Hey there!
It's Wendy again from Worldwide Speak.
This video is Part 3
in a series on
Writing an Essay in English for
English Language Learners.
This video specifically covers
the body paragraph.
Maybe you have to write an essay for school,
and you're not exactly sure of the structure
of a body paragraph,
or even the types of words you should be using
in a body paragraph.
This video
clears up any questions that you might have
about writing a basic body paragraph
in English. Keep watching!
OK. So, in this video I'm going to answer
three questions that you might have
about writing the body paragraph or paragraphs.
Why do we write the body paragraph?
What's its purpose or what's its job
that it has to do in the essay?
And what is the overall structure
of a body paragraph?
How do I write a body paragraph
so that the
reader has an easy time
following what I'm trying to say.
And, lastly,
how do we do this?
When we write, we are going to use special words
called - transition words -
inside of the body paragraph so that the reader
knows exactly what we're talking about
and follows a logical sequence
so that when they're reading
it's very easy
for them to understand
the exact point that you're trying to make.
So, think of the body paragraph
or body paragraphs like a rectangle
that looks like this one here
in the slide.
And that's how you need to think
about your body paragraph.
It's the box that's going to hold
all of your reasons and your examples
that explain to the reader
why your topic is so important.
These are the details
that make your paper strong.
These are super important
for your paper.
And that's why the body paragraph
looks like a box that can hold a lot of
wonderful information.
Let's talk about the purpose of a body paragraph.
What is the main purpose of
the body paragraph, or what's it main job?
What does it have to do inside the essay?
Well, let's review the introduction paragraph
that we talked about in Part 2 of the Essay Overview.
That was the job of the introduction paragraph.
The job of the body paragraph is different.
The job of the body paragraph is to provide the reader
with super strong support for your topic.
This support comes from the reasons
and the examples that you give
inside this paragraph.
These are the details
that paint a picture for the reader
inside of their mind so they can clearly
understand the point
that you're trying to make in your writing.
Ok, so we talked about the job of the body paragraph.
It's job is to give the strong support
for your topic.
Now, let's talk about the actual structure
of the body paragraph.
The body paragraph starts out with a topic sentence.
It gives your first reason
for why this topic is important
and then it gives a very specific example.
It gives another reason -
more support - with an example.
And sometimes we even provide
a third reason with an example.
And it finishes up
with a concluding sentence.
Now, the topic sentence
is the sentence that helps the reader
focus on this specific paragraph.
It's a way to give them directions about
what you're going to be writing about
inside this body paragraph.
The reason gives support to your body paragraph.
It's why it's important.
And then the example is crucial.
Because this gives very, very
specific detail
to support the reason and show the reader
why this reason is so important
and it paints a picture
inside of their mind so they can visualize
what you are explaining.
And the concluding sentence,
this just restates the focus
of the paragraph -to remind the reader
that we were talking about this one, specific thing
inside of this body paragraph.
Why don't you read it with me.
So, in this essay, our job
is to convince the reader
that Chicago is the best option
to choose when visiting cities in the United States
because of architecture,
restaurants, and museums. So now,
let's take a look at what we would write
in order to have the body paragraph next.
Let's review the structure of the body paragraph
first before we begin to write one.
We have the topic sentence,
reason number one,
example number one,
reason number two, example number two,
and if you need one,
reason number three, example number three,
and a concluding sentence.
So, remembering the introduction paragraph
and talking about Chicago
and it being the best to visit,
what would our topic sentence look like?
We could write something like this:
Right?! We've got reason number one,
reason number two, and reason number three
that support to give the reader -
to convince them to go to Chicago.
So what was our first reason? Do you remember?
It was about the architecture .
We could write something like this:
Then, how would we give a
detail about this reason
to paint a picture in the mind of the reader?
We might choose to write something
like this:
That paints a picture
inside the mind of the reader.
And you did that with words.
It's very, very specific.
And those details
are what make your body paragraph
super strong.
And then, what about that concluding sentence?
We want to remind the reader of our focus
and just kind of
restating the topic sentence.
We could choose to write something like this:
And, in case you didn't know,
the nickname for Chicago is
"the Windy City".
It was nice to use its nickname
instead of repeating the word "Chicago"
over and over and over.
So, in the last slide,
I just gave one reason and one example.
And I wanted to show you
what a complete body paragraph
would look like
when you gave all three reasons
and all three examples.
Again, why don't you read this with me.
Something that's really important to remember
about the body paragraph is that you need to
If you tell the reader
that you're going to talk about architecture
restaurants and museums,
then that's the ONLY thing that you can talk about
in this paragraph.
You can't write about really great parks
or incredible, um,
hotels because it's not
part of your focus.
Your focus in this paragraph was only -
architecture, restaurants,
and museums.
You have to really remember
the body paragraph - remember -
is a box
about one specific thing.
And in that topic sentence, you tell the reader
exactly what you're going to talk about.
So remember - stay focused in your body paragraph.
Now, within that body paragraph,
we use specific words
so that the reader can follow along easily.
These are called transition words.
And when we have reasons,
some of the transition words that we use
- these aren't all of them -
these are just a few examples what we use.
And then, when we have examples,
we can use transition words like this:
And I'd like you to also pay close attention
to the punctuation
after these words.
When it's
First, or Second, Secondly, Third,
Last, Finally,
For the reasons, you have a comma.
It's really important that you remember the comma.
The only ones that don't have a comma
is when we begin the sentence:
The first reason is that or
The second reason is that
or The last reason is that
We do the same thing in the examples.
After all of these transition words,
we have a comma.
You need to remember the comma
in order for it to be correct.
These words are very important
in your writing.
They signal to the reader
the order and logical sequence
of your writing, and it helps the reader
follow along very easily.
And they also help you
organize your writing
so that you can write clearly
and effectively.
So, let's look at the transition words in our
in our example body paragraph.
If we highlight these,
you can see the order they're in.
First, Second, Last,
Those words help the reader
follow along easily.
The words are like directions for the reader.
First, I am going to tell you about this.
Second, I am going to tell you about something else.
Last, I am going to give you an additional reason.
And then, we also use
transition words for our examples
to give our details, and it
explains to the reader:
Hey, I am going to give you a
really specific detail
that you're going to be able to think about
in your mind while your reading my essay.
We use: For example,
Specifically, and For instance
in this example body paragraph.
And those three transition words
tell the reader - Hold on!
Stop! Let me paint a picture of this
in your mind
with words.
As you can see,
when we highlight these transition words
in the body paragraph, they're crucial
for the order
and sequence of your writing.
The reader needs them, and you need them.
I though this picture might help you.
It's one I took a while ago when I was teaching
in the classroom. Hopefully, you can read
my handwriting. But, feel free to pause the video
and look at what I wrote up on the board.
It has the introduction,
body paragraph, and conclusion paragraphs.
This was for a descriptive essay.
But, I also show the structure
and then exactly
the transitions that you need
within your body paragraph.
All right, let's review.
What was the purpose of the body paragraph?
What was it's job?
It's job was to provide strong support
and we did this with reasons and examples
which gave the details to paint a picture
in the mind of the reader.
What was the structure of the body paragraph?
Do you remember?
We started with the Topic Sentence
and then we gave Reasons and Examples
to support
the Topic Sentence and the overall topic
of the essay.
And we finished with a concluding sentence.
And last, we talked about transition words.
We had transition words
for reasons.
And we had transition words
for examples.
These are just
a few of the transition words that you can use
when you get started in writing.
Please pay close attention
to the punctuation when you use
some of these transition words.
For the most part,
we have a comma after the transition word.
These words are very important to your writing.
They are the signals
that keep the reader focused.
And they also help you
organize your writing
in a logical and sequential and thoughtful way,
which makes your body paragraph much stronger
and very easy to read.
Now, remember, this is just
a basic overview of
why we write it,
what the structure is, and
how we use transition words.
Your body paragraph might look different
depending on the type of essay you're writing.
But, this is a great foundation for you,
the English Language Learner,
so that you can start your writing
in a clear, logical, and thoughtful manner.
Thank you for watching!
And make sure not to miss the next video
on the Conclusion Paragraph.
Take care!