How to write a basic paragraph

2,816,536 views ・ 2013-10-04

English with Ronnie


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hello. Do you know how to write a basic paragraph? This is not only for ESL students. This is
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for everyone around the world, even if you speak English, even if you don't speak English.
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This is a very, very beautiful, basic lesson on how to write small, short, beautiful paragraphs.
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"How to Write a Basic Paragraph". Now, I also want you to be very careful. This is not how
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to write a 200-word essay for your university exam. We don't have enough time in the world
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for me to teach you that, and I probably forget. So this is, very simply, how to write a basic
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English paragraph. One, two, three, four rules. Rule No. 1 is:
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Indent, indent. What does "indent" mean? Indent, basically, means -- I learned this when I
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was a child -- you take your finger. You can have a big finger, a small finger -- I don't
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care. You take your finger or two fingers, and you make a little space like so. This is called an "indentation" or
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"indent". So "indent" means you leave a space at the very first line of the paragraph. And
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that's it. You do not leave a space at any other lines in the paragraph, only the first
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line. So it's very important that you only indent the first line of your paragraph like
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so. Okay. The next thing that you have to do is you
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have to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence. Now, the word that I've
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written is "I". Another rule in English is that every single time you write "I", it must
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be a capital. So I'm going to write an example sentence for you to illustrate what I mean:
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"I am a teacher." Okay? This is one sentence. So rule No. 3: At the end of my sentence,
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I must use a period. A "period" is a dot, if you'd like. So "I am a teacher." So what
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I'm going to do is my next sentence... I'm going to begin it with a capital letter. "My"
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-- so I want to say, "My name -- My name is Ronnie." So what I've done: Rule No. 1, indent. Rule No. 2, you have to use
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a capital letter at the beginning of every new sentence. Rule No. 3, you're going to
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use a period at the end of each sentence so that the person reading your beautiful paragraph
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knows when to stop and take a break. For example, if I did not have a period here, I'd say,
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"I'm a teacher my name is Ronnie." You need to break up your ideas. So one sentence has
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one thought and one period. "I am a teacher. My name is Ronnie."
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Next one. No. 4. I see this in a lot of students' writing. The two basic things about a paragraph
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are the form and the content. The form is the most important. The form is the indentation.
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And don't use point form. Do you know what "point form" is? If you're typing something
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on Word or on an email, "point form" is also called "bullets", which [makes shooting sounds].
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So "bullet" means you would put each new sentence on a new line. So if I was to write this:
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"I'm a teacher", then I would put my next sentence here. This is not how to make a paragraph.
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This is "point form". So this is a bad paragraph. What I'm going to do is I'm going to write
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until I almost reach the end of the page. Don't write past the end of the page because
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then you're writing on the desk and it gets messy. So "I am a teacher. My name is Ronnie.
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I live -- so I'm going to use up all of my line until the end -- I live in Canada." What
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would you like to know about Canada? "Canada is very cold." In the winter. So as you can
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see by my example, I only stop my sentence at the end of my paper. I don't use each sentence
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on each line. So four basic things to remember when you're
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writing a basic English paragraph. The first one is: Indent the first line of your paragraph
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only. Use a capital letter at the beginning of each new line or each new sentence. And
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use a period at the end. Also, don't forget: Don't use point form. "I am a teacher. My
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name is Ronnie. I live in Canada. Canada is very cold. Go to 'Subscribe' on YouTube so
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you can find more great lessons like this." Goodbye.
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