Snap Language

It is highly recommended you complete The anatomy of a paragraph. It has the basic concepts we will extend in this lesson.

In this paragraph, the writer jumps right into it and states the main idea in Sentence 1. All other sentences support that main idea.

1Smartphones were supposed to facilitate interpersonal communication between people, but they can also isolate them in many ways. 2Instead of using their smartphones to call family and friends, people send impersonal text messages. 3When people do meet in person, they often spend more time looking at their phones than talking to each other. 4When you call someone, you are more likely to go to voice mail than get a real person on the other line. 5The reply to your voice message may come as a text or email message.

In this paragraph, the writer introduces the general topic by describing how interpersonal communication in the past. Then the writer introduces the main idea of the paragraph in Sentence 3 and elaborates on it in the remaining sentences.

1Just a few decades ago, you had to pay for an expensive long-distance call to talk to someone out of town. 2To see someone in person, you had to schedule an in-person meeting. 3Today’s technology has made it all much simpler—or has it? 4Smartphones were supposed to facilitate interpersonal communication, but they can also isolate them in many ways. 5Instead of using their smartphones to call family and friends, people send impersonal text messages. 6When people do meet in person, they often spend more time looking at their phones than talking to each other. 7When you call someone, you are more likely to go to voice mail than get a real person on the other line. 8The reply to your voice message may come as a text or email message.

In this paragraph, the writer presents the details first and concludes with the main idea sentence.

1Instead of using their smartphones to call family and friends, people send impersonal text messages. 2When people do meet in person, they often spend more time looking at their phones than talking to each other. 3When you call someone, you are more likely to go to voice mail than get a real person on the other line. 4The reply to your voice message may come as a text or email message. 5Strange, isn’t it? 6Smartphones were supposed to facilitate communication between people, but they can also isolate them in many ways.

In this paragraph, the writer first introduces the idea that smartphones were supposed to facilitate communication and elaborates on it. Yet, the paragraph is not about only that. In Sentence 6, the writer reveals that there is “things have not gone as planned.” The main idea of the paragraph is split into two parts: Sentence 1 and Sentence 6

1Smartphones were supposed to facilitate communication. 2Just a few decades ago, you had to pay for an expensive long-distance call to talk to someone out of town. 3Today, you can call anyone in the United States for no extra fees. 4To see someone in person, you had to schedule an in-person meeting. 5With a smartphone, you can have a video call with family and friends. 6However, smartphones can also isolate people in many ways. 7Instead of using their smartphones to call family and friends, people send impersonal text messages. 8When people do meet in person, they often spend more time looking at their phones than talking to each other. 9When you call someone, you are more likely to go to voice mail than get a real person on the other line. 10The reply to your voice message may come as a text or email message.

When writers write a main idea sentence in a paragraph, they have the flexibility to place it wherever it works best for that specific paragraph. It is important to remember that the main idea sentence could be anywhere.

When you read a paragraph thinking that the main idea sentence “must be at the beginning of the paragraph,” it gets very confusing when it is not (especially when the main idea is split in two). Remember: It can be anywhere!