Wondering how you can craft unique topic sentences for your essay paragraphs to help you earn that Band 6 in HSC English?
We’re here to help! We’ll be taking you through mistakes you should avoid, what your topic sentence should be about and how to create a strong analysis of the text you’re studying.
Let’s dive in!
What are the top 3 mistakes students make in writing a topic sentence?
What should your topic sentence be?
How does a strong topic sentence help with strong analysis?
So how do I write a topic sentence which is making an argument?
What are the top 3 mistakes students make in writing a topic sentence?
#1: Your topic sentence is just a theme
In Year 7 and 8 you might have written topic sentences like:
“To Kill a Mockingbird clearly demonstrates the theme of racism.”
In Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 you need to move beyond these simplistic ones and instead of describing a theme, make an argument about that theme.
#2: Your topic sentence is a recount of the plot
Another big mistake students make is describing the story of your text in the topic sentence. For example,
“Atticus Finch fights racism in To Kill a Mockingbird by defending Tom Robinson”
#3: Your topic sentence is saying something really obvious
There’s not much point in writing a paragraph if it is just arguing something that everyone already knows about the text! For example, you want to avoid writing a topic sentence like:
“To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates that racism has a negative effect on a community”
Anyone who has read To Kill a Mockingbird would realise this!
So if our topic sentence shouldn’t be a theme, a recount or obvious, what should it be?
It needs to be an argument which is saying something deep about your text. Let’s unpack what we mean by ‘argument’.
An argument is a bit different to a statement, because an argument is something that needs to be proven. For example, if I say ‘I am an Australian’, that’s a true statement. It doesn’t need to be proven!
If, on the other hand, I say “I am a good role model”, well I might need to convince you of that. I might need to give you examples of ways I have helped other people, shown leadership or done good in my community.
Same goes in an essay! If I’m talking about 1984 and say, “George Orwell demonstrates the lack of freedom that exists in a totalitarian society” – that’s super obvious. It’s not even worth mentioning!
But if instead, I say “George Orwell forces us to consider whether rebelling against a totalitarian state is worth it” – I’m going to need examples from the text to back that up!
When we write a topic sentence, the idea should be deep enough that it needs to be backed up with quotes and techniques to be proven.
Trying to improve your essay writing skills? Use these 20x Year 11 Reading to Write Essay Questions to get started!
How does a strong topic sentence help with strong analysis?
If you don’t write a strong one, your analysis cannot be strong. Your topic sentence is a lid on the quality of your paragraph.
In essence, analysis is your ability to unpack a technique and link it to an idea. If our idea or topic sentence is weak, then we have nothing to link our analysis back to. For example, imagine my topic sentence is “Brooklyn has blonde hair” and I have a quote such as “Brooklyn’s long, golden hair shone in the sunlight”.
Now if “Brooklyn has blonde hair” is the idea I’m trying to link that back to, I don’t really have anything to say in my quote, since it’s already directly shown Brooklyn has blonde hair.
Have you ever been writing an essay, given a quote and then thought “I have nothing else to add!” The reason for this is usually because your topic sentence is too straightforward.
If, on the other hand, my topic sentence is something a little deeper like “The difficulties of lockdown have induced a character transformation in Brooklyn” Then we can write some stronger analysis. For example:
“The juxtaposition between Brooklyn’s previous brunette hair and the imagery of her “long golden hair shone in the sunlight” uses colour symbolism as the brighter colour demonstrates the transition towards a happier time in her life”
So how do I write one which is making an argument?
In order to write something unique or deep for your topic sentence, you will need to start with your quotes and analysis. Before you even think about your topic sentence, you should be trying to unpack how the techniques are creating meaning in your quotes.
A great way of doing this is creating TEE tables. You can see our article on TEE tables here. Once you unpack the deep meaning being created by your quotes, it will be much easier to craft a unique argument in your topic sentence.
Happy topic sentencing!
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Brooklyn Arnot has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature with Honours at the University of Sydney. She scored an HD average and has even received the Dean’s award for excellence! Brooklyn teaches our English classes at Art of Smart and has over 5 years of experience supporting Year 11 and 12 students throughout their HSC. She’s also a new Syllabus expert and studied 4U English in high school.
