How to write a basic paragraph

2,836,225 views ・ 2013-10-04

English with Ronnie


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

00:02
Hello. Do you know how to write a basic paragraph? This is not only for ESL students. This is
0
2710
10617
00:13
for everyone around the world, even if you speak English, even if you don't speak English.
1
13351
7578
00:21
This is a very, very beautiful, basic lesson on how to write small, short, beautiful paragraphs.
2
21460
6970
00:28
"How to Write a Basic Paragraph". Now, I also want you to be very careful. This is not how
3
28993
6979
00:36
to write a 200-word essay for your university exam. We don't have enough time in the world
4
36000
7912
00:43
for me to teach you that, and I probably forget. So this is, very simply, how to write a basic
5
43989
7922
00:52
English paragraph. One, two, three, four rules. Rule No. 1 is:
6
52030
5498
00:58
Indent, indent. What does "indent" mean? Indent, basically, means -- I learned this when I
7
58235
7325
01:05
was a child -- you take your finger. You can have a big finger, a small finger -- I don't
8
65560
5220
01:10
care. You take your finger or two fingers, and you make a little space like so. This is called an "indentation" or
9
70780
16387
01:27
"indent". So "indent" means you leave a space at the very first line of the paragraph. And
10
87253
8168
01:35
that's it. You do not leave a space at any other lines in the paragraph, only the first
11
95539
7334
01:42
line. So it's very important that you only indent the first line of your paragraph like
12
102950
13582
01:56
so. Okay. The next thing that you have to do is you
13
116600
4519
02:01
have to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence. Now, the word that I've
14
121119
9049
02:10
written is "I". Another rule in English is that every single time you write "I", it must
15
130210
7891
02:18
be a capital. So I'm going to write an example sentence for you to illustrate what I mean:
16
138130
7000
02:26
"I am a teacher." Okay? This is one sentence. So rule No. 3: At the end of my sentence,
17
146200
17062
02:43
I must use a period. A "period" is a dot, if you'd like. So "I am a teacher." So what
18
163370
10090
02:53
I'm going to do is my next sentence... I'm going to begin it with a capital letter. "My"
19
173510
8243
03:01
-- 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
20
181831
19453
03:21
a capital letter at the beginning of every new sentence. Rule No. 3, you're going to
21
201350
6880
03:28
use a period at the end of each sentence so that the person reading your beautiful paragraph
22
208230
8177
03:36
knows when to stop and take a break. For example, if I did not have a period here, I'd say,
23
216450
8219
03:44
"I'm a teacher my name is Ronnie." You need to break up your ideas. So one sentence has
24
224710
7152
03:51
one thought and one period. "I am a teacher. My name is Ronnie."
25
231890
5417
03:58
Next one. No. 4. I see this in a lot of students' writing. The two basic things about a paragraph
26
238885
9991
04:08
are the form and the content. The form is the most important. The form is the indentation.
27
248930
6703
04:15
And don't use point form. Do you know what "point form" is? If you're typing something
28
255726
7283
04:23
on Word or on an email, "point form" is also called "bullets", which [makes shooting sounds].
29
263009
7000
04:30
So "bullet" means you would put each new sentence on a new line. So if I was to write this:
30
270094
6754
04:37
"I'm a teacher", then I would put my next sentence here. This is not how to make a paragraph.
31
277770
11664
04:50
This is "point form". So this is a bad paragraph. What I'm going to do is I'm going to write
32
290586
10246
05:01
until I almost reach the end of the page. Don't write past the end of the page because
33
301902
5487
05:07
then you're writing on the desk and it gets messy. So "I am a teacher. My name is Ronnie.
34
307389
5891
05:14
I live -- so I'm going to use up all of my line until the end -- I live in Canada." What
35
314074
14968
05:29
would you like to know about Canada? "Canada is very cold." In the winter. So as you can
36
329068
15545
05:44
see by my example, I only stop my sentence at the end of my paper. I don't use each sentence
37
344639
10294
05:55
on each line. So four basic things to remember when you're
38
355831
5499
06:01
writing a basic English paragraph. The first one is: Indent the first line of your paragraph
39
361330
6880
06:08
only. Use a capital letter at the beginning of each new line or each new sentence. And
40
368210
7861
06:16
use a period at the end. Also, don't forget: Don't use point form. "I am a teacher. My
41
376120
9574
06:25
name is Ronnie. I live in Canada. Canada is very cold. Go to 'Subscribe' on YouTube so
42
385710
17833
06:43
you can find more great lessons like this." Goodbye.
43
403599
3870

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7