The topic sentence

 The central idea or the controlling idea of a paragraph is expressed in a single sentence which is called the topic or topical sentence. The topic sentence is also called the pilot  sentence. The controlling idea is the central idea which is developed in a paragraph; that's why the controlling idea is the summary of the  the whole information contained in its paragraph. Consequently, no information that cannot be summarized by the  controlling  idea  can be included in a paragraph. Thus, the central or controlling idea is a restricting idea because it limits the information that can be included in its paragraph.

                           The topic sentence is the key sentence that draws the reader's attention. It is known as the most important as well as the most powerful sentence of a paragraph. The topic sentence which conveys the central idea or the theme of a paragraph is developed by means of supporting details. The explanation of the paragraph is to be limited depending upon the central idea of the topic sentence. Thus the topic sentence always controls or limits the area of the explanation. unless apiece of writing has the pilot sentence, it will not be a good paragraph, rather a pile of words, because the writing cannot express the central idea of it. Therefore, while producing a paragraph, we should be  very careful about what to write in the place of the topic sentence.The controlling idea must be completely developed and explained in its paragraph. Having read a paragraph, the reader should not have any problems in understanding. All the answers to the questions that can be asked by the reader should be overtly explained in the paragraph. Each sentence in a  good paragraph must add a piece of information until the central idea expressed in the topic sentence is completely explained and clarified. A good paragraph, like a good story, must have a beginning, a middle and an end. All these three steps are controlled by the topic sentence because the two essential factors to be considered before starting to write any piece of writing are the topic sentence and 

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