Finding two or more main ideas in a text

0:00- [David] Hey, readers. So there's a kind of singing from Mongolia, a country between Russia and China, that allows a singer to sing two notes at once. It's called Tuvan throat singing. It's extremely cool. It's very hard to do. It sounds like this. (Tuvan throat singer vocalizing) Why do I bring this up?

0:18Because there is a way for a text to sing two notes at once. A main idea is the big note, the big takeaway. It's the information that the author wants you to know after you've read their writing. But in an informational text, there's no reason why you can't have two or more main ideas in there.

0:35It's much easier than Tuvan throat singing. To identify the main idea or ideas in a text, ask yourself two questions. First, what's the topic of this text? You can usually describe the topic with a single word or phrase like pasta or bears or knife juggling. And the second question is, what does the author mainly want to tell or teach me about the topic?

0:57What's the big idea, right? People shouldn't feed wild bears or rigatoni is the best kind of pasta are examples of main ideas, but on occasion you'll come across more than one of those big ideas in a single text. Maybe the first paragraph of the text is about the history of knife juggling, and the second one is about how to juggle knives yourself: two big ideas.

1:19And it's not like one is supporting the other. They're both equally important, and that means that there are two main ideas in that passage. Let's take a look at this passage and see if it's got more than one main idea in it. Macaroni is made in factories. Round noodles like macaroni are made with a special kind of flour, and the pasta dough gets extruded, that is, pushed through a big machine that makes hundreds of pounds of pasta each day.

1:47Some pasta can be made at home with ordinary ingredients and kitchen tools. You can make flat noodles like lasagna with just flour and eggs. You don't need a machine, just a knife and a rolling pin. So what's the topic of the text? Pasta, right? The two examples of pasta called out in the passage are macaroni and lasagna noodles.

2:07So let's ask, what is the author trying to say about pasta? What are the big ideas here? The first paragraph is about how macaroni is made in a factory with a machine, and the second paragraph is about how you can make lasagna at home with kitchen tools and flour and eggs.

2:25Now does one of these ideas support the other? I don't think so. Learning about how macaroni is made in a factory doesn't tell me anything about making lasagna noodles at home, and the information on lasagna noodles doesn't tell me anything about factory made macaroni.

2:41So instead, these are two different but equally important things that the author wants to tell me about pasta. This text has two main ideas. I can safely conclude, however, that discussing this has made me quite hungry, so let's finish up and recap. To identify when a text has two or more main ideas, first, identify the topic, then identify what the author mainly wants to tell or teach you about that topic.

3:08If you think a text has more than one main idea, ask yourself, does one of the ideas support the other one or are the two ideas equally important? If they're equally important, congratulations. You've found a text with two main ideas. Now finding the main ideas in a text will help you focus on what's most important and really understand what you're reading, which will make you a stronger reader and writer and thinker.

3:33Soon you'll be singing two notes at once, three even. A boy can dream. You can learn anything. David out. And now to attempt Tuvan throat singing myself. (David imitating Tuvan throat singing) (David coughing) Oh, oh (sniffles). Oh, boy, Rheinstrom. Okay (sniffles). Oh, keep your day job.