How do you find the main idea of an essay?

Ugh, finding the main idea of an essay? Sometimes it feels like searching for a lost sock in a dryer, you know? Where do you even begin?! I usually glance at the first sentence or two of each paragraph. It’s like the author is waving a little flag saying, “Hey, look here! This is important!” Think of it as topic sentences – they often give the gist of what’s coming.

But what if it’s not that obvious? Sometimes, it is like…buried treasure or something. Then I try to quickly summarize each paragraph in my head. Like, just a super-short version. What’s the point they’re trying to get across in those few sentences? It’s like, okay, this paragraph talks about the history of coffee, and this one talks about how it affects your sleep… Hmm, maybe the main idea is something about the overall impact of coffee? See? It’s like putting puzzle pieces together.

I remember once reading this essay about the effects of social media. Each paragraph went on and on about different platforms—Instagram, TikTok, you name it—and how they influenced body image. So, even though the word “body image” wasn’t in every first sentence, it became pretty clear that that was the main point the author was driving at. It’s like they kept circling back to it, right? So, yeah, sometimes you gotta read between the lines a bit. It’s a process, not magic, haha!