hi welcome again to inkvid.com i'm adam
today's lesson is about the paragraph
it's a writing lesson and i want to show
people what a paragraph is and how to
construct one what to do what not to do
so you can write very clear very tight
paragraphs this is especially important
for ielts toefl sat students but
everybody has to follow the exact same
rules now before i even begin i must say
that i'm talking mostly about academic
writing or even business writing
creative writing like novels or short
stories anything fiction you can do
anything you want
only always remember somebody has to
read what you wrote so it has to be
clear
but academic essays for example
certain rules you have to follow you
have to be very careful about them so
let's begin
in terms of like the actual way a
paragraph looks
you have to indent
or skip a line so let me just make sure
you understand what an indent is
this is an indent the first line a
little bit pushed in
or you can make sure you skip a line
between paragraphs but
don't do both
if you skip a line don't indent okay
that's the main thing now that's in
terms of the way it looks
in terms of content and this i can't
stress this enough
very very very important
one central idea in one paragraph okay
i've seen many people i've seen many
essays where you start a paragraph
talking about one thing
and then you go off on a tangent to talk
about something completely unrelated so
for example if you start a paragraph and
you're talking about apples
continue to talk about apples
if you go to oranges that's maybe okay
because you're still talking about fruit
but if you start with apples go to
oranges go to bananas and then end up
with monkeys in space there's a bit of a
problem the reader has no idea what
you're talking about
one paragraph one central idea
now make sure that you tell the reader
what this central idea is this is your
thesis statement
okay it's a very general sentence
all it does is introduce the topic of
the paragraph nothing else
all the details come after
so
speaking of
details we'll talk about details in
detail but all other ideas all the other
sentences all your sentences with the
details
must directly relate back to the main
idea so let's say here is your
thesis statement very general
every sentence after
must relate back
to
that
thesis statement okay you can't go off
to another idea everything must support
this must talk about the same topic
very important okay
how long should your paragraph be
technically a paragraph could be one
sentence but in an academic essay that
rarely happens
but it could be any length you want as
long as you're still on that one topic
as long as you still have things to
write and things to say about that topic
say it
if you have four sentences fine if you
have ten sentences also okay
again for ielts toefl sat students four
or five sentences should be your limit
you can't be too long because you don't
have time and you're going to start
making mistakes so
now the details
very important to have lots of details
why is this topic important to your
overall idea of your essay
not only tell me what is the topic what
is the thesis statement of the paragraph
make sure you explain to me why this is
important to the
general idea of the essay
give me reasons
now why is it important and then reasons
why you think
what you're saying supports this idea
examples always use examples because
give me the reasons is okay examples
make me see exactly what you're trying
to say very easy for me to understand
what you're trying to say
now in terms of flow in terms of the way
the reader can approach the paragraph
you have to have bridges what is what do
bridges mean basically
when you have one idea in this sentence
you must connect it to the next sentence
every sentence must have a link to the
next sentence this creates flow makes it
much easier to read and understand and
it keeps you on the one topic
now
key terms if you're talking about
something specific and you have to use a
key term use it as many times as you
need to
otherwise avoid repetition
try not to use the same word more than
once in one paragraph okay for example
if you're using the word moreover in the
paragraph don't use in it don't use more
over again use in addition to use
furthermore another etc
try to avoid using one word more than
once especially in the same paragraph
but sometimes you'll get words like for
example you're writing an essay about
parents
not many words you can replace for
parents so if you have to say parents
parents parents parents
so be it do that once in a while mom and
dad mother and father but you don't want
to have like mother and father three
words parents one word shorter is better
so keep that in mind
at the end of your paragraph when you're
coming to the end
if this is part of your body means
there's another paragraph coming
leave me some sort of bridge
to the next paragraph
or if you can't do that then just
conclude the paragraph make sure it's a
very clear
statement that this idea is finished i'm
done talking about this idea and then
start your next paragraph with some
bridge to the previous one so one
paragraph
connects to the next paragraph same idea
with flow sentence connects the sentence
paragraph connects to paragraph okay now
of course the easiest way to understand
all this is to look at an actual
paragraph and see all these points in it
okay so let's do that
okay don't be scared this is a paragraph
okay
first before we do anything let me read
it to you so in case you can't see it
clearly
great changes require a powerful hand to
guide them and push them forward
governments have the power and influence
of the law to support them
moreover they have access to means with
which to enforce the law and punish
offenders
individuals and corporations that
pollute our air and waters will not stop
doing so as long as they can profit from
this action and do not fear consequences
a steel producer for instance will not
cease dumping waste in a nearby river if
it does not affect its bottom line
taxing this company on the other hand
might make it change its ways its way of
doing business
yet it is this very question of cost
that limits anyone but the government to
act against pollution okay here's my
paragraph first of all let me back up a
little bit
my essay what is my essay about
general topic pollution
what is the question who is responsible
to fix it i say government is
responsible to fix it i suggested three
reasons in my introduction
power cost credibility okay this is my
first body paragraph
i listed three reasons power cost
credibility my first paragraph will also
be my first reason mentioned i mentioned
power in my introduction i will talk
about power in my first paragraph okay
so first of all i have my indent
okay i prefer indent some people prefer
spacing
but to be honest
figure out what style guide your
professor or your company or whoever is
asking you to use there is mla apa
chicago manual of style each of them
will tell you how to do this to indent
or to leave a line et cetera
capitalization style guides are actually
very good sources of learning english
very boring books but very useful books
okay
oh sorry let me just mention also owl
owl at purdue is a very good website
lots of information to help you with
writing okay so i have my indent now
great changes require a powerful hand to
guide them and push them forward have i
said anything here no
all i did was talk about change because
that's what my general topic of the
essay is and power
because that's my first focus i'm going
to talk about the power okay very very
general
governments have the power and influence
of the law
so now here we go i had where did i go
powerful and i'm still talking about
power
i'm connecting the two sentences
next i introduce a new idea the law much
more specific where does their power
come from it comes from the law
influence of the law to support them
moreover now i'm not going to a new idea
i'm adding
to the this idea that i just mentioned
they have access to means
means uh
ways of doing things
with with which to enforce the law so
here again another idea enforced means
put into effect make sure that it
actually happens
enforce the law and punish offenders
so they have the power of the law with
this power they can enforce and punish
everything i'm connecting everything to
everything
offenders now here i'm talking about
offenders
individuals and corporations that
pollute these are the offenders so one
sentence flows into the next sentence
into the next sentence
pluto air and waters will not stop doing
so as long as they can profit okay so
here's my next idea they will not stop
polluting because we're still talking
about pollution okay
they will not as long as they can profit
as long as they're making money why do
people pollute because it pays to
pollute
action and do not fear consequences so
they don't fear punishment and the law
doesn't scare them
okay and again we're still talking about
pollution a steel producer for instance
i'm introducing an example okay if you
can introduce a real example like uh the
name of the steel company even better
but i don't want to offend anyone i'm
keeping it a little bit more general
the steel producer will not cease now
before
here's the word stop
i don't want to use the word stop again
why because i have other words i have
the word cease cease means stop
okay
vocabulary variety very important
well nazis dumping means throwing in or
throwing away waste in a nearby river
waste pollution i'm still on the same
topic
if it does not affect its bottom line
now i'm not sure if everybody knows what
bottom line is but bottom line basically
means profit i'm still connecting the
ideas using different words
taxing this company so taxing
is a form of punishment
for companies especially
taxing this company on the other hand so
now i'm giving the other side of the
situation
might make it change its way of doing
business
again what is business business is all
about making money
costs
yet it is this very question of cost and
i'm connecting it sorry to business
that limits anyone but the government
to act against pollution i bring it
right back to government acting against
pollution this is my overall thesis
governments must act to stop pollution
right so remember
the paragraph everything must connect to
itself but the paragraph must connect to
the essay to the whole idea
now what else did i do here i introduced
the topic of costs
what is my next paragraph going to be
remember i had three reasons for
thinking government must act power
cost
credibility my next paragraph is cost
i've already introduced this idea i've
crea i've started the bridge in the next
paragraph i will end the bridge get into
my new topic
costs and power are two different ideas
one paragraph power
one paragraph cost
one paragraph credibility and then of
course your conclusion okay so you have
all these things everything connects
sentence variety
make sure that you're sticking to one
topic make sure you're preparing the
reader for the next topic and make sure
that everything connects to the overall
idea of the essay okay
if you need some more help with this and
you want to have some more questions go
to inkvid.com you can leave me a comment
and i will get back to you there will
also be a little bit of a quiz there to
make sure you understand all this
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you