Implied Main Ideas: Deductive Synthesis

When Authors Leave the Point Unstated

The Three-Step Synthesis Method

Avoiding the Too-Narrow and Too-Broad Traps

Read the passage: "In the 1880s, railroad brakemen crossed rooftops of moving cars to tighten wheel brakes by hand, and falls crippled hundreds each year. Couplers required workers to stand between cars to link them with a steel pin, crushing fingers and worse. Repair crews worked on live tracks with no warning system, and brakemen assigned to night runs sometimes fell asleep on top of freight cars in freezing rain. Railroad companies kept no records of these injuries and resisted every proposal for automatic couplers, calling safety devices an unnecessary expense." Which sentence best states the implied main idea?

A passage details a city's program to convert vacant lots into gardens, the volunteer coalition that maintains them, the drop in neighborhood blight complaints, and the produce donated to food pantries. A reader proposes this implied main idea: "Communities can solve social problems." Why is this candidate too broad?

A passage describes college students skipping meals to afford textbooks, students choosing between rent payments and lab fees, students working thirty-hour weeks that cut into study time, and students declining unpaid internships because they cannot afford lost wages. A reader proposes: "Textbooks are overpriced for college students." Why is this candidate too narrow?

Complete the sentence: "The three-step method for finding an implied main idea is: identify the ____, find the common thread among the details, and formulate an umbrella sentence that covers them all."