- [Instructor] In this video, I'm going to give you
a basic overview of the parts of an essay.
For a much more detailed overview,
watch my video series called How To Write An Essay,
Parts One Through Four.
There are different types of essays for different purposes,
but in this video, we're going to review all of the parts
of a five-paragraph essay.
A five-paragraph essay
starts with the introduction paragraph
followed by body paragraphs, one through three,
and finally, the conclusion paragraph.
It's very important to remember that before the essay
comes the prompt or question that the essay answers.
The essay we'll study answers this prompt,
"What is the best type of exercise?
Write an essay to explain your answer."
The first sentence in your essay is called the hook or lead.
This sentence gets readers interested
in reading about your essay topic.
The hook or lead of this essay is,
"People need exercise to stay healthy."
This hook states the topic
and tells readers why exercise is important to them.
The next part of your introduction paragraph
is called the background or bridge.
This is a few sentences that contain facts, numbers,
opinions, or history about the topic
that give readers information they need
to understand your message about the topic.
The reason this part is often called a bridge
is because it takes people from your hook or lead
to the thesis statement,
which is the last sentence in your introduction paragraph.
Let's read this background information.
"Adults should exercise 20 minutes daily,
but most people do not.
Activities like swimming, lifting weights,
and playing sports are often inconvenient or too expensive."
Remember, the main question we're answering
in this essay is what is the best exercise?
These background sentences are preparing the reader
for our answer to that question.
And the last sentence in our introduction paragraph
is called the thesis statement.
The thesis statement tells your main idea about the topic
plus three reasons that you feel that way.
In this thesis statement,
our main idea is that the best type of exercise is walking.
And reason one that we feel that way
is because walking is easy.
Reason two is because walking is convenient.
And reason three is because walking is usually done outside.
After our three reasons are given,
we explain each one in a paragraph that comes next.
We explain reason one in body paragraph one.
So the topic sentence of body paragraph one
tells thesis statement reason number one,
"Walking is easy."
We explain reason two in body paragraph two.
So the topic sentence of body paragraph two
tells thesis statement reason two, "Walking is convenient."
And we explain reason three in body paragraph three.
So the topic sentence of body paragraph three
tells reason three, "Walking is often done outside."
After we give the topic sentence in each of our paragraphs,
we have to explain what we mean in these sentences
and why they're important to our thesis statement
or main idea in our essay.
So in each paragraph, after we state our reason,
we need to explain the reason.
That's where detail sentences come in.
Detail sentences explain the topic sentence
by giving examples, facts,
and reasons that the topic sentence is true.
So let's take body paragraph one,
the one with topic sentence, "Walking is easy."
Let's read those detail sentences.
"When exercise is too difficult, people stop doing it.
However, when exercise is simple, people often enjoy it
and continue to do it.
Also, easy activities cause fewer injuries
and less pain than strenuous activities."
Do you see how we're explaining what we mean
by walking is easy?
We're also explaining how that makes walking
the best type of exercise,
and better than other types of exercises.
We do the same thing in body paragraph two
and body paragraph three.
We take detail sentences that explain the topic sentence
and also explain why that means walking
is the best type of exercise.
After our detail sentences,
we follow up and end each paragraph
with a conclusion sentence.
The conclusion sentence in a paragraph reminds us
of the topic sentence in the paragraph.
So for example, let's look again
at topic sentence number one of body paragraph one,
"Walking is easy."
The conclusion sentence to that paragraph says,
"Walking is good great exercise because it's simple
and pleasant to do."
Simple and pleasant to do is very similar to being easy
for an exercise, right?
So you see how that conclusion sentence ties back
to the topic sentence.
We do the same thing in topic sentence
of body paragraph two, as well as body paragraph three.
And now let's talk about the conclusion paragraph.
By the time you reach the conclusion paragraph,
you have answered the prompt with your main idea
and message about the topic,
and you've explained three reasons that you feel that way.
So in the conclusion paragraph,
you're going to remind readers of your main points
and then end with a strong sentence
that ties back to the thesis statement.
The first sentence in your conclusion paragraph
reviews the thesis statement main idea.
Our thesis statement main idea is
that the best type of exercise is walking.
So the first sentence of our conclusion paragraph says,
"Walking is an ideal exercise."
Do you see how that's very similar
to our thesis statement main idea?
Just using different words.
After that, the second sentence in our paragraph
can remind us of reason number one.
Reason one is that walking is easy.
We don't wanna use the same words
in our conclusion paragraph that we used before.
So we'll rephrase that and say,
"It is easier than many other sports."
The next sentence in our conclusion paragraph
reminds us of reason two, that walking is convenient.
See how we rephrase this idea.
"It is also more convenient than many other activities
as a person can do it almost any time or place."
The next sentence in our conclusion paragraph
reminds us of reason three,
that walking is usually done outside,
"Finally, walking is usually done outside,
which helps people feel happy and less stressed."
And finally, the last sentence of our paragraph
and the final sentence in our essay tell a result,
consequence or recommendation
based on your thesis statement.
So if our thesis statement
is that the best type of exercise is walking,
we can end our essay by saying,
"Everyone who wants regular exercise should try walking."
So those are all of the parts
of a basic five-paragraph essay.
Thanks for watching.