English Essay: How to Write about ANY Essay Topic

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Okay, so you need to write an English  essay. How do you get a high score? And   what do you write about? If you're asking  these questions, this is the video for you. Hi, my name is Jay and in this video, I'm  going to show you an essay structure that   you can use for high level English exams like  IELTS, or PTE or TOEFL, or even just for high   school essays. It works in any situation for any  essay type, or any question prompt. And speaking   of essay types and question prompts, we need to  start there. Essay types and question prompts.   So before I show you that unbelievable essay  structure, we first need to make sure that you   fulfil the requirements of the essay you're given.  And to do this, you need to do one thing and one   thing only. Answer the question. It sounds  simple, but people always seem to screw it up.   If I give you a question prompt like this one  that requires you to write a comparison essay   by providing advantages and disadvantages,  then just do that. In some countries,   most people prefer to rent their houses rather  than buy their houses. What are the advantages and   disadvantages of renting a home? Okay, now that we  have gotten that out of the way, we can move on to   a powerful and flexible essay structure that you  can use for any essay question. Just before we do,   click that subscribe button for excellent  English language videos each and every week.   The essay structure. The essay structure I want  to show you looks like this. This is the ultimate   essay structure. Trust me, it's perfectly  coherent and logical. And once you learn it,   you'll never forget it. I'm going to teach you  how to write an introduction that connects to   both your body paragraphs and mirrors your  conclusion paragraph, and I'll show you how   the conclusion paragraph will connect back to  the body paragraphs and mirror the introduction.   Honestly, this essay structure is so simple  and so powerful that you might end up teaching   the class or you can keep it a secret and get  great scores just for yourself, it's up to you.   Feel free to share this video on social media  if you want. Let's now look at each part of the   essay and understand why each paragraph exists.  Paragraph purposes. So a standard essay will have   four parts, an introduction, some body  paragraphs, maybe two, three or more. And   a conclusion. There's actually a very simple  and powerful way to understand the purpose   of each paragraph. In the introduction, you  simply tell the reader what you're going to   tell them and then in your body paragraphs  you tell them. And then in the conclusion,   you tell the reader what you told them. That's  it. That's the purpose of each paragraph.   And it gives you some idea of how it's all  interconnected. Keep it simple and keep it clear.   Teachers and examiners hate paragraphs and essays  that lack purpose. You're not writing a novel or a   poem or a biography, you're answering a question  using a specific structure. Make a quick plan.   Just before we start writing, I hate to  tell you, but you do need to make a quick   plan. You should never start writing without  thinking the question through. If you start   writing without planning, you end up deleting  entire sections and wasting heaps of time,   you need to set a direction for your essay. Let's  plan my essay, it will only take a few seconds,   and it's going to relate to yours. So  my essay prompt says, In some countries,   most people prefer to rent their houses rather  than buy their houses. And the question asks,   what is an advantage and a disadvantage of renting  a home? So we need to think for a minute here.   In order to write my essay. I need to come  up with one advantage of renting a house and   one disadvantage of renting a house. That's what  the question asked. So that's what we better do.   Advantage of renting. Well what about; you  can move house when you want. Disadvantage   of renting? Well, it's kind of a waste of  money because you're not paying off the house. That was pretty easy. My tip here is to think the  question through, relax and come up with the main   idea or ideas. If you can identify the most  important idea or ideas, then your essay will come   together and flow much more easily. If you get  stuck on minor ideas, it becomes harder to write.   But cool, I have my main ideas. So I'm now ready  to write my essay. Ready? The introduction.   Alright, so we're going to  write a three part introduction,   not necessarily three sentences, you  can write more sentences if you want,   but there needs to be three parts. First, you  need to write a broad background statement.   Second, you need to rewrite the question  prompt in your own words. Third, you need   to write a thesis statement. Stay with me, this  isn't hard, I'll show you how to write mine.   And you can follow along and copy the same  structure for your essay at the same time.   So number one, the introduction sentence, where  we write a broad background statement. Your   first sentence is very broad, you almost need  to pretend that your teacher or examiner or   whoever is going to read your essay has no  idea of what you're writing about. And as such,   you need to give them some background information.  You can't just jump straight into your arguments,   you need to set the context. So let's look at my  question prompt. And let me show you a great first   sentence for your essay. In some countries, most  people prefer to rent their houses rather than buy   their houses. Alright, so what's the broad social  context here? Every essay has a social context.   Well, this one is about renting versus buying  houses. So I'm going to write something like:   For some people, the dream of owning a  home is not possible or is unfavourable.   Pretty simple, right? I've written a simple  sentence, it's almost obvious. And yours   needs to be obvious as well. Don't make it  confusing or profound. I've simply written that   some people can't buy a house or don't want to buy  a house. It's actually a great opening sentence.   Remember that essay diagram I showed you earlier?  Let's look at it again. So the introduction   is an upside down pyramid and your first sentence,  the first sentence of the introduction is broad.   Introduction sentence number two, rewrite the  essay prompt in your own words. So the second   sentence of your introduction should simply  rewrite the essay prompt in your own words.   Another way to say this is you need to paraphrase  the essay prompt. So let's do it to mine. Here's   the prompt. In some countries, most people prefer  to rent their houses rather than buy their houses.   Okay, so I'm going to rewrite this essay prompt,  not the question, the prompt the first part.   Mine says, In some countries, many people decide  that renting their home is preferable to buying   it. Notice how some words and phrases are  exactly the same. That's fine. Notice how   some words are the same, but I've changed  the word forms like prefer and preferable.   And notice that I've used some synonyms, different  words that have very similar or the same meaning.   And I've also used a pronoun instead of a noun  there as well. So far, so good. We've started   broad and now we're tightening our essay, we're  focusing in. Your teacher or examiner so far,   we'll be super impressed. Who's this wonderful  student they'll ask? Introduction sentence   number three, write your thesis statement,  tell the reader what you will write about.   So a thesis just means an argument or your  position or what you think. Okay, so here we   tell the reader, your teacher or examiner, our  two ideas from our plan. Let me show you mine.   My thesis statement says, In this essay, I  will discuss why renting can allow for a more   flexible lifestyle, but why it can eventually  be financially disadvantageous. Can you see the   two ideas from my plan in here? And can you see  how explicit I'm being, I will discuss or you   can write, I will compare or I will argue, or I  will show and then simply write your two ideas.   Let's now continue on to the body paragraphs. And  remember to subscribe for more videos on English   grammar and vocab that's going to help your  essay writing improve fast. The body paragraphs. So in the introduction, we told the reader what  we'll tell them and now we need to tell them. Your   body paragraphs are where you take the two ideas  from your plan and you write a paragraph about   each of them. This is the meat in your sandwich.  Now your body paragraphs also have a structure.   Each body paragraph will have four parts not  necessarily four sentences, you can write more,   but four underlying parts. First a topic sentence  where you introduce your main idea. Second,   a sentence where you give a reason or an example.  Third, a sentence where you give another reason   or example. And fourth, and finally, a sentence  where you summarise your idea. This is the broad   structure, and you can leave out a reason if  you want to or add two examples. It's up to you.   Let's go through each part of the body  paragraph sentence by sentence now,   so you're 100% Clear. And so your body  paragraph matches up with your introduction.   So remember, in your thesis statement, the third  part of your introduction you said in this essay,   I will. I said in this essay, I will discuss why  renting can allow for a more flexible lifestyle.   I now need to write my paragraph about that.  By doing that we're connecting our introduction   to our body paragraph like this. So here's my  first body paragraph. The main benefit of renting   a house rather than buying one is because you can  move at any time. If you change jobs, for example,   and your new office is far away, then you can rent  a house closer to work, which will save you lots   of time commuting or for whatever reason crime  becomes an issue in your local neighbourhood,   you can pack up your belongings and move.  Clearly there are advantages to renting a home.   Let's unpack it. Here is my topic sentence  where I make it very clear what the paragraph   is about. It's not a mystery story, I make it  explicit. The main benefit of renting a house   rather than buying one is because you can move at  any time. Great. Now I need a reason or an example   to back up that main idea. If you change jobs, for  example, or your new office is far away, then you   can rent a house closer to work, which will save  you lots of time commuting. Now I need another   reason or another example to give my main idea  even more support. Or for whatever reason, crime   becomes an issue in your local neighbourhood,  you can pack up your belongings and move.   And finally, I now need to summarise my main  idea in a short little wrap up sentence. Clearly   being able to move is a key advantage of renting.  Can you see how the final wrap up sentence also   connects back to the essay question prompt. It's  very clever. Now for your second body paragraph.   Just repeat that structure again with your second  idea. Simple, powerful. By now you're well on your   way to an a plus or a top score. Now we're going  to put it all together and write a conclusion that   mirrors the introduction and re-iterates the main  ideas mentioned in our body paragraph one and two,   the conclusion. The conclusion is simple to  write. You're not writing anything creative,   and you're not adding new ideas. In the  conclusion you're simply repeating or   reiterating what you've already said. Remember  the paragraph purposes we discussed earlier.   In the introduction, you tell the reader what  you will tell them. In your body paragraphs   you tell them and in the conclusion,  you tell the reader what you told them.   Easy. So our conclusion will have two parts,  not necessarily two sentences, but two parts.   In the first part of the conclusion, you will  write, this essay discussed or argued or compared   or showed and then you'll express main idea  one and main idea two. And in the second   part of your conclusion, you'll give your  opinion. Notice how that first sentence of   the conclusion almost perfectly mirrors the final  sentence of the introduction that we saw earlier.   The thesis statement of the introduction,  the final sentence of the introduction said   in this essay I will and the first sentence  of the conclusion says in this essay I did   I argued I discussed I showed. This is how you  create that powerful, coherent and logical flow. And the final sentence, the in  my opinion part, that's easy.   You just give your opinion. Here's my  conclusion. In this essay, I argue that   renting provides greater flexibility while  owning results in greater financial reward.   Personally, I prefer to rent so that I can live  a more flexible lifestyle. Can you see how I've   repeated my main idea one and my main idea two in  the first sentence of the conclusion? And you can   you see how I've given my opinion in the second  sentence to finish the entire essay? Recap.   So today, we've learned an essay structure that  you can use for the rest of your life. It works   for every essay type, and every question prompt  in any situation. It's powerful, because it's   interconnected, and it keeps you on topic. Th e  logic and coherence of this structure is powerful,   but you need to practice it. Once you do that,  you can't forget it, it just makes perfect sense.   Let's just recap the key concepts one more time.  So in an essay, you need to tell the reader what   you will tell them, in the introduction, then you  tell them, in the body paragraphs, then you tell   them what you told them in the conclusion. Your  introduction starts broad, paraphrases the essay   prompt and finishes with your thesis statement.  This essay will... Your body paragraphs have an   opening or topic sentence where you introduce  the main idea, give reasons and examples   and then wrap up with a final sentence. Then,  in your conclusion, you mirror your introduction   and you write, In this essay I, whatever,  argued disgust showed etc. And you simply   finish with your personal opinion. Job done. Cool.  Hopefully that clarifies what an essay is and how   to write it. Now you can get started just before  you do that though. Remember to click like on this   video, leave a comment and subscribe to this  YouTube channel. My name is Jay See you soon.
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Channel: E2 English
Views: 197,902
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Keywords: Essay, English Essay, How to Write, English Essay Topics, Essay Topic, english essay how to write, how essay writing, essay for ielts, essay for pte, essay for kids, english essay on, how write english essay, english essay about, how write essay, essay how to write, how to write, an essay, essay on, essay about, essay format, essay template, essay structure, E2 English, English, E2, IELTS, PTE, TOEFL, english essay format, english essay example, E2 IELTS, any topic, any, topic
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Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)
Published: Tue Feb 01 2022
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