How to Write an Essay: Introduction Paragraph (with Worksheet)

- [Narrator] This video

is part one of four on how to write an essay step by step. In this video, I teach you how to write

the introduction paragraph beginning with the hook, then background, and, finally, the thesis statement. So, first, what is an essay? An essay is a group of

paragraphs that explain an idea. So how many paragraphs are in an essay? Three to five paragraphs. Before the essay, usually, you have a prompt. A prompt is a question or statement that your essay answers. Here's an example. What is the best exercise? Write an essay that explains your answer. So let's look at an example essay. Here's an essay written to the example prompt we just read. This essay is called "The Best Exercise." As you see, it has five paragraphs. The first paragraph is the

introduction paragraph. The next paragraphs two, three, and four are called body paragraphs. And paragraph five is called

the conclusion paragraph. When we write an essay, we need to be sure to clearly show where each paragraph begins. There are two ways to do this. One is to use an empty

line after each paragraph like I've done here. See the empty lines? And two is to indent the

first word of each paragraph. And here's what the essay looks like when we've indented each paragraph by putting several spaces in front of the first

word of the paragraphs. So there are the two ways to clearly show where each paragraph begins. Just be sure to use the format that your teacher requires. But what information

goes in the paragraphs? That's what we're going

to talk about next. The first part of the

introduction paragraph is called the hook. Before we begin, remember this very important note. There are many ways to

write an introduction, body, and conclusion paragraph. This structure that I'm going to show you is just one of those ways. The hook is an interesting

sentence about the topic, and it's our first sentence in the essay. The topic is the thing or

person you're writing about. We call the first sentence

of an essay "the hook" because this sentence hooks or catches the readers' attention and makes them want to

read more of your essay. There are many types of hooks, but I'm going to tell you about five hooks that I think are the

easiest types to write, and I'm going to give you

an example of each one. The first type is a surprising fact or statistic about your topic. Here's an example: "According to the World

Health Organization, one in four adults do

not get enough exercise." Another type of hook is

an interesting question. For example, "Does exercise

only improve health if it's difficult?" You can see how this type of question, if it comes first in the essay, might interest the reader in reading more to find the answer. Another type of hook is a wise quote. For example, "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body, according to Joseph Addison." Another type of hook is a contradiction. "People think strenuous exercise is better for them than easy exercise, but almost no one does a

strenuous routine twice." Do you see how each part of that sentence contradicts the other? This makes the reader think

more deeply about the topic. Finally, my favorite type of hook is a pretty simple one, which is a sentence that tells why the topic is important. For example, "People need

exercise to stay healthy." You see that this type of hook is simpler than all the others above it and not quite as exciting as the others. But some of the other

types of hooks above, like the surprising fact or statistic and the wise quote, include very specific information like numbers and facts. When you use specific information like this in an essay, you need to tell your readers where you found the information in case they want to check it. This requires that you do a citation and a Work Cited page or a bibliography to go with your essay. Citations and bibliographies is an advanced topic that can get a little complicated, so I'll avoid them in this video. So I'm going to use the last type of hook in the example essay that we read. Let's look at a few more examples of hooks that tell why a topic is important. This time, we'll look at

topics besides exercise. Remember that when you

write this type of hook, don't use the word "important." Just tell why the topic is important. Using the word "important" will make your sentence

sound a little too simple. So let's say you're writing

an essay about vegetables. You could use this hook. "Vegetables have vitamins that cannot be found in other foods." Do you see how we stated why

vegetables are important, but we didn't oversimplify the sentence by using the word "important"? If you were writing about a

topic like a driving license, this could be a good hook. "A driving license gives

a person independence." If you have a scientific

topic like the human brain you could begin your essay like this: "The human brain controls

everything we do and say." And finally, if you're writing an essay about a topic in literature, like the character Romeo, you could begin your

essay with this sentence: "Romeo is one of Shakespeare's

most famous characters." Do you see how all of these sentences tell why the topic is important, but they don't use the word "important"? That's a good, solid way to start the essay about these topics. The next part of the

introduction paragraph we'll talk about is

background information. Okay, so you start your

introduction paragraph with the first sentence called "the hook." Then you follow with sentences that tell background information on your topic. Examples of background information include facts, numbers,

group opinions, or history. These are just a few examples of background information, and the type of background

information you use should prepare your readers for your message about your topic. Now, I'm going to show you several types of background information that you can write in your essay after the hook. The first type is a surprising statistic or fact about your topic. Here's an example: "A vigorous 30 minute walk raises your heart rate and burns over 100 calories." Remember, a surprising statistic or fact can also be used as your hook. It's okay if you use a fact or statistic as both your hook and

background information, as long as those two facts are different. Another type of background information is a definition about a word that readers might not know. For example, "Vigorous

exercise is physical activity that raises the heart rate

and speeds up breathing." When you use a definition, just be sure that it's for a word that readers need to know to understand your topic and also, that the word is at least a little difficult. There's no reason to include a definition for easy words that

everybody already knows. Another type of background information would be positive or negative opinions that people have about your topic. For example, "Many people view walking as too easy to improve

health or help weight loss." You could also write

about opposite opinions. "Some people enjoy walking, but others prefer higher intensity sports like running,

weightlifting, or swimming." One of the most interesting, and often helpful, types of background

information for a topic is to give a little

history about the topic. For example, "Historically, people walked as a form of transportation. By 1900, walking was an Olympic event." And finally, you can give trends or recent changes that

pertain to your topic like this one: "By the 1990s, walking

was a popular US sport with over 65 million regular walkers." I wouldn't use all of these sentences as background information. You only need to pick about three or four sentences that are very closely related to what you're going to say about your topic in your essay. Now let's talk about the thesis statement. After you've written the hook and background information on your topic, the next sentence you'll write is the thesis statement. The thesis statement is the most important sentence in your essay. It is also the last sentence in your introduction paragraph. The thesis statement contains your main idea about the topic, plus three reasons. The main idea is your

message about your topic. And sometimes instead of three reasons, you'll need three steps in a process, three types of something, three parts of something, three examples of something. And whether you need reasons, steps, types, parts, or examples depends on your topic and your main idea. I'm going to give you several examples in just a moment so that you clearly understand what a thesis statement is and how to write one about various topics that answer to various prompts. Your thesis statement answers the prompt in one sentence. This sentence includes three reasons. Let me give you an example. Remember the essay prompt asks a question. For example, what is the best exercise? Write an essay that explains your answer. The thesis statement answers the question in the prompt. For example, "The best exercise is walking because it is easy, convenient and usually done outside." Now, the thesis statement answers the question in the prompt, but we still need an entire essay to explain our thesis statement. Also note that this thesis statement has the main idea, which is the best exercise is walking, and it has three reasons that tell us why the main idea is true. Why is the best exercise walking? Because it is easy, convenient, and usually done outside. Let's look at a few examples of thesis statements about different topics. Prompt one, what is one

thing everyone should do? A thesis statement that

answers this prompt is, "Everyone should eat lots of vegetables for vitamins, minerals and fiber." Remember, all thesis statements need a main idea or main message, plus three reasons that tell why that main idea is true or that explain the main idea. In this thesis statement, the main idea is that everyone should

eat lots of vegetables. The three reasons people

should eat vegetables are for the vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Prompt two, explain how

to get a driver's license. An example thesis statement that answers this prompt is, "Getting a driver's license requires a few steps including to learn rules, practice driving, and pass exams." The main idea in this thesis statement is that getting a driver's license requires a few steps. Now, remember that getting a

driver's license is a process. So, instead of three reasons, this thesis statement will have three steps in a process. The three steps for getting

a driver's license are to learn the rules, practice driving, and past exams. Prompt three, describe the

parts of the human brain. "The human brain has three main parts, including the cerebrum,

cerebellum, and brain stem." The main idea of this thesis statement is the human brain has three main parts. This thesis statement has three parts of something instead of three reasons. The parts are the cerebrum,

cerebellum, and brain stem. And finally, analyze the character Romeo and explain what motivates him. A thesis statement that

answers this prompt is, "The character Romeo is driven by devotion to his family,

friends, and Juliet." The main idea of this thesis statement is that the character Romeo

is driven by devotion. We have three examples that explain who or what

Romeo is devoted to. And those examples are devotion to family, friends, and Juliet. So now we've talked about all parts of an introduction paragraph of an essay including the hook,

background information, and thesis statement. Let's go ahead and look at all of these parts together in the essay that we'll study in this video. So remember that you start with the prompt or the question from

the teacher, which is, what is the best exercise? Write an essay that explains your answer. So to answer that prompt, we have begun our essay with this introduction

paragraph and title. The title is "The Best Exercise." And in our introduction paragraph, first we need the hook, which tells why the topic is important. Our hook is, "People need

exercise to stay healthy." After the hook, we need the background

information on our topic. This can include facts, numbers, group opinions, or history. And in this case, our

background information is, "Adults should exercise 20 minutes daily, but most people do not. Activities like

swimming, lifting weights, and playing sports are often inconvenient or too expensive." And finally, we have our thesis statement, which includes our main

idea and three reasons. So our thesis statement reads, "The best type of exercise is walking because it is easy, convenient, and usually done outside." And remember that the thesis statement contains the main idea, which is your message about the topic. In this case, our main idea is that the best type of exercise is walking. The thesis statement

also gives three reasons for your main idea. Our three reasons are, reason one, because it is easy; reason two, it is convenient; and reason three, it is

usually done outside. That's the end of our video on part one of How to Write an Essay Step by Step about the introduction paragraph. Next is Part Two on how to write a body paragraph. Thank you for watching.