit 16 ACT 1512 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Main Idea of a Paragraph
Captions available
The idea
Each paragraph addresses one key point tied to the central idea. Its topic sentence often, but not always, comes first.
In practice
A paragraph listing a river's floods ends with its point: the town was built in the wrong place.
Where people slip
The main idea of a paragraph is narrower than the central idea of the passage, and questions ask for one or the other.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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