Ten Tips for Selecting Main
Ideas
In class
Listen carefully and write down anything that you
professor emphasizes. Write down any lesson/lecture
objectives you professors put on an overhead or board.
1. Take notes from your readings before each lecture to
listen for additional information about topics. Raise
questions in your mind as the professor talks.
2. Listen for main ideas that the professor might highlight by
using:
Little phrases such as “ And now let us turn our attention to…”
a) Statements such as “ The main point is…or
remember this…
b) Statements that they repeat or emphasize;
c) A change in their tine of voice or rate of speaking.
3. Summarize in your own words what you have heard.
Organize and review your notes after class. Add main
headings as needed.
4. Talk with classmates; they might pick up things that you
have missed.
When selecting the main idea in a lecture or presentation,
collaboration can produce results. It is imperative, however, that you
become familiar with each of the strategies so that you can
implement them when you are reading alone.
More Steps…..
While Reading..
5. The first paragraph of
reading will usually
tell you what you are
going to be reading
about. Look for main
ideas there.
Usually the topic
sentence is the first
sentence of the
paragraph. Sometimes it
can be the second
sentence, or the last
sentence of the first
paragraph. If it appears at
the end of the paragraph,
the previous sentences build up to the main idea. If it is
written within the paragraph, it is preceded by one or more
introductory sentences.
6. Examine the table of contents, section headings of
chapters, chapter summarizes and chapter quizzes for
main ideas.
7. Pick out key terms and concepts and make a “quiz sheet”
outlining the bare bones of the course.
8. Sometimes there is an implied main idea. Read over the
details of a section and ask yourself, “What’s the point?”