A thesis statement tells a reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. Such a statement is also called an “argument,” a “main idea,” or a “controlling idea.”. A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should “telegraph” how you plan to argue—that is Tutorial #26: Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences collegeofsanmateo.edu. The main point or controlling idea of any essay is its thesis. It is an arguable assertion—your opinion or position—on your topic and is, without question, the most important sentence in an academic essay. • becomes an organizational framework for the topic sentences The following topic sentences have controlling ideas. Click on the underlined segment of the topic sentence that contains the controlling idea. Tennis racquets have changed greatly in the last ten years. People from many different cultures live in Boston. Cats are better pets than dogs for many reasons. Yesterday was the worst day of my life. Topic is the subject and the controlling idea is what can be said about the subject. YourDictionary.com provides an example: << Topic Sentence: Fortune hunters encounter many difficulties when exploring a shipwreck. The topic is "exploring a shipwreck" and the controlling idea is "many difficulties." A sentence is a group of words giving a complete thought. A sentence must contain a subject and a verb (although one may be implied). What is a topic and controlling idea? The topic sentence contains two parts: the topic and a controlling idea. The controlling idea This idea focuses the topic by providing direction to the composition. Read the following topic sentences. They all contain a topic (in bold) and a controlling idea (underlined). When your paragraphs contain a clearly stated topic sentence such as one of the following, your reader will know what to expect and, therefore .

topic sentence controlling idea