Unity, Coherence, and the Topic Sentence

English 101 and 111 papers should be unified and coherent, qualities achieved at the paragraph level partly by means of the topic sentence.

Unity–"oneness"–refers to the wholeness of an essay or a single paragraph. Everything that is there should be there; nothing that should be there is missing. The thesis statement helps anchor a whole essay; the topic sentence anchors a paragraph. A careful writer will ensure that everything relates directly to the thesis and that everything in a paragraph relates to its topic sentence.

Coherence–"sticking together"–refers to the smooth, logical movement from one element in an essay to another or, in a paragraph, from one sentence or idea to another. A whole essay is coherent when the arrangement of the main points is clear and consistent (roman numeral two follows roman numeral one, for instance, not arbitrarily, but for a discernible reason). At the paragraph level, coherence is achieved by the use of cohering elements such as repeated key terms and synonyms, pronouns, and transition words and phrases (e.g., "first," "however," "furthermore," and so on). Transition devices are also useful in creating coherence in the essay, as when a writer introduces a new major section with a phrase like "a second major cause of teenage suicide is. . . ."

The topic sentence is to a paragraph as a thesis is to an essay. It announces the topic of the paragraph and makes a statement about it. A topic sentence for a paragraph on a subtopic may follow a "section" sentence that introduces the roman numeral heading that is subdivided. In the following examples, the two topic sentences correspond to the capital letter headings in a main section of an outline (II in this case) for a paper about how to deal with the problem of pesticides on food:

II. Alternative eating habits

A. Washing and peeling produce

B. Purchasing organically grown produce

Topic sentence for II. A (following a section sentence): Consumers can help reduce the risks of pesticide contamination by adopting alternative eating habits. The simplest way to do that is to wash and peel produce.

Topic sentence for II. B: Although washing and peeling can remove pesticide residue, the best strategy consumers can use is to purchase organically grown fruits and vegetables.

The topic sentence often appears toward the beginning of a paragraph.

Back to English 101 main page. Back to the paragraph and the topic sentence.