PARAGRAPH EXERCISE #4: PLACEMENT OF THE TOPIC SENTENCE

I. Topic Sentence at the Beginning of a Paragraph: Most people believe that a topic sentence belongs at the
beginning of a paragraph. Even if they have not studied paragraph construction, they simply assume
this is the case. More often than not, they are correct, but that is only one of three positions that a
topic sentence typically occupies. For a topic sentence can also conclude a paragraph or, in some exotic
instances, be placed in the middle of a paragraph. Usually, when a topic sentence appears in the first
line of a paragraph, it does so because we are employing deductive reasoning in which a proposition is
offered to us in the topic sentence before it is explained, analyzed, or defended in the rest of the
paragraph. That is how deduction works: an overview statement is formed in the T.S. and the rest of
the paragraph speaks to its veracity. Because the placement of the topic sentence at the beginning of
the paragraph is normative, I will start with an example of this kind of T.S. placement first. Here is an
example, which I already presented to you in another exercise, with a topic sentence at the beginning of
the paragraph.
I. Topic Sentence at the Beginning of a Paragraph (an example): Writing a paragraph used to be easy, but now the
construction of a well developed, well constructed paragraph has become difficult because of the
mathematical preciseness one must bring to the writing process. What is so difficult about writing a
paragraph? When we were ignorant of the rules of paragraph writing, any group of sentences were able
to be haphazardly assembled and effortlessly passed off as a paragraph. But now one is forced to follow
a precise outline for building a paragraph. The nave construction of a paragraph no longer is sufficient
to an aware writer. Now we must have a strong topic sentence because it is the backbone of the whole
paragraph, and every key element becomes a piece of the backbones vertebrae. The topic sentence is
connected to the controlling idea, which acts like the brain of the system with each element under its
command. Every idea and sentence meshes together in the conquest for unity of idea. Each piece of
the puzzle is carefully placed down with an eye to its relation to all of the other components. All of the
elements in the topic sentence work in unison, like the fingers on a hand, to complement all the other
elements of the succeeding or following sentences. What used to be an easy process, however, has now
given way to a complex system of mathematical equations the set as well-written paragraph.
Paragraph writing has become a mechanical process completely at odds with style and grace as one
writes inspiration into syntax. This constriction makes the writing of the paragraph difficult for writers
who have an artistic sensibility.
II. Topic Sentence at the End of a Paragraph: When a topic sentence appears at the end of the paragraph, it
does so as a wrap. This means we have followed a step by step line of reasoning which has lead us to
a an overview statement that sums up all of the specific statements that have lead us to the topic
sentence at the end of the paragraph. In other words, from the beginning of the paragraph we follow
specific statement after specific statement (which are linked even as they lead us to another linked
specific statement) until we can arrive at a summation statement at the end of the paragraph. For it is
at the end of the paragraph that we locate the generalization which puts into perspective the series of
specific statements which have lead to the final overview statement. This kind of thinking is called
induction, and the model for this kind of thinking is evidence presented in a court of law. The attorney

presents a specific piece of evidence followed by another piece of evidence until s/he builds enough of a
case to arrive at a generalization (this person is guilty of . . . because of the preceding specific
statements/evidence I have placed before you. Inductive reasoning presents reasoning built upon the
logic of specific premise after specific premise building to a crescendo statement which all of these
supporting statements support. The argument, then, is built upon a conclusion reached based upon the
detailing of the premises of the argument before the conclusion is reached. One observation leads to
the next observation to the next observation until a larger observation is risked at the end of the
argument. Here is an example of a student paragraph that does an excellent job of presenting a
sequence specific statements which lead to a conclusion on the students part which changes her life in
some way. Notice that the last sentence acts as a topic sentence, which, by definition, must contain the
following elements:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)

it has a controlling idea

the controlling idea is part of a perceivable topic sentence
the topic sentence contains specific key elements
these elements are important in and of themselves
these key elements interact with each other as the paragraph is developed
there are sectors of development in the paragraph, but they come before the topic sentence, rather than
after it
(7) these sectors form a vertical progression based on the horizontal progression of ideas in the topic sentence
that concludes the paragraph

Here is an example of a topic sentence at the end of the paragraph.

II. Topic Sentence at the End of a Paragraph (an example): Sitting in my Ethics class today, I listened with growing
anger to my professors attempt to separate moral from non-moral behavior. He seemed to feel it was
his requirement to give me standards by which I could judge my actions. With my anger clearly intact, I
drifted out of his class and back to a similar experience I had had in an English class in high school. Once
again I found myself becoming furious with another teacher for inhibiting my writing and stifling my
growth by applying artificial standards to my work. These standards coerced me into a trap of believing
that, because I could not express myself as well as Thomas Hardy or William Shakespeare, I had nothing
valuable to say. Even when studying the great writers, my teacher assumed that meanings were black
and white and were interpreted the same by everyone. She approached writing as a biologist would
dissect a frog: dismembering the animal to examine each separate organ and leaving across the table
only scattered parts that held no resemblance to the original being. I can see that same dead frog on
the backboard in my Ethics class, but this time I refuse to condone the killing. I will not allow the
standards of the pseudo-authorities to dissect my thoughts and actions merely to have me conform to
their conventions.
II. Topic Sentence at the End of a Paragraph (an analysis): Here follows the specific statements that add up to
something larger than each one of them as stated in and of itself.
1. anger at professor; anger at the binary division of existence: moral/non-moral behavior.
2. Anger at his giving standards that could judge her actions.
3. Flashback to high school that excites anger: teacher inhibiting her writing, inhibiting her growth
with his artificial moral standards.

4. Standards capable of coercing her into a trap

5. The trap of belief: you are not a good enough writer/you have nothing valuable to say
6. Anger over the assumption: meanings were black and white/meanings are neutral/ meanings
are non-interpretable
7. Teacher-as-dissector: teacher dismembers morality/teacher dismembers her writing/her
ability/teacher as analyzer with no respective for ontological being
8. Connection: frog dismembered connected to ethics dismembered into either or thinking as itself
a form of dismembering
9. Anger allows her to not accept the death of ontological life-force
10. TOPIC SENTENCE: I will not allow the standards of the pseudo-authorities to dissect my
thoughts and actions merely to have me conform to their conventions.
III. Topic Sentence in the middle of a Paragraph: We have seen how each topic sentence (as ideas-embodied-inwords) can be placed at the beginning of a paragraph because it furthers deductive reasoning (an
argument that starts with a conclusion and then proceeds to explain what components of logic lead to
that conclusion). We have also examined a paragraph that ends with a topic sentence, which presents
the reader with a broad overview statement a final statement that gives us a sum total of more
localized, specific statements that precede it. But there is one other place in the paragraph where we
can find a topic sentence: in the middle of the paragraph. But what logic does a topic sentence in the
middle of a paragraph further? The answer is both induction and deduction. When you use a topic
sentence as a pivot, one of its sectors (which supports it) begins the paragraph with a sequence of
inductive statements that lead to a topic sentence which presents its premise. Then, the rest of the
paragraph develops the premise of the pivot topic sentence. In other words, the rest of the paragraph
presents support in deductive statement after deductive statement that follow from the pivot topic
sentence in the same way that they would have followed from the premise placed in a topic sentence at
the beginning of the paragraph. Whats different, then, about a topic sentence-as-a-pivot is that it does
two things at once: it looks back at the sector which leads to it, and it looks forward to the sector that
succeeds it. Actually, it must do this if it is to be a topic sentence because it must include the interactive
key elements that make up the first sector (before it) as well as the interactive key elements that make
up the second sector (which follow it). Here is an example of this type of paragraph.
III. Topic Sentence in the middle of a Paragraph (an example):
They came up to my car window: a lady with her crooked nose and sensitive smile asked me for a ride
home. She was in pain from walking such a long distance. Her husband spoke not a word, then. I had
been on my way to a lecture on the community and how to be a better person. Not being able to
resist a person in distress, I naively allowed them to enter my car, my life and my imagination. First,
they sat too close to me: she in the front seat gasping for air, or so it seemed, and he in the back seat
managing to stretch his ostrich-like neck between me and her. He misled us, gave inaccurate commands
to turn, and therefore, the seemingly short ride home turned into an endless maze of fear. By now, my
imagination had taken control of me. They were not ordinary people, but had some unexpressed evil
reason for urging me into their diabolical scheme. Cordially excusing themselves, they asked to be left

Comment [R1]: Element #1: the I who gets

angry; the I who remembers and links the
memory of the frog to the present classroom
experience in an Ethics class. The I who will not
condone the killing. Finally, the I who resists the
pseudo-authorities.
Comment [R2]: Element #2: the standards of
the pseudo-authorities is what is under attack in
the entire paragraph. Go through the paragraph
and look for all the different ways she elaborates
this element.
Comment [R3]: Element #3: conform to their
conventions. This is the dangerous element in the
paragraph. This is what she must resist. This is a
crucial element (the most important element) in the
paragraph. This is the point of mediation; it is what
makes this paragraph important and inspiring. It
screams: watch out! Or this could happen to you!
Comment [R4]: Element #4: This is the last
element and in some way it is the closest element
linked with the dissection-element. The whole
paragraph talks about a process associated with
element #3 (dissection). But the impetus is to get
the student to conform to conventions that allow
and celebrate the sadistic treatment of students as
lesser beings, those that must give up the human
spark to become mere objects of analysis.

Comment [R5]: Here we have the first part of a

topic sentence with very specific elements: I =
helper of those who need help. That part of this
Janus-faced topic sentence is developed in the
first sector of the paragraph above this sentence.
Go back to the development of ideas above this
topic sentence and study how the first sector in the
paragraph (above the topic sentence) develops the
first part of the topic sentence once it appears.
Comment [R6]: Here we have the second part of
the topic sentence. This part is developed after the
Pivot T.S. The strangers enter the car, yes. But the
paragraph is really about how they invade or are
believed to invade the life and, most importantly,
the imagination of the narrator. This second part of
the horizontal axis of the topic sentence is what
really gets developed in this paragraph. Notice how
much more space it gets to develop this invasion
motif. That is because it is the emotional spur of
the paragraph.

at the next corner for they could find their way better on foot. A nervous wreck, I realized that in this
society there is so much mistrust that to help someone in distress is considered a risk.
III. Topic Sentence in the middle of a Paragraph (an example 2):
They came up to my car window: a lady with her crooked nose and sensitive smile asked me for a ride
home. She was in pain from walking such a long distance. Her husband spoke not a word, then. I had
been on my way to a lecture on the community and how to be a better person. Not being able to
resist a person in distress, I naively allowed them to enter my car, my life and my imagination. First,
they sat too close to me: she in the front seat gasping for air, or so it seemed, and he in the back seat
managing to stretch his ostrich-like neck between me and her. He misled us, gave inaccurate commands
to turn, and therefore, the seemingly short ride home turned into an endless maze of fear. By now, my
imagination had taken control of me. They were not ordinary people, but had some unexpressed evil
reason for urging me into their diabolical scheme. Cordially excusing themselves, they asked to be left
at the next corner for they could find their way better on foot. A nervous wreck, I realized that in this
society there is so much mistrust that to help someone in distress is considered a risk.

Comment [R7]: This is the first sector of the

paragraph. Notice the development of the key
elements in this zone of paragraph progression.
The key elements are as follows: they/car;
pain/sensitivity/and the foreshadower the
crooked nose/ husband who doesnt speak,
yet/narrator who is culturally aware, or trying to be.
All of this supports the first part of the topic
sentence.

Comment [R8]: This is the second sector of the

paragraph, the one that gets developed because it
contains the emotional core of the paragraph. Look
at the vivid description that jumps off the page; this
imaginary indicates the imagination of the
narrator, which is probably the most important key
element in the paragraph: gasping for air,
stretch his ostrich-like neck, seemingly short ride
home turned into an endless maze of fear,
unexpressed evil reason for urging me into their
diabolical scheme. All of these descriptive phrases
are loaded (or overloaded) with emotional freight.
They indicate a kind of ambivalence of purpose on
the narrators part, an ambivalence that plays out in
the paragraph between the desire to be part of the
community and a desire to distance him or herself
from the unknown element of others who comprise
the community. This ambivalence is displayed in
the reading of the strangers traits: a crooked nose
and a sensitive smile. This entire movement
supports the nave gesture of letting this couple
into her imagination.