10. what is the purpose of the introduction in an essay? a. to establish the main idea of the essay. b. to focus on current statistics c. to explain the main idea to the reader d. to highlight the most important concepts

A. To establish the main idea of the essay.

Explanation:

The purpose of the introduction in an essay is to meet the reader with the main idea. In the introduction, the author sets the main idea of the essay so readers can see in which direction is the essay going.

The introduction includes the main idea, how it will be developed ( but in the introduction there is no explaining the whole process of the main idea and all the ways of development) and the basic background information which is helpful to the reader to meet up with the topic.

major league baseball

explanation:

jack roosevelt robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball.as he was the first african american to play in the major leagues, jackie robinson became the target of racial abuse. jackie robinson is referring to the historic event, harlem riot.

quite an interesting way to teach topic sentences, because the answer to this question is the best definition of a topic sentence that one can present, it is as if answering the questions taught you how to do it, this is some real teaching, it is terribly well-done.

the topic sentence in this paragraph is:

topic sentences writers stay on track and keep a paragraph from becoming an aimless collection of sentences about an idea.

which incidentally tells you what a topic sentence should be.