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About this tool
Turn a paragraph subject and controlling idea into six topic sentence patterns, then score your own sentence against seven checks.
A topic sentence generator builds the opening sentence of a body paragraph from its two obligatory parts: the subject the paragraph is about, and the controlling idea — the arguable claim the rest of the paragraph will prove. Give it both and it produces the standard composition patterns, from claim-first to the concessive although-pivot, and adapts the wording to whether this is the first, middle or last body paragraph. A separate checker scores a sentence you have already written against seven things markers look for, including length, single-sentence form, and whether the sentence announces the paragraph instead of making a claim.
Open Topic Sentence Generator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Provide your input — an image, text, or data.
Let the tool analyze or generate the result.
Review, refine, and reuse the output wherever you need it.
Forces the two parts a topic sentence must have, so it cannot come out as a bare topic.
Middle paragraphs get a linking opener; the last one gets an emphatic shape.
Scores your own sentence on length, form, filler, evidence placement and announcement phrasing.
It is the sentence that states a paragraph's single main idea, and it has two parts: a subject and a controlling idea. "School uniforms" is a subject; "school uniforms hide income differences without removing them" adds the controlling idea and gives the paragraph something to prove.
Roughly 8 to 30 words. Shorter than eight and it rarely carries both a subject and a claim; longer than thirty and it has begun doing the evidence's work, which belongs in the sentences that follow.
No. The topic sentence makes the claim in your own words, and the quotation, data or citation that supports it comes in the next sentences. A quotation in the opening line makes the paragraph look like it is reporting a source rather than arguing a point.
Usually, and always in timed or exam writing, because it tells the marker immediately what the paragraph is doing. Experienced writers sometimes delay it for effect, but a delayed topic sentence only works when the paragraph is short enough for the reader to hold the evidence until the claim arrives.