Hi! It's Wendy from Worldwide Speak,
and in this video I'm going to show
the English language learner,
that's you,
how to write a process paragraph.
I'm going to go over the structure of the paragraph
and exactly what you need inside
the paragraph for it to be clear and
effective.
Let's learn.
Ok, so what is the purpose
of a process paragraph?
The purpose is to explain how
to do something in a chronological order
or in logical steps.
For example, it might
be explaining how to save money,
how to train for a marathon,
or even how to bake a cake.
There are three really important parts
of your paragraph
The first is you
need a very clear topic
sentence so your reader
completely understands
what you're talking about.
You are going to have to have steps to
complete the process.
You're probably going to want to include
at least four steps
so that
each part of the process is broken down
and clearly explained.
And last,
you're going to need a conclusion sentence
that reminds the reader of your topic
sentence and wraps up the paragraph.
So a lot of times my students ask: "Wendy,
what is the structure of this
paragraph? What does it look like?"
"What are the pieces I need
to make a strong process
paragraph?"
This is what you need.
You need a topic sentence.
That tells the reader what you will be teaching them.
You need the steps,
and the steps give clear,
simple instructions one at a time.
It tells the reader what to do,
and then you explain a little bit more.
And last,
you have the conclusion sentence.
And that restates your topic
and wraps up the paragraph.
Let's talk about this
topic sentence.
It's really important that your
topic sentence is clear
and explains exactly what you will be teaching
your reader.
This is the first sentence of the paragraph.
It tells the reader what your
topic is, and it gives directions.
It needs to tell the process that
will be explained in the paragraph and make a point.
This is how you need to write your topic sentence.
Here's an example:
"If you want to give a successful presentation,
make sure you follow these steps."
Now,
my topic is a successful presentation.
Your topic might be different.
All you need to do is tell the reader
what your topic is, and then you need to
tell your reader to follow the steps.
Every topic sentence will be similar
for the process paragraph.
That way it's very clear
to the reader. You could have
for example:
"If you want to save money,
you need to follow these steps."
Or: "If you want to run
a marathon,
you must follow these steps."
So depending on what your topic is, that will change,
but the structure of your topic sentence
will always be the same.
Now, we need to talk about the steps.
When you're
giving the reader the steps,
it's crucial
that you use transition words.
When we have these steps,
we need them in a chronological order
or a logical order.
And transition words are the words
that signal to the reader:
"oh! I need to follow this,
and I can keep it organized in my mind
while I read because these words
are my signals for order."
For the second step we can use "second"
or "next."
For the third step we can use "third"
"next"
or "then."
If you used
"next" for your second step, make sure
not to use "next" for the third step.
You don't want to use the same transition word
two times in a row
because that is confusing.
And for the fourth step
we can use "finally" or
"last."
Ok. So we talked about the
topic sentence.
We talked about the steps
and using transition words.
Now let's talk about the concusion sentence.
This is the last sentence of your
paragraph.
It restates or
says in different words
the topic sentence and wraps up the paragraph.
We need to make sure to use
a transition word to begin this sentence,
such as "to sum up,"
"in short," "to conclude," or
"in conclusion."
These transition words, remember from
the slide before, these transition words
are really important.
They are signals to the reader, and when you
use these specific transition words:
"to sum up," "in short,"
"to conclude" or "in conclusion,"
it tells the reader: "oh
this is the end."
"This is going to finish with this sentence."
So if you remember the topic sentence from
the beginning, it was:
"If you want to give a successful presenation,
make sure you follow these steps."
Now, in order to write the
conclusion sentence, we need to say
the same thing, but we want to change
the- the words
that we're using and possibly the order of the sentence.
Let me show you how to do that.
We begin with a transition word. Right?
"To sum up,"
and what I did is I just took
the last part
of the topic sentence and started my
conclusion sentence with it.
"..when you follow these specific steps,"
(I added the word "specific")
and then I wrote: "you will have an incredible
presentation."
And I changed
the adjective. I went from "successful" to
"incredible," and it has
almost exactly the same meaning.
It's just a little bit different.
So even though we changed the order
of the sentence and a couple words,
the meaning is the same.
Now,
we also need to remember there is specific grammar
we use in the process paragraph.
First I'm going to talk about imperative.
Imperatives are used to give commands
and orders.
The form of the verb used for the
imperative is the base form of the verb,
and it's used without a subject.
That's important to remember. You're not going to use
a subject. You're just going to start with a verb.
For example,
here is a sentence using imperatives:
"Walk to the end of the block,
turn left,
and cross the street."
As you can see: base form of the verb,
"walk,"
"turn,"
"cross,"
but there is no subject before
the imperative.
The second grammar point I'd like to talk about are
phrases for advice.
Remember, you're explaining a
process so you're telling people what to do.
We often use "should" plus
the base form of a verb,
for example:
"You should get a good night sleep
before your presentation."
We use "had better"
plus the base form of a verb,
for example: "You had better
practice a lot before your presentation."
And last we use "need to" plus
the base form of the verb.
For example:
"You need to explain your topic
very well."
When you use these phrases in your paper,
it helps the reader realize
you're giving them directions.
So let's take a look at
what this would look like
if we were going to write it.
Now, my topic is giving
a successful presentation, so we
already know my topic sentence, right?
"If you want to give a successful presentation,
make sure you follow these steps."
Now,
for the first step I'm going to use the transition word
"first,"
and I'm going to use an imperative.
"First, practice a lot."
The first part of your step, you're going to
have a transition word, and then an imperative.
And then I'm going to add a second sentence that
explains it a little bit more.
We want more detail. Because if we just have
a paragraph with imperative, imperative, imperative,
imperative, one:
it's really boring. And two:
it's not very clear. We need
to expand on each
direction or imperative.
So in mine, I wrote:
"You need to go over the presentation
many times at home
to make sure you have it memorized.
So what I have done is that I have given the direction,
and then I've expanded on it
in order to paint a picture of it
in the mind of the reader. And I used
specific and detailed examples to
show the reader exactly what I'm talking about.
So for the steps, you have the transition word,
the imperative, and then you have a sentence or two
following that to make it
more descriptive and more clear.
And last we have my conclusion sentence.
I use a transition word
specifically for ending the paragraph.
I chose "to sum up,"
and then we- remember we just switched the order
of the topic sentence and changed a couple of words.
So it reads: "To sum up,
when you follow these specific steps,
you will have an incredible presentation."
So let's look at the paragraph how you
would write it for school.
The paragraph is complete, and I have it here.
Why don't we read it together?
"If you want to give a successful presentation,
make sure you follow these steps.
First,
practice a lot. You had better go
over the presentation many times at home
to make sure you have it memorized.
Second, explain your topic
clearly. You should organize
your presentation so that it is easy
for the listeners to understand.
Next,
go to bed early the night before
the presentation. You need enough sleep in
order to feel well rested and relaxed for the big day.
Last, get to the presentation early.
This will give you enough time to practice the
presentation and to make sure that you have
everything that you need.
Also, if there is a problem
this allows you time to fix it.
To sum up, when you follow these specific
steps, you will have an incredible
presentation."
Now let's look at this again, and I
have highlighted and underlined
the really important pieces
that you must have in your process paragraph
so that it is clear and effective.
So I have
highlighted all of the transition words that I used
in my example.
We have "first," "second,"
"next,"
"last," and "to sum up."
You have to have those pieces
for your steps and your conclusion sentence.
Then I went back
and I underlined and I bolded all all of the um
phrases of advice
and the imperatives.
So, as I said before,
you have your transition word for the steps
like "first," and
then I underlined the word "practice"-
that's an imperative.
And then in the detail sentence,
I underlined "had better go over"
and that's giving people advice
about what they need to do or the should do or
they had better do.
Then I used "second,"
"explain,"
"should organize,"
"next,"
"go," "need to get,"
"last,"
"arrive," and "to sum up."
These are really crucial to your writing.
Make sure that you understand this and that you
use them in your paragraph.
To review,
your process paragraph needs a
clear topic sentence.
You must include steps to complete this process.
I recommend at least four steps.
In those steps you need to use transition words,
imperatives, and phrases for advice.
And lastly, you have the
conclusion sentence, which has a transition
and then restates the topic sentence.
You can do this!
Now you know how to write a clear and
effective process paragraph.
For more English resources you can always visit our
website at worldwidespeak.com.
Like I said, I know you can write
a fantastic process paragraph
after watching this video and following these steps.
Thank you so much for watching. Take care.