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hey everyone welcome back to coach Hall
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rights in today's video we're going to
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be talking about how to write a body
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paragraph for a synthesis essay before
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we get started I would like to take a
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second to invite you to subscribe to the
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channel at the time that I'm recording
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this I'm very close to 10K both on
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YouTube and Tick Tock so I would love it
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if you would subscribe on both platforms
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that way you can continue to receive
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tips to help you prepare for the AP Lang
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exam here are just some quick tips to
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remember for a synthesis essay in
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general first of all you want to have a
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thesis that takes a crestance on the
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prompt and the reason why this matters
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is because your body paragraphs
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essentially prove your thesis so we want
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to make sure that the main ideas of your
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body paragraphs relate to the thesis
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this will help your line of reasoning
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your body paragraphs are going to
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require evidence either in the form of a
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paraphrase or a direct quote if you're
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working with quotes it's important to
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integrate short quotes into your writing
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and provide parenthetical citations
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because remember for a synthesis essay
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you are required to cite three different
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sources throughout your essay as you're
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working with your evidence you don't
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want to summarize the sources instead
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you want to include those short quotes
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and provide commentary the commentary is
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going to be your analysis how you
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explain the significance of the evidence
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and connect it back to your thesis we'll
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talk more about that later on in this
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video and lastly a quick teacher tip for
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you is to if possible try to include two
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sources per paragraph because doing so
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is going to create a conversation of
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sources it will also help you ensure
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that you have at least three sources in
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your essay when teaching my students how
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to write a body paragraph I give them
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this formula topic sentence evidence
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commentary times two evidence commentary
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times two again and a concluding
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sentence this helps students develop
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their ideas and really prove their main
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idea thus proving their thesis now that
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you have an overview of the components
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of a body paragraph let's break it down
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a little bit more specifically the
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purpose of a topic sentence is to lead
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into or establish the main idea of the
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paragraph if your thesis is the
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overarching claim then each paragraph
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has a sub claim or supporting claim you
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want to make sure that that claim is
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clear early on that way the person who
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is reading your paper knows what you're
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trying to prove in that paragraph
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because remember the evidence and
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commentary is supposed to prove that
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claim it's also possible to note that
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your topic sentence might be two
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sentences instead of one that's okay
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sometimes that's a stylistic choice that
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you as the writer get to make here are
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some possible sentence frames that you
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could use as a topic sentence now these
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are not the only way to start your
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paragraph by any means but if you're
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having trouble getting started one of
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these sentence frames might help if you
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like these sentence frames you are
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welcome to take a screenshot and use
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them in your own writing remember that
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the sentence frame is just that it's a
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frame you have to plug in your own ideas
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one of the questions I'm commonly asked
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is how many body paragraphs do I need
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for my AP Lang essays and I'll be honest
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most of my students only write two body
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paragraphs and that's because they
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prefer to really develop those two body
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paragraphs to try to get a higher score
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what I've noticed is that sometimes when
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students go for three body paragraphs
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the three body paragraphs then reduce in
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quality and so even though they have
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more paragraphs it doesn't necessarily
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help their score that's not to say that
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I haven't read some great essays with
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three body paragraphs what I really want
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you to realize is that whether you have
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two body paragraphs or three body
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paragraphs you really want to make sure
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that each body paragraph is fully
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developed that you are fully proving
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your claim and So speaking of topic
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sentences we want to use the top
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extensions of body paragraph two and
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body paragraph three if applicable to
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help transition from the previous idea
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so we don't want to use our concluding
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sentence to preview the next paragraph's
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idea instead we want to use the topic
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sentence as a way to transition so you
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can see on the slide here that I have a
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few different options for you if you're
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looking to create that transition this
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will help your line of reasoning and it
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will help you move smoothly from your
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first main idea into your seconds or
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perhaps your second into your third if
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that applies and as I said before you're
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welcome to take a screenshot of this and
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use these sentence frames in your
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writing if you find these sentence
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frames helpful let me know in the
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comments below now let's talk about
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evidence so once you have your topic
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sentence then you need evidence to prove
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that claim you want to choose short
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quotes you can also paraphrase I like to
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see at least one or two short quotes in
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a paragraph though because is I don't
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know stylistically that's just what I
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prefer sometimes too much paraphrased
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evidence comes across as summary but
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here's the thing with quoting we don't
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want to choose these really long quotes
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because remember we want more commentary
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than evidence so if you have a long
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quote you're going to have to work even
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harder with that commentary because
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otherwise the long quote is going to
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make your evidence to commentary ratio
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disproportionate
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so you can see here in this example that
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the quote that I'm using is vital to an
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organism that's not even a complete
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thought and that's actually helpful
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because if you take a short phrase it's
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easier to embed it into a sentence of
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your own
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embed simply means to take something and
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put it in something else so we're taking
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the words from one of our sources and
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we're putting it into a sentence of our
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own now notice that I started by saying
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Daniel Shepherd senior lecturer at the
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University of Technology in Auckland I
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didn't say according to Source C now if
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you say it like that it's not wrong but
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remember on the exam the College Board
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decides what is Source a source B Source
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D so those terms are helpful but it's
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better to use the credentials of the
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original source which is why I'm
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actually attributing this quote to
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someone to give credibility to it so
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instead of saying According To Source C
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it's going to sound better if I can cite
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an expert here
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now we still do need to attribute it to
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Source B and that's where the
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parenthetical citation comes in so a
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parenthetical citation is when you put
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the name of the source or the author's
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last name in parentheses at the end of
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the sentence it doesn't have to go
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immediately after the quoted material
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it's actually a lot less disruptive if
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it goes at the end so see how it's in
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parentheses there and the period goes
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after the second parenthesis this is
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similar to both MLA format and APA
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format now if you're writing a research
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paper for class you're probably not
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going to call it Source C if you're
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doing a true research paper but for the
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purposes of the exam most students will
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refer to the source by the letter so
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Source a source B Source C that's
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perfectly fine for the exam also as not
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only a teacher but a reader it is really
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helpful when students have those
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parenthetical citations I tell my
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students to put Source C instead of the
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author's last name because that's how I
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remember the sources and it makes my job
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a little bit easier however you could
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put the author of The Source in those
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parentheses as well just make sure that
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you have those citations though because
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technically it is mentioned on the
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rubric and it really does help the
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person who is reading your essay it's
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also a good academic Habit to get into
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so make sure that you're including a
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citation so in the previous example I
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showed you a quote from a passage but
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sometimes you're given something called
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a visual text this could be a chart a
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picture a cartoon or a graph now
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sometimes there will be something that
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you can cite the cartoon might have
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dialogue the graph or chart might have
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data or percentages so you can take this
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information and weave it into a sentence
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like we did in the previous example
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for a picture you can describe what is
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happening in the picture and that can
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work as well you can also paraphrase so
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if you're not comfortable quoting
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something or if there just simply isn't
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anything to quote it's okay to use
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paraphrase evidence and again you're
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going to have that parenthetical
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citation at the end of the sentence
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if you'd like a closer look at these two
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examples go ahead and pause the video
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now this must be followed by commentary
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so I'd like to give you a couple tips to
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improve your commentary
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you'll notice that I have a series of
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verbs over on the left of the slide
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verbs like conveys demonstrates
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emphasizes illustrates these are verbs
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that can lead to commentary not just for
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a synthesis essay you can actually use
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these verbs in rhetorical analysis and
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arguments as well many of these verbs
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are a synonym for shows which I consider
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a lower level or weaker verb so if you
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can start to correctly incorporate these
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verbs into your writing it'll strengthen
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your word choice and it will add some
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variety now as far as developing the
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content of your commentary because I
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think commentary is the hardest part
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regardless of which frq we're talking
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about here are some questions that you
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could ask yourself start with why is the
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evidence significant because remember
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the purpose of commentary is to explain
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the significance of the evidence so why
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is what you just cited as evidence
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significant you also want to think about
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the overall issue that we're talking
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about the topic why does this topic or
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this issue matter really think about
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that now in some cases another general
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question you can ask yourself is who is
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helped or harmed by this issue another
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way to think of it is who benefits and
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who faces a disadvantage thinking about
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this can help make your commentary more
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specific and it can help you make those
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real world connections so that your
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analysis is deeper you can also think
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about the impact this issue has on
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society both now and in the future so
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think about the short-term and long-term
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implications
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now these are not the only things to
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think about with commentary but these
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questions are a great starting point and
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you could use some of these questions
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for one body paragraph and maybe save
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others for your other body paragraph or
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you can use the same questions and
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perhaps your evidence will lead you to
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different answers that way you can
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further develop your commentary that way
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as well if you are an AP Lang student or
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teacher and you have commentary tips
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that really help you then go ahead and
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leave those in the comments below as
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well because this platform is the way
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for us to help each other so I would
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love to know what helps you write better
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commentary especially for a synthesis
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essay let me know in the comments when I
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was talking about the body paragraph
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formula I mentioned evidence commentary
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times to evidence commentary times two
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so I call this layers of evidence and
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commentary and the reason why I like my
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students to layer their evidence and
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commentary is because oftentimes when
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students write a paragraph that has what
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I call one layer it's just not developed
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enough they haven't really proven their
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claim enough and so it usually results
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in a lower score however I've noticed
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that if students have two layers of
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evidence in commentary or more I've seen
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students do more than just two they are
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more likely to secure a higher score now
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it's not guaranteed but it is something
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that helps so something to think about
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is we want to have a conversation of
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sources now what do I mean by that well
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in a conversation we have multiple
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voices and those voices might agree with
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each other they might expand on what the
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previous person said or maybe they even
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disagree with each other and so that's
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what we want our sources to do we want
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to have the sources have a conversation
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we want them to talk to each other and
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so it helps if you cite more than one
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source per paragraph because if you just
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cite One Source in the paragraph it can
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seem more like summary or it could lead
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to disconnected ideas that creates a
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weak line of reasoning so I have seen
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students do three body paragraphs and
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each body paragraph has one source so
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yes they did achieve the three sources
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requirement but the paragraphs
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themselves felt very disconnected if
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you're looking to improve your synthesis
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essay really try to incorporate two
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possibly even three sources per
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paragraph We don't want to stuff the
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evidence in there we want to make sure
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it's done tactfully and meaningfully but
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we want to create that conversation of
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sources think of a synthesis essay kind
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of like an episode of chopped so if
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you've ever seen that show they give the
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different contestants this basket and
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they all have the same ingredients but
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they all make different things so you
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have to use the ingredients to make
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something and so it's okay if your
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synthesis body paragraph is different
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than somebody else's maybe you use
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different sources or a different
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proportion of the sources but you're
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still blending those ingredients
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together to create a recipe and just as
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a quick reminder we want to follow
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evidence with commentary one way you can
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check yourself for this is you can use
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two different colors of a highlighter if
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you have a handwritten essay literally
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go through and highlight your evidence
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in one color and your commentary in the
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other now some sentences won't be
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highlighted so for instance if you're
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just highlighting evidence and
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commentary if the sentence is a claim
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then don't highlight that or if there's
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evidence in the claim maybe just
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highlight just the evidence part that
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way you can really see the proportions
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if you have too much of the evidence
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this color highlighted and not enough of
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the commentary color present that'll
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tell you that you need to go back and
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add more commentary if you typed your
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essay you can still do the same
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highlighting just do it digitally
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this tip really does help students see
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the proportions of evidence and
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commentary and it's a great thing to do
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before you revise an essay especially if
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you're worried that you didn't have
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enough commentary in the first place
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something else you might try to do is if
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you have commentary but maybe it's
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weaker commentary I've also had some
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students go through and highlight what
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they consider to be weaker commentary
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that way they knew what to go back and
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fix so just a quick teacher tip for you
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there but highlighting really does help
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especially in the revision process or in
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the writing process before you submit if
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you want to just double check that you
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have the right proportions the last part
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of the body paragraph is a concluding
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sentence so as the name suggests it's a
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final sentence of the paragraph We don't
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want to use it to preview the next main
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idea I think some students are taught
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that in elementary school and maybe for
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that age it's appropriate but for these
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essays it feels really bizarre to end a
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paragraph by leading into something new
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instead we want to tie back to the main
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idea or the thesis so think of the
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concluding sentence as a way to wrap up
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your paragraph not to introduce
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something new words like therefore thus
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or as such can help you transition don't
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say to conclude even though it's called
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a concluding sentence now you might be
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thinking okay now that I know the parts
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of a paragraph what does this look like
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here is a screenshot from one of my
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previous videos that I did a couple
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years ago but you can see we've got the
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claim the evidence and the commentary
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here you're welcome to pause the video
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now to read what's on the screen I'll
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also link this video in the comments
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Below in case you want to see the whole
00:15:16
video because it really breaks down the
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essay process thank you so much for
00:15:21
watching if you found this video helpful
00:15:23
please hit that like button that tells
00:15:26
other AP Lang teachers and students like
00:15:28
you that this video is helpful also
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please be sure that you are subscribed
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with your notifications turned on that
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way you don't miss any future content
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and if you're a tick tock user go ahead
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and follow me over there as well I am
00:15:41
working on providing lots of quick tips
00:15:43
as we lead into the upcoming AP Lang
00:15:45
exam and as always until next time happy
00:15:48
writing
