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Before you write an essay, it's important

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to understand basic essay structure.

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Now every essay has the same core

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structure regardless of the kind of essay

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you're writing. Now an opinion essay,

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comparison and contrast essay, or

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narrative essay will all have slight

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differences, but the basic structure will

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always be the same. It will consist of

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three main parts. You have your introduction, body,

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and conclusion.

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The introduction and conclusion will each

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be one paragraph, and the body can be any

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number of paragraphs depending on the

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length of the essay you're writing. Now the

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introductory paragraph can be split into

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three parts. The first part is what

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we call the hook. And all that means is

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the first sentence of your essay should

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engage the reader, grab their attention,

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and introduce the subject in an

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interesting way. Students often think

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that the best way to do this is to

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ask a question at the beginning of their

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essay, but that's overused and I

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recommend that you do something else

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instead. I would highly recommend a

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strong statement or a surprising fact.

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After you've engaged the reader with

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with a good opening sentence, you want

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to give some background information. Now

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that just means any information that's

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essential for the reader to have in order to

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understand your main idea or to understand

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the topic. So this could be context,

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like where and when, it could be a brief

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history of the topic, or it could be an

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explanation of why the topic is

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controversial to begin with, or why it's

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important. Ok, now once you've given

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the background information it's time

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to give your thesis. Which is the

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single most important sentence in

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your entire essay. It is always the last

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sentence of your introductory paragraph.

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and it is the main idea of your entire

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essay. After you've presented your thesis

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you can then move on and write your body.

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Now the body paragraph or paragraphs is meant to

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support the thesis development, such as

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arguments, details, examples, descriptions

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narration, depending on the kind of

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essay you are writing. Now a longer

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essay may include expert opinion,

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quotations, secondary sources, that kind

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of thing. But obviously if you're writing

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an essay for a test, or you're writing

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a short 250 to 300 word essay in class

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you probably won't need to include

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secondary sources. After you've written

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a strong body, it's time to write your

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concluding paragraph. In the conclusion

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you should summarize your main points.

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and restate the thesis. It's important

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to think of the reader as a person with

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a very short memory. So at the end of

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your essay you want to remind them what

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is your main idea. And then at the end,

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you also want to end your essay with as

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strong a statement as you started. So you

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want to make sure that the final comment

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or statement of your concluding paragraph

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is emphatic or interesting in some

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way. And that's the basic structure of an

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essay. If you want more practice with

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essay structure, follow the link at the

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end of this video.