English Skills with Readings 7th Edition by John Langan

Exercise 60

4 Writing a Topic Sentence: I
The following activity will give you practice in writing an accurate point, or topic sentence-one that is neither too broad nor too narrow for the supporting material in a paragraph. Sometimes you will construct your topic sentence after you have 12 decided which details you want to discuss. An added value of this activity is that it shows you how to write a topic sentence that will exactly match the details you have developed.
1. Topic sentence:____________________________________
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a. When we brought a "welcome to the neighborhood" present, the family next door didn't even say thank you.
b. The family never attends the annual block party.
c. The family's children aren't allowed to play with other neighborhood kids.
d. Our neighbors keep their curtains closed and never sit out in their yard.
2. Topic sentence:__________________________________
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a. Only about thirty people came to the dance, instead of the expected two hundred.
b. The band arrived late and spent an hour setting up.
c. There were at least three males at the dance to every female.
d. An hour after the dance started, it ended because of a power failure.
3. Topic sentence:____________________________________
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a. We had to wait half an hour even though we had reserved a table.
b. Our appetizer and main course arrived at the same time.
c. The busboy ignored our requests for more water.
d. The wrong desserts were served to us.
4. Topic sentence:___________________________________
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a. In early grades we had spelling bees, and I would be among the first to sit down.
b. In sixth-grade English, my teacher kept me busy diagramming sentences on the board.
c. In tenth grade we had to recite poems, and I always forgot my lines.
d. In my senior year, my compositions had more red correction marks than anyone else's.
5. Topic sentence:______________________________________
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a. The crowd scenes were crudely spliced from another film.
b. Mountains and other background scenery were just painted cardboard cutouts.
c. The "sync" was off, so that you heard voices even when the actors' lips were not moving.
d. The so-called "monster" was just a spider that had been filmed through a magnifying lens.