ShmoopTube

00:05

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

Okay…quick eye test.

00:15

Which one is a paragraph? [Coop next to big blocks of text]

00:18

EHHHH.

00:19

Time’s up.

00:20

The one on the left is a paragraph.

00:21

The one on the right is a terrifying, haphazard mass of words that would make any English

00:25

teacher scream in horror. [Teacher looking terrified]

00:27

It’s important to recognize and understand what makes for a solid paragraph.

00:31

You’re gonna need to be able to formulate your thoughts this way for the rest of your life. [Sign showing paragraphs at every turn]

00:35

You won’t always be able to communicate via abbreviations and emojis…

00:40

All right, so…what are the important parts of a paragraph? [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

00:44

Well, right off the bat, we always start with a topic sentence.

00:47

Here is where we explain what our paragraph is going to be about.

00:50

Let’s write a paragraph about dogs, shall we? [Dogs in a basket]

00:54

Our topic sentence will be, “Dogs are a wonderful pet to have in your house.”

00:57

Nothing ground-breaking.

00:59

Probably not going to win a Pulitzer for this one, but let’s continue. [Dog sat in a suit]

01:02

Once our topic sentence is set, we can add supporting details… [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

01:06

…i.e. the details that back up or provide evidence for the overall point we’re trying to make.

01:11

Since we said in our topic sentence that dogs are wonderful pets to have in one’s home…

01:16

here is where we need to provide details to support that idea.

01:19

If we suddenly started talking about how dogs bark a lot and tend to poop inside shoes…probably [Trainers with poop in]

01:24

not going to send the right message.

01:26

Instead, we could write, “Dogs like to play fetch with their owners.

01:29

They happily wait for you when you come back from school.

01:31

Some dogs even like to sleep in the bed with you! [The paragraph being typed out]

01:34

Dogs are affectionate and love to snuggle.

01:35

They can even protect your home by scaring away strangers.”

01:39

Finally, we always end with a conclusion.

01:41

Here is where we wrap up our paragraph, and express our opinion in the subject matter [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

01:45

in no uncertain terms.

01:46

We don’t want to leave our readers hanging. [Boy hanging off a branch]

01:48

For example, “If you are thinking about getting a pet, I would suggest getting a dog.”

01:53

Short and simple.

01:54

Kind of like this wiener dog. Look at him. [Picture of a dog]

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