Meeting 1

DETERMINING THE TOPIC

A. Determining the Topic

What is the Reading About? Topic

Asking the simple question “What is the reading about?” will lead you to the topic. The topic
is who or what a reading is about. In longer passages, you will often find the topic stated in the
title, but even in single paragraphs, words related to the topic are usually repeated throughout
in the paragraph in different ways. Topics are normally stated in a single word or phrase. If
your reading has a title, start by reading it to figure out what is the topic is. However, if there
is no title, you can still look for people, places, things, or concepts repeated throughout the
reading.
Understanding the topic, the gist, or the larger conceptual framework of a textbook chapter,
an article, a paragraph, a sentence or a passage is a sophisticated reading task. Being able to
draw conclusions, evaluate, and critically interpret articles or chapters is important for
overall comprehension in college reading. Textbook chapters, articles, paragraphs,
sentences, or passages all have topics and main ideas. The topic is the broad, general theme
or message. It is what some call the subject. The main idea is the "key concept" being
expressed. Details, major and minor, support the main idea by telling how, what, when,
where, why, how much, or how many. Locating the topic, main idea, and supporting details
helps you understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Identifying the
relationship between these will increase your comprehension.

1. Finding the Topic

The first thing you must be able to do to get at the main idea of a paragraph is to identify
the topic – the subject of the paragraph. Think of the paragraph as a wheel with the topic
being the hub – the central core around which the whole wheel (or paragraph) spins. Your
strategy for topic identification is simply to ask yourself the question, "What is this
about?" Keep asking yourself that question as you read a paragraph, until the answer to
your question becomes clear. Sometimes you can spot the topic by looking for a word or
two that repeat. Usually you can state the topic in a few words.

Let us try this topic-finding strategy. Reread the first paragraph under the
heading Grasping the Main Idea. Ask yourself the question, "What is this paragraph
about?" To answer, say to yourself in your mind, "The author keeps talking about
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 paragraphs and the way they are designed. This must be the topic – paragraph
organization." Reread the second paragraph of the same section. Ask yourself, "What is
this paragraph about?" Did you say to yourself, "This paragraph is about different ways to
organize a paragraph"? That is the topic. Next, reread the third paragraph and see if you
can find the topic of the paragraph. How? Write the topic in the margin next to this
paragraph. Remember, getting the main idea of a paragraph is crucial to reading.

2. Inferring the Topic

Making a good guess about the topic based on the content of the resource’s students will
look at.
1) Look at the picture or text.
2) What details do you notice?
3) What do you wonder?
4) Add what you notice and what you wonder to your note-catcher.

I Notice I Wonder
(things I see) (?s I have)

Example:
In 1930, Mohandas Gandhi, the sixty-one-year-old leader of the nonviolent
movement for Indian independence from British rule, began a march to the sea with
seventy-eight followers. Their destination was Dandi, a little coastal town some 240
miles away. The group covered about 12 miles a day. As they went, Gandhi preached his
doctrine of nonviolent resistance to British rule in every village he passed through: “Civil
disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen. He dare not give up without ceasing to be
a man.” By the time he reached Dandi, twenty-four days later, his small group had
become a nonviolent army of thousands. When they arrived at Dandi, Gandi picked up a
pinch of salt from the sands. All along the coast, thousands did likewise, openly breaking
British laws that prohibited Indians from making their own salt, an item much in demand
in a tropical country. By their simple acts of disobedience, Gandhi and the Indian people
had taken a bold step on their long march to independence. The salt march was but one
of many nonviolent activities that Mohandas Gandhi undertook between World War I
and World War II to win India’s goal of national independence from British rule.

Explanation.
Gandhi’s name is mentioned several times in this paragraph, and thus, it should be evident
that the paragraph has something to do with him. You can also see that the passage is about
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a “salt march.” Almost every sentence describes something about this march. Combining the
who with the what, you might guess that the topic is “Gandi’s salt march.” If you are marking
the text as you read, you might write that phrase in the margin to spark your memory when
you come back to review for a test. The marginal note acts as a title—it focuses your attention
on the topic. Or you could use a highlighter to mark the words in the paragraph itself.

Determining the topic is a good starting point for comprehending a reading selection. Follow
these steps to keep it simple:
1. If there is a title, consider it first.
2. Look for bold or italicized terms to see what they have in common.
3. Look for repeated words, phrases, or concepts.
Once you figure out what the reading is about, you can begin to predict what kinds of
information and ideas you might find in it.

 Exercise 1.1

Direction: Read each paragraph and decide what the topic is. Start with the
question “What is this about?” Remember to look for repeated words, and
mark them as you read.

1. The term wiki from the Hawaiian word wiki, means fast. This technology allows many
users to collaborate to create and update an Internet page. A wiki Web site allows
registered users to add and edit content on a specific topic. The best known wiki is
Wikipedia.com, an online encyclopedia where registered contributors may post additions
to any entry. Wiki technology records the original material, plus the material that
contributors add over time. Wikis have great potential to gather in one place contributions
worldwide from all the specialists on one subject, for example, but there are not
necessarily any safe guards that the material placed on the site is accurate or reliable.
Topic : _________________________________________________________

2. Taxes are dues we pay for membership in our society; they’re the cost of living in this
country. Federal, state, and local tax receipts fund government activities and a wide
variety of public services, from national defense to local libraries. Administering and
enforcing federal tax laws is the responsibility of the IRS, a part of the U.S Department
of Treasury.
Topic: _________________________________________________________

3. Your speech topic is the subject of your speech. Selecting a topic for a speech can be a
very creative and energizing part of putting a speech together. With a little systematic
thought and inventive organization, speakers often come up with a wide range of
interesting speech topics.
Topic: _________________________________________________________

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4. What is the name of the first song on your favorite playlist? Who won the World Series
last year? Who wrote Hamlet? If you can answer these questions, you are using recall, a
direct retrieved of facts or information. Tests of recall require verbatim (word-for-word)
memory. If you study a poem until you can recite it without looking it, you are using
recall. When you answer an essay question by providing facts and ideas, you are also
using recall, even though you didn’t learn your essay verbatim.
Topic: _________________________________________________________

5. As a personality trait, shyness refers to a tendency to avoid others, as well as feelings of

anxiety, preoccupation, and social inhabitation (uneasiness and strain when socializing).
Shy persons fail to make eye contact, retreat when spoken to, speak too quietly, and
display little interest or animation in conversations. Mild shyness may be more than a
nuisance. However, extreme shyness (which may be diagnosed as social anxiety
disorder) is often associated with depression, loneliness, fearfulness, social anxiety,
inhibition, and low self-esteem.
Topic: _________________________________________________________

 Exercise 1.2

Direction: Circle the letter of the correct topic. Note: Sometimes the topic
will need to be pieced together by the reader, sometimes the topic will need to
be pieced together by the reader, sometimes not.

1. Sophisticated methods of detecting lying are in the experimental stage. There is hope,
for instance, that facial movements may one day reveal deception. Some companies are
using the fMRI to look for patterns of brain activation associated with lying. If his
technique proves out, it may be especially useful to law enforcement, intelligence
agencies, and transportation security officials. There may even come a day when you
will need to have your brain scanned when applying for a sensitive positive position in
government of industry. But that day is not here. As of yet, we lack any reliable indicator
of lying, let alone anything akin to Ponocchio’s nose, which grew each time the puppet
told a lie.
A. Lying
B. Lie detectors in law enforcement
C. Possible methods of lie detection
D. Brain scans for lie detection
2. Thomas Edison is rightly famous for his brilliance as clever inventor. Among other
things, he helped bring us electricity, phonographs, and motion pictures. Edison is less
known, though, for his role in inventing the electric chair. In 1887, the New York Skate
legislature was searching for a method of execution other than hanging. A member of
the legislature had heard rumors about people who were accidentally electrocuted and
died. The legislature wrote to Edison, posing a question: Would electrocution be a more
humane method of execution? Edison wrote back, saying he thought 1,000 volts of

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 electricity could provide a quick and painless death. Edison then conducted a series of
experiments to prove his claim. In the course of those experiments, he put to death
numerous dogs and cats, some cattle, and at least one horse. It’s not that Edison wanted
to take credit for inventing the electric chair. Rather, he wanted the State of New York
to use a generator made by his archrival, Westinghouse. Edison hoped the general public
would grow fearful of Westinghouse products once it knew that, as he liked to put it,
prisoners were being “Westinghoused” to death.
A. Edison and the electric chair
B. Edison’s rivalry with Westinghouse
C. The genius of Thomas Edison
D. Edison’s cruelty to animals
3. Even beautiful people sometimes feel unattractive. There are handsome actors who
won’t let their right side be photographed for fear of looking unattractive. There are
gorgeous models who obsess because they are a few pounds overweight. For some
people, however, feeling unattractive is not a momentary state. On the contrary, victims
of body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, feel ugly all the time, no matter what their mirror
shows. For victims of BDD, even tiny flaws, like a freckle a small mole, or a pimple,
are a source of misery. These minor imperfections are viewed as catastrophe, so much
so that BDD victims frequently refuse to leave their homes or be in the company of other
people. Victims of BDD avoid the society of other people because they imagine that
their horrifying physical appearance will earn them nothing but ridicule. When the
disorder reaches this state, a combination of medication and therapy is needed because
victims can become so desperate, they commit suicide rather than expose their
“ugliness” to the world. Ironically, victims of BDD are often extremely attractive. They
are also likely to be people who have had repeated cosmetic surgeries.
A. The beautiful people
B. Victims of body dysmorphic disorder
C. Models who obsess about their looks
D. People with physical imperfections
4. The term weathering refers to the change of breakdown reduces huge boulders to little
more than a pile of rubble, it also can produce shapes and forms of extraordinary beauty.
Particularly lovely are ventifacts. These are stone sculptures left behind from windblown
sand beating against a hard surface. The desert terrain of Death Valley is strewn with
ventifacts. Many of them appear to have shaped by a human hand. Ventifacats, however,
are not made by humans. They are Mother Nature’s impressive creation.
A. Weathering
B. Natural sculptures
C. Death valley
D. Vent facts
5. Medical reformer Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) was one of the first to argue that
mentally ill people should not be punished for the crime of being sick. Rush also insisted
that doctors listen closely to their patients and take careful notes on their complaints.
Without question, he was a force for good in medical treatment. That does not mean,
however, that Benjamin Rush never did any harm; in fact, even more of Dr. Rush’s
colleagues considered his prescriptions for health rather dangerous. In an era that
believed bloodletting was good therapy, Dr. Rush was overly enthusiastic. He often

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drew large amounts of blood from patients already weakened by disease. It was
suspected, in fact, that some of his patients did from his treatment rather than their
illness. Dr. Rush also came up with the idea of the “Tranquilizer Chair.” Patients were
strapped into a chair with their head packed in a box. Unable to move or speak, they had
no choice but to calm down. In addition, Dr. Rush believed that patients suffering from
mental disturbances should spend more time swinging in the air. On his
recommendation, patients were strapped into chairs. The chairs would then be
suspended from ceiling. Attendants kept them swinging or spinning until the patients
showed signs of improvement. Fortunately, vomiting was considered an improvement.
Once they got sick enough, the patients were let down from the ceiling.
A. The tranquilizer chair
B. Eighteenth-century treatments for mental illness
C. Benjamin Rush’s medical reform
D. Benjamin Rush’s harmful medical treatments