How to Write TOEFL Essay Topic Sentences

PAGE 3 OF 3

Finishing the topic sentences

On the last page, we chose two reasons to support our thesis statement. These are our topic sentences. Here they are:

Guns cause more harm than good.

In most cases police officers don't need guns.

They already look good, but they could be better. We can improve them by adding a transitional phrase at the beginning of each. A transitional phrase helps the reader understand your essay. It also makes your essay sound more natural.

For our first topic sentence, we can use phrases such as First, First of all, In the first place, To begin with, For one thing. And this is what our first topic sentence might look like:

First of all, guns cause more harm than good.

For our second topic sentence, we can use these phrases: Second, Next, In addition to the previous point, More importantly. Like this:

In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns.

We're finished. Now we only need to write our supporting ideas!