The Main Idea is the Main Concept in Reading Texts, Learn How to Find It

Kapanlagi.com - Reading is an important part of teaching and learning activities. Through reading, a person can understand the information written in the text. After reading, students are often faced with questions about the main idea of the text. So what is the main idea of a text? In general, the main idea is the main concept contained in a reading text.

Finding the main idea is an important thing to learn. Because understanding the main idea will make it easier for someone to understand the overall content of a text. Therefore, questions about the main idea are often presented to confirm students' understanding of a reading.

However, finding the main idea is easier said than done. Finding the main idea is like a skill that must be continuously learned. To better understand what the main idea is and how to find it, read the summaries that have been compiled from various sources below.

1. Understanding the Main Idea

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As mentioned earlier, the main idea is the central concept contained in a reading text. In other words, the main idea is the main information or concept that the author wants to convey to the reader through the written text. The position of the main idea in a text is often presented explicitly through main or core sentences.

However, it is not uncommon for the main idea in a reading to also appear implicitly. It is not explicitly presented through clearly written sentences. Therefore, the reader must go through the process of interpretation and understanding of the reading in order to find the main idea.

In a reading text, the main idea is a general thing or concept that contains the entire information in the text. Meanwhile, the detailed parts of the main idea will be further explained in broader and deeper sentences in the whole paragraph. This means that in order to find and understand the main idea of a paragraph, we must read and understand the entire text first.

2. Understanding Types of Paragraphs

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Finding the main idea can be done by identifying the types of paragraphs. Because, based on the placement of the main idea, paragraphs are divided into three types. The three types of paragraphs based on the placement of the main idea are as follows.

1. Deductive Paragraph
The first type of paragraph is the deductive paragraph. The definition of a deductive paragraph is a paragraph in which the main idea or main sentence is located at the beginning of the paragraph. This type of paragraph is characterized by an exposition of the main topic or subject at the beginning, in the form of a main sentence, followed by explanatory sentences.

2. Inductive Paragraph
In contrast to deductive paragraphs, inductive paragraphs have the main idea or main sentence located at the end of the paragraph. Inductive paragraphs begin by presenting explanations and end with a topic sentence. In general, inductive paragraphs are further divided into three types: generalization, analogy, and causality.

3. Mixed Paragraph
As the name suggests, a mixed paragraph is a paragraph in which the main idea or main sentence is scattered at the beginning and end of the paragraph. Mixed paragraphs begin with an exposition of the main idea, followed by explanatory sentences, and end with the main sentence again as a complement to the explanation.

3. Finding Main Ideas

(credit: freepik)

As previously mentioned, finding the main idea is not an easy task. It requires skill in understanding the reading to be able to find the main idea. However, finding the main idea is a skill that can be trained by reading a lot.

However, there are generally several steps that can be taken to find the main idea in a reading text. The steps to find the main idea are as follows.

1. Conducting Topic Identification
The first step in finding the main idea is to conduct topic identification. Identify the topic by reading the whole text to understand what the content of the text is. This includes who the author is and who the text is written for.

2. Summarizing the Reading
After identifying the text, the next step is to summarize the reading. Summarize the reading or text that you have read and understood the topic, using your own words. Summarize it briefly, with a limited number of words.

3. Paying Attention to the First and Last Sentences
As explained earlier, the location of the main idea of a text will also depend on the type of text. So, try to understand whether a text is deductive, inductive, or mixed. To identify it, you can pay attention to the first and last sentences of each paragraph. After that, make sure you can find the main sentence of the text.

4. Find Idea Repetition
The final step is to look for the repetition of ideas in the text. The repetition of ideas can be in the form of repeated words, phrases, or the conveyance of ideas. This step is useful for further strengthening the assumption of the main idea.

Those are some reviews regarding the main idea as the main concept in a text. Hopefully, it is beneficial and can broaden your knowledge!

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