In this lesson, I will show you how to form a paragraph of the main body in Task 2. Let’s remember our topic from previous lessons and the paraphrased introduction we wrote:
T.V. advertisements aimed at young children are far too many nowadays and they should be forbidden.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
And here is our paraphrased introduction based on the above topic:
“In the developing world, the amount of advertisements shown on T.V is consistently increasing. The advertisements that target young children could not be an exception to this generally accepted situation and as a result, there are a lot of people who claim that these advertisements should be banned from T.V. altogether“.
Ok, let’s just say that we choose an idea that disagrees with the topic. We choose to say that “advertisements are part of our world, so children should get used to it.” Thus, advertisements shouldn’t be banned. This is what we are going to discuss in our paragraph.
First of all, keep in mind that a paragraph is a small writing by itself. It has an opening sentence which introduces your point; it has a main body where you analyse your point by giving reasons and examples; and it has a closing sentence where you wrap-up and give way to the next paragraph. In between, you will use connecting phrases. Hence, a paragraph should be a small cohesive writing by itself. Let’s go now and check it out together!
Ok, we have our introduction ready, now let’s choose a phrase that will help us connect the introduction with the point we want to make. The introduction states that advertisements should be banned and we want to make a point for the opposite so we need a smooth transition from one to the other. Also, don’t forget to separate the paragraphs, this is very important! Ok, let’s see:
No one would argue that TV advertisements aimed at young children are not enough and more are needed –>
This is our opening sentence in the paragraph. It connects with the introduction and prepares the reader that you are probably going to say something different. Let’s move on with our main body of the paragraph:
Certainly, it should be argued that advertisements in general constitute a great part of our modern world and as a result, advertisements aimed at young children cannot be an exception to this rule. However, banning these advertisements that focus on children altogether is not the best solution. Children should get used to both the positive and the negative aspects of our society from an early age. This exposition to the real world will allow the children to deal with its drawbacks and it will teach them the way to limit themselves and their insatiable desires. If they are not exposed to any kind of advertising as kids, then, when they grow up they will not know the way to handle this variety of advertisements aimed at them as teens or adults. Consequently, they will most probably try to satisfy each and every need the advertisements create in them. For instance, there are cases of restricted children that as adults became victims of addicted behaviour.
[closing sentence] Therefore, advertisements could prepare the children for our “big, competitive, and consuming world”.
This is quite along paragraph but you don’t need to write that much. I wrote quite a bit just to help you by giving you more options in terms of phrasing and expressions. As you can see, in the paragraph we give reasons and examples to support our point and useful connecting phrases between sentences. For further explanations, you can watch the video lesson: