How to Determine the Number of Main Ideas in a Text

How to Determine the Number of Main Ideas in a Text

When approaching a text for the first time, the reader is likely looking for the main idea, or the central point the author is trying to emphasize or explain. Read on to find out how to find the main idea is and how to tell if there is more than one.

What's the Main Idea?

Think of the main idea like a thread that's woven throughout the canvas of a written work. Though it may sound like a daunting concept, the main idea of a text is just the central purpose the author has for writing. This point may be as simple as illustrating, in easy-to-understand instructions, the laws of the road in a driver's education handbook. It may also be a little more complicated, such as Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, in which he declared his main idea 'that all men are created equal.' Often, non-fiction writings such as speeches or memoirs (a personal account written for the purpose of sharing significant events in one's life), contain more than one main idea because the writer or the speaker needs to address multiple points within the same work.

Finding the Main Idea

Usually, the main idea will appear somewhere in the first paragraph, though this is not always the case. Most of the time, there are three distinct sections in a piece of writing: the introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction is where the author will present the main idea and perhaps provide necessary background information. Then, the body of the piece is made up of the paragraphs in the middle. This is where the author will give more details to support the main idea. Finally, the conclusion is where the author will tie all the details together and remind the reader about the most important part of the written piece: the main idea. In short, while the main idea should appear in the introduction, it should also be the most often discussed topic or idea throughout a piece of writing.

Let's take a look at Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to find the main idea. He begins with the following sentence: 'Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.'

Right away, we know that the Gettysburg Address is about liberty and equality.

Next, he says, 'Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.'

The first line of the body does not use the words 'liberty' or 'equality,' but we know that the Civil War was fought to gain liberty and equality for all Americans; therefore, we can infer, that is, we can find meaning in Lincoln's words even though he is not saying it obviously, that the main idea of liberty and equality appears in the body of this speech.

Finally, Lincoln ends his speech with the statement that 'this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.'

Again, he is not explicitly using the words 'liberty' and 'equality,' but 'freedom' is a synonym of 'liberty,' and this 'new birth' indicates that slaves will be newly freed. So, while it does take a little bit of effort on the part of the reader, one main idea can be seen throughout Lincoln's speech.

When an Author Has More to Say

Sometimes, an author may have more than one idea in the writing. Take for example, Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay, 'A Modest Proposal' in which he presents the radical idea that the good people of Ireland begin to consume their babies, which, he insists is 'a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food.' Swift's proposal is, of course, a deliberately outrageous ploy to disguise his actual proposal to improve the Irish economy, which had so far been ignored by his government.

If we take a look at Swift's essay using the same strategy we used on the Gettysburg Address above, it becomes clear that Swift outlines his work with a clear beginning, middle, and an end. After his initial statement of purpose, he further outlines his idea in the body of the essay using transitions such as 'first,' 'secondly,' and 'thirdly,' which help the reader understand that he is making his way through his points.

The transition to his second main idea (his real proposal), then, comes when he says, 'I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.'

Sarcastically, Swift introduces his second main idea of ideas that he does not want anyone to hear such as 'taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound' and 'using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture.' Naturally, ideas such as this would serve to bolster the Irish economy, which is Swift's true intent.

Thus, Swift's two main ideas are that:

1. The Irish should eat their newborns to simultaneously reduce the number of people to feed as well as give the people who still survive food to eat.
2. The Irish should purchase goods from their own country and make their nationals who are abroad pay a higher tax (among other suggestions). However, in this case, Swift is actually introducing his real argument in a clever way. Because the Irish government had not taken his earlier proposals seriously, he is presenting this one in such a surprising way that it was sure to (and obviously did) attract much attention.

Lesson Summary

Finding the main idea, or the author's central purpose, of a text does get easier with practice. It helps to break the piece of writing down by identifying the:

• introduction, which comes first and gives the reader some background on the subject
• body, which further explains the subject by giving examples
• conclusion, which sums up the important points at the end

Remember to look for transitions to help guide you. Sometimes the main idea is not obvious, but it's always there.