Glossary
main idea
The main idea is the claim a passage was written to deliver — broad enough to cover every paragraph, narrow enough that no paragraph sits outside it.
The main idea is the claim a passage was written to deliver, stated broadly enough to cover every paragraph and narrowly enough that no paragraph sits outside it. It is not the topic. A passage about hand hygiene has a topic, and its main idea is what the passage says about that topic — that soap lifts germs off the skin rather than only killing them. Two tests decide a candidate. The coverage test asks whether a single paragraph falls outside the idea, which means it is too narrow. The scope test asks whether the idea needs information from another page to make sense, which means it is too broad. A question may ask for the idea directly, or ask for a title that carries it, and both are answered the same way: write the point in your own words first, then look for the option that says it. A true detail from the passage is a tempting wrong choice, because it is recognisable without being the point.
Taught in
Related terms
- inference — An inference is a conclusion the passage supports without stating — one step past the text, using only what the text gives.
- text structure — Text structure is the outline a passage is built on — sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or problem and solution — and naming it tells you where the claim sits.
- supporting detail — A supporting detail is a fact, example or reason that holds up the main idea of a passage rather than adding a new point of its own.
- author purpose — Author purpose is the reason a passage was written — to inform, to explain, to persuade, to entertain or to describe.
- summary — A summary states the main idea and the few details needed to support it, in your own words and much shorter than the original.
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)