Creating Topic Sentences

Once you have sorted all of your quotes according to the sub-questions they answer, you are ready to create your Topic Sentences.

A topic sentence is a single sentence which appears as the first sentence of a body paragraph that states the main argument of that paragraph.

A good Topic Sentence answers one of your sub-questions.

After you have sorted all of your quotes according to the sub-questions they answer, you can start answering each sub-questions.

Your answer to each of your sub-questions will become your Topic Sentences.

Step 1: 

Read your first sub-question again, in order to remind yourself what the question was asking.

Step 2:

Read all of the quotes that you said helped answer sub-question1.

Step 3:

Using the information from those quotes, write a single sentence answer to the question. This single-sentence answer will then become your first Topic Sentence.

Step 4:

Repeat the process above for the other two sub-questions until you have a Topic Sentence for each of your sub-questions.

To test to see whether you have good Topic Sentences, go through the following checklist:

1. Does the Topic Sentence directly answer the sub-question?

Read the sub-question again and then the Topic Sentence. If the Topic Sentence directly answers the question, it is a good Topic Sentence.

2. Does the Topic Sentence provide specific details to answer the question.

A good Topic Sentence gives specific information that helps answer the question. The is usually preceded by words such as "because", "due to", or "as a result of".

"Castles fell into disuse as a result of the development of gunpowder artillery because the new technology took away the advantages the defenders had enjoyed."

Once you have a Topic Sentence for each sub-question, you are ready to create your hypothesis.

History Skills Online has a ready-to-use Research Journal that follows these 9 steps and provides links back to the website to help you at each stage of your research. You can grab it here.