Abstract

This study examines topic sentences in the academic article context—specifically in articles by professors in biochemistry, civil engineering, history, literature, physics, psychology, and sociology. By using propositional analysis and adapting procedures originally devised by Braddock, the investigation centers on (1) percentage of minor topic sentences, (2) combined percentage of minor and major topic sentences, and (3) percentage of topic sentence “influence.” These three indices show how heavily writers in the corpus rely on topic sentences, although there are variations across disciplines. These variations may be attributed to paragraph length, whole-text structure, or even conventional preferences. However, even when they do not use topic sentences, writers in some disciplines use topic sentence-like features (headings) for the same purposes. Conjecture is that special content and coherence demands make topic sentences a standard feature in academic articles.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1987-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088387004002006
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (6)

  1. Rhetoric Review
  2. College Composition and Communication
  3. Research in the Teaching of English
  4. Research in the Teaching of English
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 6 →
  1. Research in the Teaching of English
Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.2307/357019
  2. 10.2307/1179517
  3. 10.2307/2117714
  4. 10.1038/302500a0
  5. 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9488(1983)109:2(63)
  6. 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9488(1983)109:2(79)
  7. 10.2307/2925677
  8. 10.2307/3586750
  9. 10.1016/0272-2380(80)90008-6
  10. 10.1016/0010-0285(73)90036-4
  11. 10.1086/227798
  12. 10.1037/0033-295X.88.1.1
  13. 10.1080/00335636509382739
  14. 10.2307/376442
  15. 10.2307/377219
  16. 10.2307/357405
  17. 10.37514/JBW-J.1980.3.1.09
    Journal of Basic Writing  
  18. 10.1515/text.1.1983.3.4.347
  19. 10.2307/357044
  20. 10.2307/356320
CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network →