Individuals vary in the strategies they use to find the main idea.   Some readers begin by unconsciously assuming that the first sentence of the paragraph is the main idea.  They test each of the other sentences against it.   Others read through an entire paragraph and unconsciously look for repeated words or ideas that suggest the main idea of the paragraph.  Another group of readers just reads through each paragraph and intuitively comes up with the main idea without using a particular strategy.  Whatever a reader does, his or her goal is the same:   to come up with a complete sentence or thought that connects the facts and ideas in the paragraph to each other. 

Strategy 1:

Try the first sentence;

Test the others against it.

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