hi it's wendy from worldwidespeak
and today i'd like to talk to you about
the
concluding sentence english language
learners specifically
when you begin writing paragraphs in
english
you are going to need to know how to end
the paragraph
and we end our paragraph with a
concluding
sentence to conclude means to end
so in this video you're going to learn
how to write a fantastic concluding
sentence to
end your paragraph well you ready
let's learn all right so what is a
concluding sentence let's go over the
main
parts that you need to have
in order to have a strong concluding
sentence
well first of all it's the last sentence
of the paragraph remember i just said
that to conclude means to
end well a concluding sentence ends
your paragraph it typically begins with
a transition word that signals to the
reader
hey this is the end of my thought or
this is the
end of my paragraph
it also can restate the topic sentence
remember your topic sentence talks about
your main topic
your main idea and the controlling idea
which narrows the focus of your
paragraph
it would just remind the reader about
your topic and your controlling idea
and also the concluding sentence can
leave the reader thinking about
something that you wrote
like a prediction a suggestion
an opinion we want the reader not only
to
read your paragraph but we want them to
think about your paragraph so when you
think about
writing a strong concluding sentence
think about it like a gift right the
main
idea is the present you know it's inside
the gift but we
end that gift by wrapping it with a bow
and the concluding sentence like that
bow wraps up
your paragraph like the bow wraps up
that present you're going to give
somebody so
how do i write a concluding
sentence let's take a look at a topic
sentence for
a paragraph about training for a
marathon
the topic sentence reads training for a
marathon
involves a lot of discipline right
training for the marathon is our topic
it's the subject of our paragraph but we
needed to focus
a little bit more because that's a
pretty big topic
and so we focused on the fact that it
takes a lot of
discipline so in our paragraph
we wrote about all the ways that you
have to be disciplined or that you have
to be really focused
in order to train for a marathon
well what would a good concluding
sentence look like
for this paragraph all right so this
concluding sentence
begins with a transition word like i
mentioned
before one of the pieces we need for a
strong concluding sentence
it restates the topic
of the paragraph but uses synonyms
or uses different words actually here i
i wrote out the number 26.2
to represent the word marathon so i
wasn't repeating the word marathon
and then it also revisits the
controlling idea
to remind the reader about what they
read
in your paragraph and instead of saying
a lot of discipline i chose to rephrase
that
something that means a similar thing but
uses
different words again and i wrote a
great
deal of hard work and then what i also
did
is you can see in the topic sentence the
topic is first
and the controlling idea is second
in my concluding sentence i just
switched that order
again to provide some more variety so
i'm not repeating
the topic sentence exactly because that
would be
really boring for your reader and they
might just
finish your paragraph quickly and not
stay
thinking about it like you want them to
do
and also one more thing at the end i
added the
fact that you make it across the finish
line so that
it leaves an image of a marathon runner
crossing the finish line in the mind of
the reader so that image stays with them
a little bit longer after they've read
your paragraph
okay let's go over some of the tips
i mentioned for a strong concluding
sentence first of all
use synonyms use words that are similar
to the ones you use in your topic
sentence but not
the same you want to change the wording
around
so that it's still interesting all the
way to the
end of your paragraph like i did in the
example
previously when i said instead of saying
a lot of discipline
i said a great deal of hard work
now you should also use some sort of
transition word to begin
your sentence and that tells the reader
hey i'm ending this paragraph
so it's nice because like the
transitions there are bridges between
your sentences
so that your sentences flow together
really well
and when that transition is there it
causes
the flow to be really smooth
for the reader and they realize
the paragraph is ending and i'm prepared
then you also can switch the order
of the topic and the controlling idea
like in the previous example i had
training for a marathon
and a lot of discipline and then i just
switched the order
in the concluding sentence and i put a
great deal of hard work
first and then running 26.2 miles
and when we switch up that order it
creates variety
and again it makes the sentence more
interesting and lastly
you want to give the reader something to
think about at the end
you're not just writing this paragraph
for no reason
your paragraph has a purpose and it's
always to get
into the mind of your reader and when
you have a super strong
concluding sentence that reader
continues to think about what you wrote
for a while
after they've finished reading and you
want them to be thinking about
what you wrote because let's say you
wrote
an opinion paragraph and you want to
change their mind
and your concluding sentence is super
strong
well they're going to think about your
opinion and maybe
they'll change their mind to agree with
you i'd like to take a moment here
to include some transitions
for a concluding sentence
conclusion transitions these are not all
of them
but these are some that will help you
strengthen
your writing by including them
in your concluding sentence we have as a
result
clearly finally
for these reasons in brief
in some in the end overall
and thus and i'd like you to notice that
there is a comma
after all of these transition words
that's super important because without
the comma
your sentence is grammatically incorrect
a lot of times when my students
are starting out and they start writing
transitions and they're starting
writing paragraphs in english i just
tell them
to pick the transition that they can
spell easily and once they've mastered
that then they can move on to the next
one
so don't feel overwhelmed by all of
these transition words just pick one or
two to start out with
get comfortable using and then you can
move on to using other ones
next i'd like to just give you a few
example
concluding sentences with some of these
transitions
for example in brief
these steps make it very easy to save
money
each month this is a concluding sentence
probably for a paragraph
about um ways that you can save money
each month
another one in the end chicago is a
fantastic vacation spot during the
summer
so this paragraph was probably um an
opinion paragraph trying to convince
somebody
to go to chicago for a vacation
in the summer and lastly we have
thus staying out of debt has numerous
advantages again probably a paragraph
discussing why you should stay out of
debt
um and how it's a good thing in your
life
so you can see here we have a bunch of
transition words
and then we have a few examples so feel
free to pause the video and take a
screenshot of this
or write them down so that you can start
using them
in your writing as soon as possible the
second part of this video i want to go
over four different concluding
sentences that are used in different
types of paragraphs i think this will
help you get
a better understanding of what the
concluding sentence is
and what it looks like in different
types of paragraphs
the more examples we go through the
better off you'll be
in internalizing this information and
then
using it on your own so first let's say
i were writing a descriptive
paragraph and it's going to describe
this dish i talk about to the reader
the topic sentence is my favorite
childhood dish was my mom's chicken
marbella
the topic is the childhood dish the
controlling idea is the
chicken marbella now if i'm just going
to write a simple
beginning concluding sentence it would
look like
this thus when i cook this fabulous
recipe
i forever remember my mother and how her
chicken marbella
was so special as you can see here
i restate the topic i talk about the
recipe
instead of using the word dish i use the
word recipe
and and then instead of using my mom's
chicken marbella
i use the pronoun her just to make it a
little bit different
and so this concluding sentence
is a pretty simple one it just restates
the topic sentence it uses some synonyms
and it leaves the reader with a feeling
of how
wonderful and how special that dish was
let's take a look at another one this is
for a compare
contrast paragraph that shows how two
cities are alike
let's look at the topic sentence chicago
and houston have
many similar qualities the topic
chicago and houston and our controlling
idea
our focus of the paragraph was showing
similarities
another basic concluding sentence would
look like this
in sum there are a great deal of
similarities between
the windy city and h-town
what i did here i use the transition in
sum
and i put the controlling idea first to
give a little more variety
and instead of saying similar qualities
i say
a great deal of similarities synonym
there
and then um i refer to the topic
second and that's chicago and houston
but i use
the nicknames for those cities which is
the windy city for chicago and h-town
for houston to give my sentence more
variety and to make it more interesting
for the reader
okay let's look at a couple more this
one
is for a process paragraph that will
show you
what you have to do to obtain your
driver's license
the topic sentence reads there are a
variety of steps needed
in order to get your driver's license
well
the topic or the subject of the
paragraph is getting the driver's
license right
and we narrow that focus down with our
controlling idea
of the steps so what would a good
concluding sentence look like it would
look like
this finally you will have
no problems obtaining your driver's
license when you
follow these steps well
i have restated the topic and instead of
using the word get
i use obtain again a little variety
a synonym and then
for the controlling idea a variety of
steps i
say follow these steps
just to make it again a little bit
different
and then i put a third piece in this
concluding sentence
to make a little prediction so that my
reader is thinking about my paper
when they finish or my paragraph when
they finish
i say you will have no problems
so that's making a prediction for the
reader
if you read my paragraph and you follow
these steps exactly
you are not going to have any problems
when you go
to get your driver's license and last
let's talk about the opinion paragraph
this will show
why cell phones are useful at school
my topic sentence cell phones can be
useful learning tools in the classroom
so
that's my opinion and i'm trying to
convince you
the topic is cell phones
and the focus of the paragraph is to
show that they are
useful learning tools in the classroom
so our concluding sentence would look
like this
and it would read clearly with all of
the engaging
hands-on learning that takes place when
utilizing cell phones as part of the
curriculum
educators should start using them today
now let's take a look at this more
closely
we have cell phones that we use again
restating the topic
and we use the same word because pretty
much that's
the only word that we can use for cell
phones we could use another one but it
might actually be a little confusing
because we were specifically just
talking about cell phones and not all
electronic devices
and then the controlling idea instead of
saying useful learning tools i go a step
further
to describe how they're useful and i say
that they're good for engaging hands
on learning and i show
how it's a useful tool actually in the
sentence and then lastly
i leave the reader with a suggestion
and that means i want them to think
about using these cell phones you know
maybe i have an educator reading my
paper and they think oh
after reading this paragraph i'm going
to start using cell phones in my
classroom
and so i say educators should start
using them today and that is my
suggestion for the reader
so you can see here we've restated the
topic and controlling idea and then
left the reader with something to
think about all right so to recap
what is the job of the concluding
sentence
well the first thing we have here is
that the it shows the reader that it's
coming to an
end and we often do this by using a
transition word remember i had gone over
a bunch of them in this video
second we want to remind the reader of
the topic
and we restate the topic sentence
and we do that by using synonyms we use
different words and we often switch the
order of
topic and controlling idea and lastly
we want to keep them thinking about our
writing after they've read it
we can do this by giving an opinion a
suggestion
or a prediction so there you have it
thinking about the concluding sentence
you want to remember these points and
also remember
like the bow on a package it
wraps up your paragraph and makes it not
only
interesting but also super strong
thank you so much for learning with us
and if you have
any questions about this concluding
sentence or any confusion
please drop me a note down below and i
will be happy to help you
thank you so much take care