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  • Hello everyone, I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is writing introductions. And

  • I'm going to give you three ways that you can write introductions, and you can use any

  • of these three ways to answer an IELTS exam for the discursive essay or discursive essay

  • questions in the CAE exam.

  • So let's take a look at the kind of question I'm talking about. I'll read the question

  • to you first of all. "In Britain, elderly people may go to live

  • in a home with other old people where nurses look after them. Sometimes the government

  • has to pay for this care. Who do you think should pay for this care?"

  • And then in the IELTS question it would say: "Give reasons and support your answer with

  • your own opinions."

  • So this is a discursive essay. And if you look at it, there are two... There are two

  • sides in the question. The first side is the government paying for the care. And the other...

  • The other side is implied, doesn't... Doesn't tell us who the other side is. But if the

  • government's not paying, it's implying that it's the... The children of the elderly people.

  • So: "children of elderly people." So, in all these discursive essays, there's going to

  • be some kind of opposition; one side and a different side. So now we found the two sides,

  • the two ways of looking at this question.

  • And what we're going to look at now is the first way that you can answer this question

  • in an introduction. Because what happens is when you get there and you're writing an exam,

  • many people just get stuck and they don't know what to write for the introduction; they

  • don't know how to begin. And, of course, you can waste time if you don't know what to say.

  • So what some people do is basically just rewrite the question and just maybe change a couple

  • of words, but it's not really an introduction if you do that.

  • So let's look at rhetorical questions. You can use a rhetorical question to write an

  • introduction. What's a "rhetorical question"? I think I just made a rhetorical question.

  • It's when you... When you speak directly to the reader, asking a question, but of course

  • the reader's not going to be able to answer you, so you answer the reader in the course

  • of your argument. So it's taking the question and making your own question out of it, essentially.

  • So, an easy way to do it is by using: "should" to form your question. So remember we've got

  • two sides, we've got an opposition. We've got government paying for the care and we've

  • got the children of elderly people paying for the... For the care.

  • So here we go, here's the first example: "Should the government or family pay for the

  • care of elderly people?" So, in my answer, I've called them "family"

  • here, it's a little bit... It's a little bit more direct and succinct, rather than saying:

  • "children of elderly people". So there's one example.

  • "Should the government be responsible for providing care for elderly people?"

  • I forgot my question mark there. You don't need to write your rhetorical question with

  • "should". You could use other question structures. For example: "Is it the responsibility of

  • government to pay for the care of elderly people?" You don't have to use "should", but

  • I find "should" is an easy... Easy way to generate your question. But then, you know,

  • that's not the whole introduction; you need to say something else.

  • What do you say then? Well, you follow with the context. So, what's the context of this?

  • Well, it's telling us what happens in Britain, elderly people go to homes and the government

  • pays or sometimes the family pay, but maybe there's a different context in other countries.

  • For example: the country you're from. Again, it's implying that, that it's not the same

  • system everywhere in the world. So you could... You could bring this context into the next

  • sentence in your introduction.

  • So here is some sentences you can use for writing about the context. And I haven't...

  • I haven't finished the sentences, I'll just improvise some endings. For example:

  • "This question" - talking about the rhetorical question - "generates a lot of debate because..."

  • and now I'm going to improvise. "This question generates a lot of debate because the care

  • for elderly people is very, very" - not very, very - "is very expensive."

  • Or you could say: "Opinion is divided about this issue because

  • some families cannot afford to pay for the care of their elderly relatives. For this

  • reason, it's not fair to expect them to pay." Something like that, another improvised answer.

  • Or what about this one? In your subject, you can use a group. Okay? You don't have to say:

  • "I think", you don't have to use your own subjectivity. So you could say something like:

  • "Most people" or you could, borrowing the authority of somebody else, you could say:

  • "politicians" or we could refer to someone relevant in the answer. We could say: "Most

  • elderly people", for example. Here we go: "Most people think that..." Improvising here:

  • "Most people think that the government should pay for the care of elderly people because

  • elderly people have worked and paid taxes all their lives so it's only fair."

  • I don't know if most people think that, but it's your essay, you can say what you like.

  • So when you... When you've written your statement with the context, that's... Will give you

  • a few lines and that's enough for an introduction. And then you can move on to the main body

  • of your... Of your essay. But what we look at next is the other ways of writing an introduction

  • for your IELTS or CAE exam.

  • Let's have a look at the second way to write an introduction. So I just left some key phrases

  • from the question at the top here. Remember, we have an opposition: the government pays

  • for the care or the family pays for the care. So if you are uncomfortable doing a rhetorical

  • question, you might want to consider this way which I'm calling the "While Introduction".

  • And this is the structure for writing this kind of introduction, there are three parts

  • to make your introduction.

  • The first part is you need to write a context sentence and you can do that in the present

  • simple. The second part is a "While" sentence for contrast. And the third part is a statement

  • of opinion. So we're going to look at those three different parts now.

  • So, one: context sentence, present simple. So, here you're expressing some kind of general

  • fact about the situation. "The care of elderly people is expensive therefore,

  • there is debate about who should pay for it." We put commas before "therefore". You're not

  • using: "I think" or anything like this. This is just a general statement about the situation.

  • Remember that in Britain, elderly people go to live in a home sometimes and the government

  • sometimes pays for them. Well, you're just adding a little bit of opinion there, saying

  • it's expensive, you're... You're sharing us what the problem is if you... If you do that.

  • So there... There you have your context.

  • Then we get to the part where we need to make the "While" sentence for contrast, and this

  • is where we show the two positions; some people think this, some people think that. Let's

  • have a look. So this would be your sentence or something similar:

  • "While some people think that the government should pay, others think that the family should

  • pay." So, what you do is you need to put the two

  • sides of the argument into your "While" sentence. So here I put "some people" and I'm contrasting

  • it with "others", "others". But we could... We could vary this. We could also say: "many

  • people" or we could even say: "elderly people". We could include... We could include the group

  • of people that the question's actually talking about. So, we need to make the opposition

  • and we do that by mentioning here the other side of the situation, the family should pay

  • like that. When you write a "While" sentence, there will always be a comma in between your

  • first clause and your second clause.

  • So then what do you do? You need to give a statement of opinion to close this introduction.

  • So you can use... You can use this phrase to get you started, you can say: "In my opinion".

  • "In my opinion, there are strong arguments on both sides..."

  • So you would continue that, saying something about why you think one side is strong. I

  • think this kind of thing is really good for an IELTS answer. If you are at university

  • level, you need to be writing something more sophisticated, but I'm giving you just a template

  • you can use in your answers so that you don't get stuck. And if you follow this template,

  • you'll get a good score in your essays. Oh, well the introduction will be good at least.

  • So here's another option, you could say: "In my opinion, the government" - or you could

  • choose a different subject -, "the family should pay as..." blah, blah, blah.

  • So here, you're including in the introduction what you actually think. You're showing us

  • how you're going to argue in the rest of the essay or what you're going to discuss in the

  • rest of the essay. If you say something like this: "In my opinion, there are strong arguments

  • on both sides", we don't really know where you're going with your answer yet. Maybe you

  • don't know yet and that's why you're choosing that. If you say: "In my opinion, the family

  • should pay..." blah, blah, blah, then we know that throughout your argument, that's what

  • you're going for; you're going to make the case that it's the responsibility of the family.

  • So when we come back, we're going to look at the third and final way that you can use...

  • A template that you can follow to write an introduction for IELTS or CAE.

  • Now we're going to look at the final way that I have for you to write an introduction for

  • your IELTS or CAE. So, often, these kind of questions are really set up for you to be

  • able to bring in your own experience from your own country, so you can contrast the

  • cultures between Britain and where you're from, for example. So, I've called this third

  • option: "Sharing experience/contrasting cultures". So remember the question was set

  • up in a way that said: "In Britain, the government generally pays for the care of elderly people"?

  • Well, maybe it's different in your country so we can use this structure for making an

  • introduction.

  • The first part is a context sentence about your country. So the question told us what

  • it's like in Britain. What's it like in your country? The next part is a "However" contrast

  • sentence, so contrasting sentence. And the last part of the introduction is you giving

  • a statement of opinion. Which system or which culture do you think is best? Effectively,

  • so let's look at those sentences.

  • For the context sentence about your country, I'm just going to put a country here.

  • "In ___________ the family is responsible for" - missed that word - "for the care of

  • their elderly parents." Well, I spent some time in Nepal and I can

  • tell you that there, the family is responsible. They have a very different system; the way

  • they live is very different. So, in fact, I don't have to be from Nepal to say that.

  • It's not like I'm talking about my country; doesn't have to be your country to make this

  • kind of... To use this kind of structure. So, for example: "In Nepal the family is responsible

  • for the care of their elderly parents, therefore they must pay for their care." It's not an

  • option for the government to pay for the care here. So there's a context sentence.

  • Then show the contrast. That's what it's like in Nepal, what's it like in Britain? And you

  • can use what was said in the question to be able to answer that.

  • "However, in Britain the situation is different." - Yeah, we know it's different because the

  • government can pay for the care - "Perhaps because family life is different."

  • You could go on to discuss this more in the main body of your essay. You don't... You

  • don't definitely... Essentially, you don't need that so much, that's just like a little

  • bit extra. You could just leave it like that. "However, in Britain the situation is different."

  • And then you can give your opinion. Which way or which system is better? So whatever

  • you think. "In my opinion, the government should pay

  • for the care of elderly people because..." blah, blah, blah.

  • So what I've tried to do is break down the structure of an introduction for you because

  • a lot of people just get really stuck and they don't know what to write because you

  • see this question there and you don't really know how to put it together.

  • So what can you take away from today's lesson? You can think... You can think about an introduction

  • as something with a beginning, and a middle, and an end, and a structure that you can follow.

  • Plus, you can take away some of the set phrases that I've given you so that you can include

  • those in your introductions in the future when you're writing something.

  • But what you can do now is, of course, go to the engVid website where you can do a quiz

  • on this lesson. So that will prepare you for writing introductions for your exams. And

  • what I'd also like you to do is subscribe here on my engVid channel and also on my personal

  • channel. I've got lots and lots of videos on my personal channel about learning English,

  • other things as well, accents, a variety of things for you to enjoy there. So, yes, we're

  • finished now. I'm just going to go fishing. I'll see you later.

Hello everyone, I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is writing introductions. And

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A2 初級 英國腔

雅思作文自我介紹怎麼寫--快速簡單的方法! (How to Write IELTS Essay Introductions – The Quick & Easy Way!)

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    Thao Nguyen 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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