What Is the Main Idea? Find It Fast

What You'll Learn

• The main idea is what the whole paragraph is mostly about
• Details are the smaller facts that back the main idea up
• A topic is one or two words; a main idea is a whole sentence about that topic
• Clues: the title, the first sentence, the last sentence, and any word repeated over and over
• One good test: if you could keep only ONE sentence, which one would you keep?

Words to Know

Main idea

What a paragraph is mostly about, said in one sentence

"Octopuses are amazing escape artists."

Detail

A small fact that backs up the main idea

"It can unscrew a jar lid."

Topic

The one thing a paragraph is about, in a word or two

"The topic is octopuses."

Summarize

To tell the important parts in a much shorter way

"Summarize the page in one sentence."

Supporting

Holding something up, like proof for an idea

"Three supporting details prove it."

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• The main idea is the point a paragraph is mostly about; the details are the facts that support it

  Source: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2

• A topic is one or two words, but a main idea is a complete sentence that says something about that topic

  Source: Reading Rockets, "Main Idea and Supporting Details"

• Writers most often place the main idea in the first or the last sentence of a paragraph, which is why those are the first two places to check

  Source: Reading Rockets

• A word or theme repeated across several sentences is a strong signal of the main idea

  Source: Reading Rockets

• An octopus can squeeze through any opening bigger than its beak — the only hard part of its body — so a large octopus can pass through a hole about the size of a coin

  Source: NOAA Ocean Service

• Octopuses can unscrew a jar lid to reach food inside, one of the classic demonstrations of invertebrate problem-solving

  Source: Smithsonian Ocean, Smithsonian Institution