Now let’s look at topic sentences a little more closely. As you should remember, topic sentences are designed to show the reader (the examiner) what your paragraph is about, so take a look at this example:
(YOUR TOPIC SENTENCE SHOULD BE HERE.) Email messages and mobile phone texts are common methods of conversing with friends, yet they are often brief. It is not an uncommon sight, for example, to see groups of people out for the evening but spending a considerable portion of their time engaged on their mobile phone. Given these aspects of modern communication, it is clear how recent developments have actually made us less sociable.
Example topic sentence 1:
Technology has allowed us to become more sociable, and we are spending more time communicating these days.
This is NOT a good topic sentence because the main body of the paragraph argues that technology has led to ‘groups of people…engaged on their mobile phone’, and that we are actually become LESS sociable on a personal level. This means that the topic sentence and main body of the paragraph disagree.
Example topic sentence 2:
Most of the younger generation are able to use technology to their advantage, and this is particularly true in the manner in which we have become considerably more communicative.
This is also NOT a good topic sentence because the main body of the paragraph does not focus on any specific age group, and again the paragraph indicates that we are becoming LESS communicative.
Example topic sentence 3:
Although technology has undoubtedly allowed us to improve our ability to transfer information, this does not necessarily mean that it has advanced our ability to develop bonds and communicate with one another.
This is a good topic sentence because the main body of the paragraph refers to email messages and mobile phone texts as examples of our ability to transfer information, but on a personal level we have become less sociable.