hello I'm Jenna and this is learn academic English on this channel I help English Learners take their
language to a higher level especially for school and work in today's lesson I'm going to give you
an overview of the basics of essay writing I know that writing an essay is really important if you
are planning to go to school in English or take an English exam like the IELTS or the TOEFL this
lesson is going to give you the basics of essay writing that means that you can use this formula
to help you write essays in school to write timed essays in class or for exams and many other types
of writing assignments please note that the handout for this lesson is available for you to
download for free there are no strings attached just click on the link in the description box
below and it will take you directly to the Google Doc where you can click file and download if you
would like to keep it also please note that if you would like more connection with me every week you
can become a member of my YouTube channel or you can join my live online classes please check the
link below for more information I would love to have you as one of my students and please don't
forget to give this video some love if you find it helpful okay so let's get into those tips for
how to write a basic essay let's review the basics of essay writing when you write an essay the most
important goal is clear writing that means that your essay must use Clear organization why so the
reader can easily find your main idea and see how you support this main idea in your body paragraphs
basically you don't want anything to be a mystery to your reader in the English AC academic writing
style the idea needs to be crystal clear and the way that you support this idea also needs
to be super super clear that's why we like to use this basic essay organization but keep in
mind that if you're writing a longer essay or maybe a different style of essay that there might
be some changes however this is the most common basic essay organization so first we're going to
look at paragraph one which is the introduction paragraph the introduction paragraph has three
parts first the hook the hook catches the reader's attention this is usually one to three sentences
long a hook might be an interesting question an interesting story a shocking statistic or
fact or an interesting quote and if you want to learn more about how to write a hook B you can
learn all about them in my video that I will link above number two is the background information
the purpose of the background is to provide some general information about the topic and to show
why the topic is important basically it gives your reader a nice overview of what the topic is so
what is the topic and who cares why should we read about this this is usually two to five sentences
and number three is the thesis statement and the thesis statement tells the main idea of your essay
that's one to two sentences usually one sentence this is the most important sentence in your essay
because it tells the reader exactly what your main idea is so it's super important that your
the thesis statement is done correctly and that it is clear if you would like to learn all about
how to write a thesis statement you can check the video that I will link above um I actually
have two videos about thesa statements so look in the description box below for more links to
related videos okay so that's the introduction paragraph let's move on to the body the body of
the essay is the next main section of your essay where you're going to explain and support your
main idea so this is the place where you explain your main idea and you're going to develop your
argument or you're going to develop your idea with clear supporting ideas and how can you support
your ideas you can use details data like numbers statistics examples research facts stories Etc an
example body paragraph should be about 8 to 12 sentences long but some paragraphs are shorter
some paragraphs are longer this is not a rule this is the normal or average size of a paragraph and
your paragraph should have these things first is the topic sentence the topic sentence tells the
topic and controlling idea of your paragraph so what is your paragraph generally about and what
exactly are you going to discuss in your paragraph if you want to learn more about topic sentences I
have a whole video about that and I will try to link it above but also it will be in the
description box below after the topic sentence you should have two to four supporting ideas in your
paragraph and these supporting ideas explain your topic sentence each of those supporting
ideas should include details to make them clear and number three don't forget to use transitions
transitions make a nice flow between ideas so transitions can include words like first of all
another for example for instance therefore in conclusion Etc and I have a video about
transitions too that I will link below and finally the concluding sentence the concluding sentence is
the last sentence of your paragraph and we use this to summarize the paragraph or to transition
to to the next paragraph all right then after you have your body paragraphs and how many body
paragraphs do you have well the most common essay is going to have five paragraphs total so that's
the introduction three body paragraphs and the conclusion paragraph but there is no magic number
for the number of body paragraphs some essays have only two body paragraphs some have four some have
five some have 10 some have 20 it just depends on how much time you have what your writing
assignment is and how big is your topic okay but that's you know usually three body paragraphs um
but it can be definitely more and finally your essay is going to finish with your conclusion
paragraph and the conclusion paragraph should not be long and you should follow these steps
number one restate the thesis statement in some different words so go back to your introduction
paragraph the last sentence of your introduction paragraph is your thesis statement now you're
going to repeat that thesis statement at the beginning of your conclusion but try to use
some different words then your you're going to summarize the main points of the essay try to
repeat the main idea from each body paragraph but use some different words and this can be
two to four sentences long shouldn't be too too long and finally you should finish with a final
thought a final thought is usually a prediction about the future or a suggestion this is usually
short one one to two sentences is enough now the final thought should make the reader stop
and think remember that you are closing your essay here you are finishing your essay so you want to
give the reader some way to feel that the essay is finished that's why you're going to repeat
your main ideas remind the reader what did you talk about the essay is done but then leave the
reader with a little something to think about or a feeling of satisfaction and if you would like
to know more about conclusion paragraphs and see an example I will link a video about that below as
well and finally it's time to practice I have some example topics that I will put in the description
box below you can use those to practice writing an essay at home before you start writing make
sure that you make a small outline to help guide you what are you going to talk about in the first
paragraph what are you going to talk about in the second paragraph and then sit down with
some paper or your computer give yourself one or two hours and just practice writing in no time
you will see that it gets easier and easier now that you know the basics of essay writing I would
like to remind you that writing is a process it takes time to learn how to write well but don't
give up I have had many many students over the years who told me that they would never learn to
write well in English but guess what with hard work and patience they were able to do it and
they became excellent writers in English so I know that you can do it too please check out my writing
playlist for many more lessons about writing and more details about how to write essays I hope to
see you back here again soon let me know if you have question questions and take care