Is the pronoun 'it' used correctly in this sentence?

I have come across a sentence in which the pronoun 'it' occurs but seems to have no antecedent, and I think it should be omitted:

  • A controlling idea: what the writer is going to focus on it in the paragraph.

For more context, here is the page of the school English textbook from which I quoted. A page taken from a school English Textbook


The pronoun it in the sentence

A controlling idea: What the writer is going to focus on it in the paragraph.

is unnecessary and ungrammatical.

Such pronouns, which are usually but not always in a relative clause, are called resumptive pronouns. This is a grammatical feature of some languages, but not English.

An exception in English is the informal resumptive pronoun in statements such as following, with the resumptive it:

This virus, it's such a tragedy.

Your sentence should be rewritten without the pronoun as:

A controlling idea: What the writer is going to focus on in the paragraph.

Alternatively:

A controlling idea is what the writer is going to focus on in the paragraph.

Wikipedia has this on resumptive pronouns in English and other languages.