Each text has a main and a secondary. The ability to highlight the main thing can help reduce the time of working with a text, a document by 50%.
Strong positions of the text
To assimilate what is written means, first of all, to understand what the text is about, to grasp its essence. It is easier to remember and learn the main thing, the main thing, than the text as a whole. It should be remembered that any text has several "strong" positions. The first is the heading, as well as subheadings, if any. You should not ignore this position of the text, since the main thing is logically placed in the title, what will be discussed in the text. This is the first step towards understanding the main idea of the text. Secondly, the very beginning of the text contains something important for revealing its main idea.
We are looking for the main thing
In extended texts, not one, but several thoughts can be realized. But among them it is necessary to find and isolate the main one. To do this, you should read the text thoughtfully, slowly, with a pencil in your hands, noting important, in your opinion, words, phrases as you work. According to the teacher Kamensky, the initial mood for thoughtful reading increases its digestibility several times. When reading again, when the meaning of what was written has already become clear to you, the list of keywords and phrases should be slightly reduced, about 5 times.
Then you must ask yourself the question: which of the marked phrases most express the essence of what was written, the main idea of the text, its theme. And those few words, or perhaps just one phrase, that will remain with you, and will be the core of the text that you are looking for. To check the correctness of your conclusions, try to expand the phrase you have isolated. If you get a text that is close to the original, then .
Also, to check whether you have understood the meaning of the text correctly, refer to the results of the text. This is the third "strong" position of the text, along with the title and the beginning of the test. It should also not be ignored, it will help you isolate the main thing.
Help in finding the main idea in the text will provide a plan. It may consist of several items. Their number can be equal to the number of paragraphs in the text. After all, a paragraph is a logical division of the text into micro-topics.
The ability to identify the main thing in the text is an important component of intelligence. Such a skill must be acquired. Practice highlighting the main thing in the text, not only in school lessons or at work, but also when reading newspapers, magazines and books.
The concept of text is very vague. Usually it is defined as several sentences related in meaning. At the same time, there are texts consisting of only one sentence, and it happens that the boundaries are difficult to determine: for example, on the Internet you can often see in one text a link to another or several others, and those, in turn, are also linked to other texts . It turns out an endless labyrinth of text arrays, in a sense, they are a single whole, called hypertext. The same principle can be traced in ordinary paper books - dictionaries and encyclopedias. The hypertext contains many different themes and thoughts.
Let's consider the text in its usual, most common sense - as a set of several sentences related to each other in meaning - and try to answer the question: how to determine the topic and main idea of the text?
Theme and main idea: connection and difference
With the definition of the topic, as a rule, there are no problems: it lies on the surface. Here is the main idea, laid down by the author, is not always obvious. These two concepts form two different levels understanding of the text: they both determine its content, but if the topic designates a problem, then the idea either develops it and leads the reader to a logical conclusion, or leaves the question open, leaving a field for discussion.
Topic
In any finished text material all proposals are united by a common theme. Unity ensures its integrity, regardless of the number of parts into which it may be divided. The topic sets the content of the material, while it can be divided into a number of micro-themes subordinate to it, revealing it from different angles.
The basic idea
This is about the author's message. contained in the text and underlying it. If the topic itself does not express the author's attitude to the issue under consideration, but simply indicates the scope of this issue, then the main idea already conveys the author's assessment, his vision of the problem. The main idea is not always obvious and unambiguous: it all depends on how the author expresses it, what language means he uses.
For example, in fiction the author's point of view can be expressed by one of the characters, and this character is not necessarily the main one. It often happens that the idea itself is not expressed concretely at all - in such cases the reader either relies on his own perception and draws conclusions on his own, or resorts to additional sources of information. An idea that is not expressed unambiguously turns into a figurative thought of an emotionally generalized nature, which only approximately allows one to formulate it as an abstract judgment. It is in such cases that different and even opposite interpretations of the material arise.
To define a topic means to understand what or who the text is about. Any textual analysis, including the definition of a topic, must begin with reading it.
Here are a few clues to help you identify the topic:
- Title. Very often it reflects the theme and content of the entire text, especially if it is informational, journalistic or Research Article. It happens that it contains the main idea, but we will return to this later. As for literary texts, their titles, at first glance, are very far from both the topic and the idea, and only after a thoughtful reading and deep analysis can this connection be established.
- Subtitles. They usually separate text fragments devoted to micro topics from each other; With subheadings, it's usually easy to identify the topic.
- Key (supporting) words and their synonyms. Any topic has in its arsenal a certain set of words that are specific to it. These can be various terms, for example, medical, construction, musical, and so on. By keywords, it is easy to determine the topic of informational, journalistic or scientific articles, but as for literary texts, this is not always possible, in such cases it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the content.
When working with any literature, it is very important to be able to single out one or more main ideas on your own, this helps to compose summary text and helps to better assimilate information.
There are several tools and techniques to help you do this:
- Following a logical thread. Thoughtful reading of the material will allow you to build a theme-rhematic chain, and, together with the author, follow the development of the narrative logic. Let's explain the terms: the topic is what is already known, and the rheme is new information. Often such a study of the logical development of the text - the alternation of themes and rhemes - suggests its main meaning.
- Key (supporting) words and their synonyms. As with defining a topic, this can help keywords and phrases that carry an important semantic load.
- Subheadings and paragraphs. Reading subheadings often in itself allows you to build a logical chain, decipher the author's idea. Along with subheadings in the text material, there is a division into paragraphs, which helps to distinguish semantic parts, to highlight what the author considers necessary to emphasize.
- Connection with the topic. The definition of the topic always precedes the selection of the main idea of the text, being the first stage of its understanding. Having caught the general theme and how exactly the author reveals it, one can establish the main idea - a kind of fusion of the theme with the idea. Only in such an inseparable combination of these two components is it possible to realize the author's intention, the formation of the author's assessment.
- Analysis and synthesis. Any material becomes clearer if, in its study, it is possible to combine the study of individual details with an assessment. general plan enclosing the entire object. The combination of analysis and synthesis is a necessary stage leading to the results of the study of the material.
Step-by-step instruction
When defining a topic and main idea, follow these rules:
- Read the entire text carefully, paying attention to its heading, subheadings and paragraphs, noting key words.
- Try to answer the question: what interests the author of the text in question? What is most important to him? The subject of study is often placed in the heading, but it should be remembered that headings do not always directly indicate the subject, but can be metaphorical, associative, and even paradoxical. Therefore, you should not rely solely on the meaning of the title, highlighting the main idea.
Determine the task that the author set himself when writing the text. Try to understand what the author is trying to convey to the reader. Here are some options:
- the author wants to draw the attention of the audience to topical issue;
- the author expresses his subjective attitude to the issue;
- the author gives a description of some event, presenting specific information to the reader's attention.
- Think about what are the distinctive features of the author's perception? From what side are the problems covered? What position distinguishes the author's point of view? What assessment does the author give to events, phenomena, objects? The answers to these questions will help form the general idea of the text, as well as the purpose of the story.
- Having decided on author's position guess why it is like that? What arguments, facts, evidence are given to support it? On what is such an assessment based?
- Mark the language means designed to hold attention, interest the reader, convince him of the correctness of the author's judgments. Depending on the style in which the material is presented, the text may contain expressive expressions and various tropes that contribute to the expression of the author's attitude to an object or phenomenon.
- Analyze the author's conclusions. They can be formulated in a specific phrase or phrases, usually at the very end, less often at the beginning of the narrative. The main idea may not be clearly formulated, but the purpose of the entire text is to lead the reader to this thought, so try to draw an independent conclusion by completing the last link in the logical chain. At the same time, it is desirable to stay within the general style and use the same speech techniques that the author used in his work.
In the last paragraph, there may be options depending on what the purpose of revealing the main idea is. If text analysis is required within curriculum, then one should try to formulate the conclusions as the author himself would have done. If you need to write a summary for your own purposes, it is better to write the essence of the material in your own words, which later will help to quickly restore what was read in memory.
Video
In our video you will find a detailed master class on determining the main idea of the text.
Most often in literature lessons, but sometimes in Russian, there are tasks in which the teacher requires students to determine the main or main idea of the work.
However, in order to find the correct answer, and, accordingly, to get a good grade, the guys must understand what this task is. That is, what is meant by the main idea of a work or its separate sentence.
To understand this issue as thoroughly as possible, read the article. And you will know what the main idea of the text is.
What is text
It is not at all necessary that the text should be voluminous and consist of several simple, complex or complex sentences. There are even literary works, in which there is only one capacious and understandable sentence.
Yes, and it itself is not always a long structure. Often in speech or writing you can find such a view of it, where all necessary information will be conveyed in a single word.
Nevertheless, no matter how the story, poem or everyday dialogue is presented, it certainly contains the main idea of the text.
What is the connection of sentences grammatically and in meaning
In most cases, we are faced with texts that include not one, but a whole group of sentences. The main condition for compiling a full-fledged, logical, meaningful and interesting text is the obligatory connection of these sentences grammatically and in meaning:
grammatical connection implies the dependence of the word forms of the current sentence with those used in the previous and subsequent ones. That is, the proposals must be coordinated, as if to follow one from the other.
Connection of sentences by meaning means that the entire text is connected by sentences and the main idea (common for the entire text), which can be traced in each of them.
Types of semantic connection of sentences in the text
So, we found out that sentences should be connected grammatically and in meaning. However, the semantic connection must be built competently and logically. To do this, it is important to learn the following classification of the connection of sentences in a text or speech:
chain- a feature of the construction of the text is that each subsequent sentence reveals the content of the current one in more detail. For example: The brown bear lives in the forest. The forest is the place where these animals build their lairs, hunt, and breed. From an early age, bear cubs learn to get their own food, with the help of their mother bear.
Parallel - the nature of this connection is different, it implies the equality of sentences (enumeration, comparison, opposition), and not "clinging" one to the other. For example: The weather was great outside, it was snowing. Vaska and I decided to meet and go sledding down the mountain. Only when we with difficulty climbed to the top, and I was already preparing to race downhill, my friend chickened out. The idea failed, and the mood was spoiled.
Thus, in order to understand what the main idea of the text is, one should delve into the content and make a mental analysis of each sentence.
Theme and main idea of the text
Additional parts of speech help to organically enter sentences into the text. For example, you can use unions, particles, introductory words, pronouns, etc. After all, they give liveliness, brightness and richness to a dry statement of facts.
The correct (in meaning and grammatically) construction of sentences just serves to form the main idea and, consequently, the theme of the text.
The theme is the direction of the work, the problem that rises in it, its essence. It determines what the narrative is, the content of the text. Often expressed directly in the title.
The main (main) idea is the author's message to the readers, what he wanted to convey to people, to the world with the help of his work. It can be expressed in the title or in one of the sentences of the text, but more often it needs to be “fished out” on your own, after carefully reading the entire text.
Why is it important to be able to extract the main idea from the works
Do you remember the saying that sounded in the famous work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin that your parents and grandparents must have read to you in childhood? If not, then here's what it is: “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows!”
Later, this expression became a catchphrase referring to almost all children's stories described in books. Yes, and to many adult works, too. After all, a “lesson” is a combination of the theme and the main idea of any work. Something that has a certain educational effect on us.
However, in order to catch this very hint, one should understand what the main idea of the tale implies. In other words, learn to independently determine the topic and the main idea of the text.
How to learn to highlight the main idea
In order to correctly identify the idea of the work, one should remember the following aspects that are important to be guided by when reading any text:
Follow the flow of the story, the development of events and logic.
Pay attention to headings (they can be metaphorical or associative) and keywords that alternate with synonyms throughout the text.
As you read, analyze what is important to the author, what points he emphasizes more.
After reading the work, try to quote from the text or formulate your own conclusion of the story.
Remember: to understand what the main idea of the text is, compliance with the above evaluation criteria, as well as a combination of synthesis and analysis of both the entire text and its individual details, will help.
In tests in Russian, there are often tasks like "Read the text. Determine its topic." It would seem that there is nowhere easier, but for some reason, it is precisely on such elementary questions that many graduates “stumble” when passing the exam and even university students.
Definition
In order to understand how to determine the topic of the text, you first need to find out what it is. Definitions from textbooks are usually formulated too abstrusely, but everything is extremely simple.
Let's try to get better. Think about how you can briefly formulate the themes of famous works? Here are some examples:
- L. N. Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina"- the love story of a married noblewoman and a young officer Vronsky.
- G. Troepolsky, "White Bim Black Ear"- life through the eyes of a dog that has lost a loving owner.
- M. A. Bulgakov, "Heart of a Dog"– experience in transplanting a human pituitary gland into a dog and its consequences.
- A. Green, "Scarlet Sails"- the life of the girl Assol, who lives in anticipation of the prince, who, according to the prediction, should sail to her on a ship with scarlet sails.
- A. Dumas, "The Three Musketeers"- the adventures of the three musketeers and d'Artagnan, who arrived in Paris to join the ranks of the elite royal guard.
As you can see, if you at least roughly know what the book or article is about, there will be no problems with how to determine the topic of the text. In addition, often the answer is right in the title (for example, "War and Peace", "Three Comrades", "Romeo and Juliet", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer").
Theme, idea, problem: what's the difference?
And now we have come to the most difficult moment. How to determine the topic of the text, even a child intuitively understands, then where does the confusion come from? The fact is that in the literature there are also the concepts of "main idea" and "problem of the text", which are very similar in meaning. In addition, in everyday life we often use them as synonyms.
How to stop confusing these concepts? Let's forget the long and confusing wording from the textbooks and try to understand the meaning of these terms.
It's actually pretty easy to remember what the difference is between the topic, the main idea, and the problem of the text. For convenience, we have arranged the main points in the form of a table.
| Topic | Idea (main idea) | Problem | |
| essence | What is described in the text (events, people, phenomena, etc.) | The goals and personal opinion of the author are what he is trying to lead the reader to | The global question that the author discusses |
| What questions does it answer | What is the story about? | What do I feel at this moment? | What big issues does the text make you think about? |
| Who is the main character? | What should a good person do in this case? | Why are the characters in this situation? | |
| Where and when do the events take place? | What conclusions should be drawn from this situation? | What should modern society pay attention to? | |
| Peculiarities | "Report" about the events of the work, description of the place, characters, their thoughts and feelings | Personal opinion of the writer, his attitude to characters and events | There are at least two sides to the coin, and every opinion deserves its right to exist. |
| Does not contain subjective assessments | May contain ratings good/bad, right/wrong | Not tied to the plot and characters, affects global conflicts - religious, political, social | |
| Lists the facts - who did what and why | Demonstrates the position of the author regarding the problem of the text - what is the reason, how it affects society, etc. | Expressed as a question | |
| Examples | Walk around St. Petersburg | St. Petersburg is a city where the pages of old novels come to life, and each street has its own story. | Why is it necessary to learn to notice the beauty around you? |
| Rescue of a homeless puppy | Taking care of the smaller brothers, a person shows his best qualities- empathy, kindness and responsibility | Who is to blame for the fact that there are so many homeless animals on the streets? | |
| The importance of proper nutrition | For human health, it is important that the diet contains products of all groups - meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, dairy products and cereals. | Is it possible in the modern world to lead healthy lifestyle life? |
"Eternal" themes
People always write about what is happening around them, so each historical period has its own characteristic themes. So, now few people will undertake to describe the events of the October Revolution or the hardships of the life of serfs.
However, speaking about how to determine the main topic of the text, it should be noted that there are so-called "eternal" topics - those in which readers will recognize their experiences and problems at all times:
- love, the birth of tender feelings and the bitterness of parting;
- fathers and children (the clash of values and views of different generations);
- confrontation between good and evil;
- friendship and betrayal;
- growing up and becoming a person - how life circumstances change the character and views.
These themes can be traced in one way or another in almost all literary texts. Therefore, when doing your analysis, think about what human values and issues the author touches on.
How to determine the topic of the text in 5 minutes
1. Reread the title. It may contain clues that will help you understand what the text will be about. Especially it concerns short stories and articles in which the author immediately gets to the point. At the same time, remember that headings can be associative, metaphorical or paradoxical.
2. Study the text. Mentally select for yourself the main semantic blocks and determine how they are interconnected (in time, logically, etc.). For convenience, you can sketch a small plan.
3. Write out key sentences. In each paragraph, highlight the phrase that contains the most useful information necessary for understanding the material.
4. Cut back. Now your task is to “throw out” everything superfluous from these sentences. Artistic techniques, additional details, complex turns, actions. As a result, only the main keywords and phrases should remain.
5. Distribute phrases by importance. To determine the main topic of the text, you need to write them in a column in descending order of importance. That is, first of all, we write those words and phrases, without which it is impossible to understand what the text says.
6. Formulate a topic. We take the keywords that we collected at the previous stage as a basis. Unlike the idea, the topic should be extremely concise. Don't stretch it out into a full sentence - ideally try to keep it under 5-6 words (for example, "How to learn to forgive" or "The healing power of classical music").
§ 1 Highlighting a topic in the text
The text is a statement that consists of two or more sentences related by meaning. A certain order of sentences in the text allows you to convey the development of thought. All sentences in the text combine common topic. We will learn to highlight in the text its main idea as the main one for which it was written.
Read the text.
Spring in the forest
Early spring in the forest begins to awaken a stormy life. Melting winter snow. Overhead, thin birch branches strewn with resinous buds are visible. More and more bird voices are heard in the forest.
What does this text say? About spring. So the theme of the text is spring, or, more precisely, spring in the forest.
What general idea is developed by all sentences of the text? The most important, basic idea of this text is expressed in the first sentence: In early spring, a stormy life begins to awaken in the forest. And the rest of the proposals develop it, i.e. awakening is seen in the melting of snow, the appearance of buds, the singing of birds.
§ 2 The main idea of the text
The main idea can be stated at the beginning of the text (in this case, subsequent sentences develop it), and can also be a conclusion from the entire text.
Read the following text.
The old moose dozed off in the sun. She sensitively hears every rustle, every disturbing sound. A small calf frolics carelessly at her feet. He knows that neither a gray wolf nor an evil lynx robber will let him offend a sensitive and strong mother.
(according to I. Sokolov-Mikitov)
Who is this text about? That's right, about the old moose and her calf.
What main idea does the author want to convey to us, why does he tell this story? The author tells us that the moose cow will always protect her calf. This thought is expressed in the last sentence and is the conclusion from the entire text: He knows that neither the gray wolf nor the evil lynx robber will let him be offended by a sensitive and strong mother.
So, to find the topic of the text, you need to ask the question: about whom or what is this text about?
And to find out its main idea, you need to ask the question: why was the text written?
The title of the work may correspond to its theme, or it may express the main idea.
The text can be written both to express some basic thought, and to convey some main experience, impression.
Read an excerpt from the fairy tale by Sergei Kozlov, which is called "Winter's Tale":
“It has been snowing since morning. The little bear was sitting on the edge of the forest, on a stump, with his head up and counting and licking the snowflakes that fell on his nose. Snowflakes fell sweet, fluffy, and before falling completely, they stood on tiptoe. Oh, how fun it was!
From the text it is clear that the mood of the Bear cub was joyful, cheerful. This can be seen from the last sentence: Oh, how fun it was! It is exclamatory in tone.
This sentence does not express the main idea, but the main experience of the text. Who perceives a winter morning this way: the author, the Teddy Bear or snowflakes? Of course, Little Bear, because it is he who examines, tastes snowflakes, rejoices. And the name corresponds not to the theme, but to the main experience.
§ 3 An example of highlighting the topic and the main idea
Let's consider one more excerpt from Sergei Kozlov's fairy tale, find its theme and main experience.
“It was the most extraordinary spring of all that the Hedgehog remembered. The trees blossomed, the grass turned green, and thousands of rain-washed birds sang in the forest. Blue snowdrops bloomed first. Then the dandelions bloomed. Even the old stump has sprouted green shoots."
The theme of this text is the beauty of spring nature. The main thing in it is the feeling of admiration in spring, the experience of the beauty of the awakening forest. This is stated in the first sentence: It was the most extraordinary spring of all that the Hedgehog remembered. The main experience of the hero of the fairy tale - the Hedgehog is transmitted. Therefore, the passage can be entitled Unusual Spring, which will correspond to the experience of the Hedgehog.
List of used literature:
- Russian language: 2nd grade: Textbook: at 3 hours / N.A. Churakova; ed. M.L.Kalenchuk. - M .: Akademkniga / Textbook, 2012. - Part 1.
- Russian language: 2nd grade: Textbook: at 3 hours / M.L. Kalenchuk, O.V. Malakhovskaya, N.A. Churakova - M .: Akademkniga / Textbook, 2012. - Part 2.
- Russian language: 2 cells. Toolkit/ M.L.Kalenchuk, O.V. Malakhovskaya, N.A. Churakova - M .: Academic book / Textbook, 2012.
- Spelling secrets: Book for students of grades 5-7 / G.G. Granik, S.M. Bondarenko, L.A. Kontsevaya. - M.: Enlightenment, 1991
Used images: