Lesson video

Hi there, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm so glad you decided to join me today.

In today's lesson, we're going to get going on writing our essay.

So this is our chance to show off our writing skills and start making a really clear and logical argument for our reader.

I think we're gonna do some fantastic work today, so let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called, "Planning and writing an introduction to an essay," and it comes from out unit called, "The Amazon Rainforest, essay writing." By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to write an introduction to an essay, including a range of linguistic features.

Now, yo want to have access to your notes from the last two lessons to help you today, but if you haven't got them, please don't panic, I will show you some notes that you can use instead.

If you got everything ready, let's make a start.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Subject-specific vocabulary, evidence and linguistic features.

Well done.

So subject-specific vocabulary is vocabulary that relates to a particular subject and evidence is information or facts to show something is true.

And linguistic features are language structures that are used within a text.

So here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by planning the introduction and then we'll move on to writing it.

So as you might already know, we are writing an essay in response to this title, "Explain how reducing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest could help reduce the impact of climate change." And in this essay, we need to do the following things.

We'll need to define any important subject-specific vocabulary that's going to help our reader to understand what we're saying.

We need to give a step-by-step logical argument that leads to the conclusion that reducing deforestation will help to tackle climate change and we need to provide a range of evidence to support the steps of our logical argument.

So we've already created the outline of a logical argument for our essay, where each paragraph addresses certain questions.

We know that in the introduction, we're going to address what is deforestation, how does it happen and how does it affect the Amazon rainforest.

Then building logically on that in paragraph one, we're going to say why has deforestation happened in the Amazon rainforest.

In paragraph two we'll give the next logical step, how does deforestation drive climate change? And then in the conclusion, we'll give the final logical step, how can we reduce deforestation and how would doing that help reduce the impacts of climate change, which links back to our essay title, because we're explaining how does reducing deforestation help to reduce the impact of climate change.

So can you put the purpose of each paragraph in order, starting with number one for the first paragraph of our essay and its purpose.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, really good job.

So you're right that we're going to first of all explain what deforestation is, how it happens and how it's affected the Amazon rainforest.

Then we'll explain why deforestation has happened in the Amazon rainforest, then we'll explain how deforestation is linked to climate change and finally, we'll explain why reducing deforestation would help reduce the effects of climate change.

We've gone in a logical step-by-step order.

Really well done.

So if we know that, can we put these sentences in order in the order they'd appear in the essay, starting with number one for the sentence which would appear first? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good job.

So the first one would be, deforestation is the removal of trees from an area of land.

We've defined deforestation.

The next one would be, deforestation has been driven by the need for farmland.

So that's saying why has deforestation happened in the Amazon.

Then we'd have, deforestation leads to carbon dioxide being released back into the atmosphere.

We're explaining how deforestation is linked to climate change.

And finally, we're saying, people could help by buying fewer products that are linked to deforestation.

So here we're saying how can we reduce deforestation and then the next of that paragraph will be to explain how that would help to reduce the impact of climate change.

Really well done for getting those in the right order.

Good work.

So today, we're going to write the introduction and we've said it will answer these questions.

What is deforestation? How does it happen? And how does it affect the Amazon rainforest.

So we'll need to present this information in a logical order.

We could start by defining deforestation.

Then we could say how it happens using the slash and burn method.

Then we can say this method has been used in the Amazon and give the evidence to show how much of the rainforest has been lost.

And at different points here, we could include information about what's special about the Amazon rainforest, including all that biodiversity we know is there.

So can you match the beginning and ends of these pieces of evidence that we could include in our introduction to prove that deforestation has been a significant problem in the Amazon.

Pause the video and try and match them up.

Well done, good job.

So 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed by deforestation.

An area equivalent to 11 football fields is destroyed every minute and an area of four times the size of the UK has already been deforested.

So these are three pieces of evidence that prove to us that deforestation is a problem in the Amazon and they're all really statistics, aren't they, 'cause they are numerical facts.

We've got 20%, 11 and four as our numbers, which make these statistics, which is one form of evidence that we can use.

Really well done for matching those up correctly.

So we're not ready to plan our introduction in detail and we want to include the following things in our plan for each paragraph in this essay.

So we want to include notes about sentences we want to write that explain our argument.

We want to include any evidence that supports our argument, for instance, statistics, facts, expert opinions and references to official reports.

And we want to include any subject-specific vocabulary we plan to use in that paragraph.

Now today, we're just going to plan the introduction and then we're going to write the introduction, but we'll include these same features in our plan for any of the paragraphs of our essay.

So here's an example of a paragraph and the plan that may have come before it.

So it starts off by saying, "Fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, are energy sources formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.

These fuels, which are buried beneath the Earth's surface, have become the main energy source for much of the world." So you can see the notes on the right-hand side which led to that plan.

We can see this first sentences comes from this note, "Fossil fuels, coal, oil, gas equal energy sources." And then in brackets, "Remains of plants/animals buried in Earth." So that gives us actually one and a half sentences.

Then here we've for the note for the next part.

They're the main source of energy for the world and then the statistic that proves it.

They currently account for 80% of the world's energy needs.

And then I've got a note here about this official report, another piece of evidence, so 2020 and I've put IEA, but that stands for International Energy Agency and that report told us about this 100 million barrels of oil and that proves, that's why I've got done an arrow, that we're heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

So these notes, these planned notes, supported me writing this paragraph, but they're not full sentences.

They have included some subject-specific vocabulary, like fossil fuels, like energy sources and they've included some pieces of evidence as well, like 84% of the world's energy needs and so on.

So these are the kind of notes we want to include in our plan today.

So what notes might've been written as the plan for this paragraph? Pause the video and have a careful think of maybe three bullet points notes you could think of which could be the plan for this paragraph.

Have a think.

Well done, great thinking.

So maybe you came up with some idea like these.

I've started off here introducing the idea of the history of fossil fuels.

I've said, traced back to Industrial Revolution, late 1700s, life in city and factories led to, equals, a demand for fossil fuels.

For the middle section, I've had the different fossil fuels, I said, coal first to make steam engines, I put that in brackets, then oil and gas.

And then at the end, explaining why these fossil fuels became so widespread, I've put full of energy and cheap to extract equals that led to them being a building block of the modern way of life.

Now, you can see we've used much fewer statistics in this section, but I've given a clear explanation at the argument using notes.

So I've also got some subject-specific vocabulary in there as well.

So this is what we're aiming for for our notes in our plan.

So let's plan our introduction.

We're going to write notes to answer the questions, and I've put these below with bullet points, based on your knowledge from previous lessons.

And we're going to try to include statistics and facts as evidence where you can.

And in this paragraph, remember, we're introducing the idea of deforestation and the context of the Amazon rainforest.

So our plan's going to answer these questions, what is deforestation? How is deforestation carried out? So what's the exact process of that slash and burn method.

What are the steps involved? How has it affected the Amazon rainforest? And what's the evidence to show that and also, what's special about the Amazon rainforest? So what's so good about the Amazon anyway? Is it the size? Is it the biodiversity we have there? And what's the evidence to support that? Now, I've put these questions in this order, which is a logical order.

It is one possible logical order, it's not the only one.

So you might be able to change the order of some of these and that would be fine, but I'm going to stick to this order.

So for each of these questions, write your notes including statistics and evidence when you can and of course, some subject-specific vocabulary as well.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, really good job.

So here's an example of the notes you might've written for your plan for the introduction.

First of all, to answer that first question, I have written, "Deforestation equals removal of trees from an area to make it unforested." I've defined deforestation.

Then I'm saying how is it done.

Often done using slash and burn method, cut down valuable trees, then the arrows shows the next step, bulldoze rest, next step, let it dry and the next step, burn in the dry season.

Then how has it affected the Amazon? Well, 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost, an area of four times the size of the UK and an area the size of 11 football fields is lost every minutes.

And what makes the Amazon special? Well, the Amazon rainforest is in South America and it's 28 times the size of the UK and it's the largest collection of animal and plant species in the world.

And I've just given one example here, which is that is has 2.

5 million insects species.

There were loads more facts you could include there to show how special and biodiverse the Amazon rainforest is.

So we've got our clear plan following logical steps which makes us ready to write.

Really well done for planning that so well.

So now we're ready to write the introduction and in order to prepare to write, we need to review of the linguistic features we might include to connect up our ideas into complete sentences.

So we know that we could use a fronted adverbial of cause, for instance, as a result, they are bad for the climate.

We could use a fronted adverbial of time.

In 2020, a UN report criticised the government.

We could use a formal fronted adverbial like, in addition, customers could avoid using these products.

In addition is building onto the point from the previous sentence.

We could use a formal fronted adverb like however to show the contrast with the previous sentence.

We can use a non-finite complex sentence like this.

The trees are burned, releasing, there's our -ing word that starts the non-finite -ing clause, releasing carbon dioxide.

I could do a relative complex sentence using which or who or where to start a relative clause.

Oil, which is a fossil fuel, is burned for energy.

And I could use an adverbial complex sentence using a subordinating adjunction like when.

When oil is burned, it releases carbon dioxide.

Now, you're probably confident in many of those sentence types, we're going to use lots of these different linguistic features today.

So try and make sure you're using a variety.

And we can use all these features to try and create the formal tone that we need in an essay.

Now, we might also see the following linguistic features that you might already know.

We could use a compound sentence, for instance, coal was the first to be used, but oil soon followed.

We've used two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

In this case but, but we could use and or or as well.

And we can use parenthesis in brackets, for instance, a UN report (in 2020) criticised the government.

We've dropped in a little bit of extra clarifying information using brackets around it and we could remove that from the sentence and it would still make sense.

So we'll also want to include of course, some subject-specific vocabulary to add to that formal tone of our essay and make ourself sound authoritative when we talk about this subject.

So we could use deforestation, loggers, slash and burn, species, unforested and dry season.

All of those are quite specific to this theme of deforestation and the Amazon rainforest.

So lots of those can be useful pieces of subject-specific vocabulary.

So which linguistic features can you see in this example introduction? Read it carefully and see what you can locate.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good job.

There's lots of features here, isn't there? Maybe you spotted the parenthesis in brackets here at the start.

Maybe you saw this relative complex sentence where the relative clause, which are buried beneath the Earth surface.

Maybe you saw currently and in 2020 as fronted adverbials of time.

Maybe you saw at the end here this non-finite -ing complex sentence with this non-finite -ing clause showing that we are now heavily reliant on these fuels.

And maybe you saw some subject-specific vocabulary like fossil fuels and energy sources.

So having read that, hopefully you're now tuned in to how this introduction could sound with that formal tone as well.

Good work.

So we can apply these linguistic features to our notes to connect our ideas together.

So here's a note we had.

Deforestation equals removal of trees from an are to make it unforested.

Well, I can make that into a non-finite -ing complex sentence.

Deforestation is the removal of trees from an area, making it unforested.

There's making, an -ing verb.

I could take this note, 20% of Amazon rainforest lost, area four times the size of UK and I could use some parenthesis and a fronted adverbial of time.

Already, 20% of the Amazon rainforest (an area four times the size of the UK) has been lost to deforestation.

And finally, I can take this note and I could just use a formal fronted adverbial.

In addition, an area equivalent to 11 football fields is lost every minute.

So I've used a range of linguistic features here to show the relationships between ideas and to connect them together.

So how could you use some of our linguistic features to make this note into complete sentences, and it's quite a lot of notes, so it might need to be more than one sentence.

Pause the video and have a think about you could do that.

Well done, really good job.

Maybe you got to something like this.

The Amazon rainforest, which is located in South America, covers an area 28 times the size of the UK.

It is home to the largest collection of animal and plant species in the world (including 2.

5 million species of insect).

So I've used a relative clause, which is located in South America, and my parenthesis in brackets there as my linguistic features to connect all these notes together.

Hopefully you managed to do something similar.

Well done.

So let's orally rehearse this paragraph.

So you're going to use your planned notes or the ones you've seen here if you don't have your own, and we're going to say out loud the sentences that you're going to write.

You're going to try and use a formal tone by using a range of those linguistic features we discussed and some subject-specific vocabulary if you can.

And we're gonna try and connect that information up in a logical order.

You could start by saying, "Deforestation is the removal of trees" and starting with that definition of deforestation.

So pause the video and have a go at orally rehearsing this paragraph.

Well done, really good effort.

So here's an example of what you might've said.

I've got, "Deforestation is the removal of trees from an area, making it unforested.

This is often completed using the slash and burn method.

Here, valuable trees are cut down and they are sold for timber.

Then companies bulldoze the remaining trees, leaving them to dry.

When the dry season arrives, the trees are burned.

Using this method, 20% of the Amazon rainforest, an area equivalent to four times the size of the UK, has already been lost.

This rainforest, which is located in South America, is 28 times the size of the UK.

It is home to the largest collection of animal and plant species in the world, including over 2.

5 million species of insect." Now, yours might not sound just like that yet and that is fine.

The purpose of our oral rehearsing is to try and get our brains ready to write by having a better idea of what we'd like to say.

When we write, we have much more time to make our sentences really well-connected and to use all these linguistic features.

So now we're ready to write the introduction and here's our success criteria.

It says, "I have defined deforestation, explained how it's carried out and explained its connection to the Amazon rainforest.

I've connected information using a range of linguistic features.

I have included subject-specific vocabulary to add to the formal tone and I've included evidence that support my points." And of course, we can tick off our success criteria as we write.

So now I'm going to show you how to write this paragraph.

Okay, I've written my success criteria here, so I'm ready to start writing my introduction.

So I know my first success criteria is that I'm going to define deforestation here.

So I'm gonna leave an indent to start my paragraph and I'm just going to keep this nice and simple and I'm going to say what deforestation is.

So I'm gonna say, "Deforestation is," I could say it's when trees are removed, but I wanna be a little bit more formal, so I'm going to say, "Is the removal of trees," from what? Yeah, well done, I could say from a place, but I'm trying to be really formal, so I'm gonna say, "The removal of trees from an area of land." And I could go on to say why, but I think I'm gonna save that, 'cause we know another paragraph is going to explain that.

So from an area of land.

Okay and I'm going to lock that in with a full stop.

Now I've got to explain how it happens.

So we know that that's the slash and burn method.

Now, I'm gonna describe this in a little bit of detail, but I'm gonna start with a really simple sentence just to say the slash and burn method, and we're going to put that in single inverted commas and I'm gonna say, "The slash and burn method is used to do this." Mm, is it always used? No, I think I should say, "It is often used to do this," because that's not always the case.

So it's often used to do this.

Okay.

Now, although that sentence doesn't really use any linguistic features, it does use a piece of subject-specific vocabulary.

So it's achieving one of our purposes.

Okay, now I wanna describe that slash and burn method in a bit more detail.

I think I could use as a linguistic feature, a fronted adverbial of time here.

I'm going to say, "First," to say the first step.

What's the first step of the slash and burn method? Yeah, trees are cut down, aren't they, for timber? But not all trees, which ones? Yeah, the expensive, what's the better word? Yeah, valuable.

So I could say, "First, valuable trees," so that was ones like mahogany and teak, wasn't it? Oh, I wonder if could put that in some parenthesis in brackets.

Let's do that.

So I could say, "First, valuable trees, (such as mahogany and teak)," which is just teak like this.

Close the brackets.

First, valuable trees (such as mahogany and teak) are what? Yeah, now I could say cut down, I want to be a little more subject-specific, so I think I'll say are felled for timber.

Okay, and then what's the next step? Yeah, the other trees are bulldozed, aren't they? So I could put a full stop here and start a new sentence, but another linguistic feature we could use could be a compound sentence.

So I could say and, couldn't I? So and, what happens to the other trees? Yeah, the other trees or the, yeah, I prefer that remaining trees, so.

And the remaining trees are what? Yeah, are bulldozed.

Okay.

So we've explained the first couple of steps of the slash and burn method.

So I'm gonna put a full stop there and I could say like, the area is now clear for farming or for another use, oh but wait, hang on.

Maybe I could use another linguistic feature.

I could change this into a comma and then I could do an -ing verb, clearing.

So clearing the area.

Okay, now there's another step, isn't there? Which is that they are burned, isn't it? So I'm going to say, "When." When what, when are those trees burned? Yeah, it's when it's dry.

So they're left out during the dry season, I mean, to dry out.

So I could say, "When the trees are dry, they are burned," so I've got a comma to show the end of my fronted adverbial clause.

They are burned.

Okay and now I'm going to lock that in with a full stop.

So you've explained how the slash and burn method works.

Okay, now we're got to link this, haven't we, to the Amazon and how deforestation is happening there.

So I'm going to start with my statistic about 20%.

So I'm going to say, "20% of the Amazon rainforest has," what? Yeah, has been lost, has been deforested due to this method.

So let's start off with that, "20% of the Amazon," capital letter, "Amazon rainforest." Ooh, but wait, we had an area to compare that to, didn't we? We've said 20% of the Amazon rainforest, which is an area four times the size of the UK.

So I think I've used brackets or parenthesis here.

Should we do a relative clause here using which? So I could say, "Which is equivalent to four times the size of the UK." And then I could say, I've finished my relative clause there, "Has already been," what? Yeah, we could say deforested or we could just say already been lost.

Let's read that sentence back 'cause it was a bit tricky.

20% of the Amazon rainforest, which is equivalent to four times the size of the UK, has already been lost.

Okay, I like that.

Now, I want to say a bit more about the Amazon, so I'm gonna say something about this rainforest.

Ooh, sorry, I've lost my eye, let me try that again.

So I'm going to say, "This rainforest," what's special about the Amazon rainforest, do we know? Yeah, it's got all those animal and plant species, hasn't it? So I think I might do another relative clause here.

So I could say, "This rainforest," comma, "Which is home to," yeah, that would work.

"Which is home to," home to what? Yeah, I could say the world's largest collection of, of what? Yeah, of animal and plant species.

So let's put that there, "Animal and plant species." Now I think I wanna finish this sentence with a bit more detail about how much is being deforested.

So this rainforest something.

Mm, yeah, I could say, "Loses," how much does it lose every minute? Do you remember? Yeah, you could say, "Loses the equivalent of 11 football pitches," of what? Yeah, of forest every minute.

And I think I should say every minute to what? What's this process called? Yeah, to deforestation.

Okay, I think we've covered our success criteria.

Should we read it back to check? Why don't you read with me? Deforestation is the removal of trees from an area of land.

The slash and burn method is often used to do this.

First, valuable trees, such as mahogany and teak, are felled for timber and the remaining trees are bulldozed, clearing the area.

When the trees are dry, they are burned.

20% of the Amazon rainforest, which is equivalent to four times the size of the UK, has already been lost.

This rainforest, which is home to the world's largest collection of animal and plant species, loses the equivalent of 11 football pitches of forest every minute to deforestation.

Okay, I think we've got it making sense, but let's check our success criteria.

We've defined deforestation, haven't we? And we've said how it happens using the slash and burn method and we've linked it to the Amazon.

We've got a range of linguistic features.

We've got some parenthesis in brackets.

We got our fronted adverbial of time, we have two relative clauses, including down here.

We've got our when here starting our adverbial complex sentence as well.

So lots going on there.

We've got some subject-specific vocabulary, certainly, we've got slash and burn method and of course, we got deforestation quite a few times as well and species as well here.

And we've got some evidence, haven't we? We've given our statistics here, the 20% and the 11 football pitches.

So I think we've met our success criteria.

Okay, you've seen me do it, now it's your turn to write this paragraph.

Remember to use the success criteria below and your plan to write.

If you need to look back at my plan, you can rewind the video to see it.

I want you to say or think your sentences before you write and check them back afterwards.

And of course it's okay to change things from your oral rehearsal.

We have much more time when we're writing.

So you can improve your sentences and try and use a wider range of our linguistic features.

So pause the video and have a go at writing your introduction.

Well done, really good job.

So here's an example of how the start of the introduction could look.

I've said, "Deforestation, which is the removal of trees from an area of land, is often completed using the slash and burn method.

Loggers cut down valuable trees, leaving others to be bulldozed and dried.

Once they are dry, they are burned.

Deforestation is a major problem in the Amazon rainforest.

This forest, which is located in South America, covers an area of 28 times the size of th UK." So I've covered my first point.

I've talked about deforestation, how it happens and we've already connected it to the Amazon.

I've used a range of linguistic features, such as my non-finite -ing clause.

I've got an adverbial complex sentence and a relative complex sentence.

I've got some subject-specific vocabulary, like slash and burn and loggers and I'm not going to tick evidence yet, because I haven't given a huge amount of that yet.

I've given some explanation, which is a type of evidence, but I'm gonna leave that one for the second part of my introduction.

So here's how the rest of the introduction could look.

I've written, "The rainforest is home to the world's largest collection of animal and plant species (including over 2.

5 million species of insect).

However, over 20% of the rainforest, an area four times the size of the UK, has now been lost to deforestation.

Furthermore, an area the size of 11 footballs fields is deforested every minute in the area." So maybe you noticed that in my second example here, I kind of flipped the order around slightly of the last two points.

I described what was special about the Amazon and then I gave the evidence for how deforestation has affect it.

That's still logical and it still works, so it's okay to make slight changes later.

So again, we've got a range of linguistic features here.

I'm not gonna tick the first success criteria, 'cause we already covered that, but for linguistic features we've got some parenthesis here, we've got a formal fronted adverbial, however, and another formal fronted adverbial, furthermore.

We've got some more subject-specific vocabulary, like species and deforested and this time we've got lots of evidence, haven't we? All these statistics at the end here, talking about the extent of deforestation are really good evidence.

Really well done for using your notes so well and for using your oral rehearsal so well to create a really good paragraph.

Good work.

So let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that our essay gives one side of the argument in a logical order, including evidence and connecting information using a range of linguistic features.

We've said that we can use subject-specific vocabulary to add to the formal tone of an essay and then before we write, we should plan our writing and orally rehearse what we plan to write.

And we've seen that the introduction of an essay gives a general overview of the subject.

Fantastic work in this lesson.

I hope you're really pleased with the writing you've produced.

Really well done and I hope to see you again in a future lesson.

Goodbye.