[MUSIC] Hi, I'd like to talk to you about writing a background paragraph. This involves outlining the causes, the effects, and the importance of the issue that your project identifies. The paragraph will help you collect your thoughts and research on the project's issue and synthesize them together. This acts as the culmination of your research and brings your work together in a coherent whole for both yourself and others. In this lesson, we will look at two possible structures for your paragraph using two different examples. We will also use these two example paragraphs to look at the language of cause and effect that you can use in your own background paragraphs. One paragraph is based on the topic we have been addressing in other video lessons, stress amongst early career teachers. The other is taken from the other written example, which is for a mentoring program aimed at girls from disadvantaged communities. You will find both available for download in the resources section. Note that in these paragraphs, we have numbered each sentence to make our explanations easier to understand. But please don't do this in your own paragraph. As I'll be making constant reference to these two paragraphs throughout this video lesson, it's best to read through these two paragraphs before continuing. As outlined in the course, there are two possible forms that your paragraph can take. Which one you use depends largely on how closely linked the causes are with the effects. For example, if in your research you found that causes clearly link up with effects, the best structure to your paragraph will be firstly, a short description of the issue with reference to literature. Next, each cause followed by the related effect. No more than two or three of these here, otherwise your paragraph will get too unwieldy. And then to finish, a sentence or two on the importance of the issue, its implication, and or significance. We'll call this structure 1. However, things don't always work out so neatly. You might have found in your literature review that causes didn't match up exactly with effects, or there might have been one cause with multiple effects, or vice versa. If that's the case, you'll probably want to use this model. Firstly, again, a short description of the issue with referencing to the literature that you found. Next, each of the causes for your issue in turn, then each of the effects of the issue. And finally, same as from the previous paragraph structure, a sentence or two on the importance of the issue, its implications, and/or its significance. We'll call this structure 2. Which model paragraph matches with each structure? Feel free to pause the video and match them up, if you like. Okay, so mode paragraph A, the one about the early career teachers, clearly matches up with structure 2. The first sentence is a description of the issue, early career teacher stress, with a short example of its importance. The next sentence acts as a precursor to the description of the issue's causes, dividing the causes into personal and contextual causes. Sentence 3 and 4 then describe the personal causes of early career stress, while sentences 5, 6, and s7 describe the contextual causes. Sentence 8 then signposts a shift from addressing causes to addressing effects, with sentences 9 and 10 further outlining what those effects are. Finally, it addresses the implications of this literature, showing how the causes and effect lead to the idea of a mentoring program to support early career teachers. Therefore, model paragraph A is an example of structure 2. Now what about model paragraph B? Model paragraph B then follows structure 1, because it links the causes and effects more closely together. The initial description here carries through to midway through sentence 3, as the initial description takes some time to establish in this particular case. The first cause can be seen here, with the effect of the cause following in the same sentence. Sentence 4 then follows with another cause. And sentence 5 with the resulting effect. Finally, sentence 6 again addresses the implications by linking the short literature review in the paragraph to the proposed program. In model paragraph B, we can see that each part of the paragraph does not necessarily always equal one sentence. And that the relative length of each might vary, depending on your particular project. This is a sophisticated example of a background paragraph. And it follows structure 2. Let's move on now to look at some of the language of cause and effect that's used in these paragraphs. This language is crucial for highlighting which are causes and which are effects, and how the two might be affected. In the reading section, you will find a list of cause and effect language, but it's always important to understand how they are used in a paragraph. Let's look firstly at the language of causes in each. In paragraph A, we can see this is clearly highlighted with the use of words like causes, causing, and a key cause. Along with the use of other phrases to indicate cause, such as leading to and reasons. Paragraph B uses language such as due to, factors, and as to indicate causes. So let's turn now to the language of effects. In paragraph A, there is the use of words and phrases like effect and as a result of. Paragraph B has less such language, relying more on logical connection and paragraph structure to indicate effect, but does use phrases like impacts to indicate effects. Once you've finished your paragraph, don't forget to proofread for any small areas in things like spelling, grammar, and referencing. After that, well done, you're ready to move on to the next stage of the course. [MUSIC]
