Which question best identifies the main idea of a paragraph?

Which question best identifies the main idea of a paragraph?

• A. What is the topic sentence and how does it relate to the rest?
• B. How many supporting details are included?
• C. What is the purpose of the closing sentence?
• D. What is the main idea of the paragraph?

Answer: (D)

Identifying the main idea means finding the central point the author wants you to take away from the paragraph. The strongest option is the one that asks for that central point directly: What is the main idea of the paragraph? This frames the task as stating the overall message in a concise way. The other prompts guide you to different textual features—such as the topic sentence and how it relates to the rest, the number of supporting details, or the closing sentence’s purpose. Those elements can help you understand the paragraph, but they don’t require you to articulate the core message itself, which is why they’re not as effective for identifying the main idea.

Identifying the main idea means finding the central point the author wants you to take away from the paragraph. The strongest option is the one that asks for that central point directly: What is the main idea of the paragraph? This frames the task as stating the overall message in a concise way. The other prompts guide you to different textual features—such as the topic sentence and how it relates to the rest, the number of supporting details, or the closing sentence’s purpose. Those elements can help you understand the paragraph, but they don’t require you to articulate the core message itself, which is why they’re not as effective for identifying the main idea.