Tutorial 2: Draft, Revise, and Edit

Topic sentences

The topic sentence expresses the main thought or point of the paragraph. The topic sentence should not present any new evidence, only summarize the purpose of the supporting evidence presented in the paragraph.

Which topic sentence best summarizes the paragraph to the right?

In 1891, 55.5 percent of the people in Whitechapel lived with more than two persons per room in apartments with fewer than five rooms. Two districts of east London had even higher rates. Such living conditions were due in part to the large rent increases in the East over the previous quarter century. Although rents in the West only rose by 11 percent between 1880 and 1900, those in the East End jumped by 25 percent." Overcrowding led to the association of the honest poor with criminal elements, and produced "incest, illegitimacy, juvenile prostitution, drunkenness, dirt, idleness, [and] disease."

The criminal element in east London lived in overcrowded housing.
 Overcrowding was a huge problem in east London.
There was a steep rise in rents in east London between 1880 and 1900.
Adapted from Robert F. Haggard, "Jack the Ripper As the Threat of Outcast London," Essays in History 35 (1993), <etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH35/haggard1.html>.