What are the points that will be discussed in my essay?

You will need 2 points each for why some people want to stand out from the crowd and why others do not.

 

Writing a thesis statement:

A hook in the essay is a catchy sentence or paragraph in the introduction which serves as an attention-grabbing element.

The effectiveness of the hook is defined by its ability to motivate people to read the entire text. A hook sentence is the most recommended way to start an academic paper of any type as it gives a hint of what the topic is and what kind of questions will be observed. It keeps the reading audience intrigued to the end. 

An excellent hook sentence is engaging and interesting; it is a perfect method to start an argumentative or persuasive paper. The problem is that once students start, they forget to keep the rest of the paper interesting. It's important to define the target audience, thesis, and supporting arguments not to fall off the point. However, this article is focused on writing a hook; it is time to find out the ways a writer can pick the most appropriate attention grabber. View these great tips on writing a school/college essay to get more information.

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How to Write a Hook sentence?

Before we begin to talk about types of perfect essay hook, we want to mention several steps students should take to decide on which hook to choose.

How to write a good hook?

You must have a clear vision of what kind of a literary work you are working on.

Definition, descriptive, and narrative essays differ from argumentative and critical essays a lot because they require different writing strategies. In the initial group of essays, you need to describe certain events or concepts, whether the second group requires you to use persuasive techniques to support your argument.

You should begin your work with creating an outline of your essay.

It allows writers to see how the work is structured better and which points to highlight.

Understand who you are writing for.

Each cohort, each generation has its own language, and your primary task is to choose a particular way in which your work will develop. When you write for children, write for children. If you write for language professionals, take their specific language into account - it is an effective way to get an action plan and follow it.

Realize why you are writing this essay.

If it is a paper on a complicated topic for a popular magazine, you can go funny and humorous, and your readers will love this approach. Yet, if you write a conference paper, be more formal. Good hooks must fit in your writing frame, your tone and style.

The answer to the question is 'no.' You can't use more than 1-2 hook sentences in your paper because you risk having high plagiarism level and making your reader lost. Try to choose only one powerful hook as the opening sentence of paper's introduction. You can also add a hook at the beginning of conclusion (learn how to write conclusion).

Let's Look at Some Catchy Hooks for Essays

START WITH AN INTERESTING FACT

Example:

"Archaeologists believe, based on marks they've seen on mummies, that human beings had tattoos between 4000 and 2000 B.C. in Egypt."(David Shields, 36 Tattoos)

Do you want to make the audience read your full text? Amaze them with the great introduction! Get them hooked with the help of a fact they have never heard and keep them interested throughout the entire work. Such hook sentences do not necessarily need specific figures. Check out this article: don't you want to learn more about where tattoos have come from and what they mean?

Part 2 

Do you want people to feel excited when they read your essay?

Get your audience interested in reading your essay by making the first part of your introduction intriguing. The best way to do that is by using attention-grabbing essay hooks.

So, what is a hook?  It’s a piece of writing at the beginning of your essay that engages your reading audience.  Usually, a hook is a sentence or group of sentences that draw people into reading your essay or research paper.  A hook sparks a person’s curiosity.  You want whoever reads your essay to wonder what happens next. They are also a way to make an introduction standout.

If you want to see all the elements of great introductions for research papers check out last week’s post here, https://www.academicwritingsuccess.com/how-to-write-a-strong-introduction-to-a-research-paper/.

If you write essay hooks that makes your readers curious, you’ve taken the first step towards making them fall in love with your writing.

 

7 Types of Essay Hooks

7 Excellent Essay Hooks

Here are 7 writing hooks that make readers want to find out what you will say in the rest of your essay.

Interesting Question Hook

Strong Statement/Declaration Hook

Fact/Statistic Hook

Metaphor/ Simile Hook

Story Hook

Description Hook

Quotation Hook.   

 

1.  The Interesting Question Hook

An interesting question hook is when you ask a question that relates to your essay or paper.  And the only way a person can know the answer to that question is by reading your writing.

People are inquisitive.  When we hear or read a question we want to know the answer.   If we don’t have an answer then we need to find out.  So, when you start your essay with an interesting question hook, this signals to your readers that if they keep reading you’ll give them the answer.

Here’s an example of an interesting question hook on the topic of succeeding in college:

What is the difference between successful college students and unsuccessful college students? 

The goal of this essay hook is to make you want to learn what students who succeed in college do, and what are college students who don’t succeed in college doing wrong.

 

2.  The Strong Statement/Declaration Hook

A strong statement hook is a sentence that makes an assertive claim about your topic.   It connects to the thesis statement and shows the importance of your essay or paper.

A strong statement is a great technique because it doesn’t matter if your reader agrees or disagrees with your statement.  They will want to see how you support your statement.

This is an example of a strong statement for the topic of online college classes:

Online college classes are cheaper and more effective than in-person college classes.   

This statement either supports your point of view about online classes, or it makes you want to argue against it.  Either way, you are curious about what the writer says.

 

3.  The Fact/ Statistic Hook

Facts and statistics hook your reader because they give real information about a topic.   You can impress your reader with your knowledge and evidence from the very beginning of your essay. But, you need to include facts that are accurate, interesting and reliable.  Evaluate your information and make sure it comes from a credible source.

Here’s an example of a factual hook about an essay on gun ownership in the United States.

Almost two-thirds of American adults at some point in their life lived in a home with at least one gun. 

The Pew Research Center, “America’s Relationship With Guns: An In-Depth Look at the Attitudes and Experiences of US Adults”  http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/  

 

4.  The Metaphor / Simile Hook

The metaphor/simile hook engages your readers because it makes them think about a topic in a different way.  Your audience wonders what you mean and how you compare a topic to something that seems unconnected.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that directly compares one thing to another, but these two things seem unrelated.  An example of a metaphor is: Her boyfriend is a rat.

The boyfriend is not really a rat, but he behaves like one.

A simile is like a metaphor.  Both compare two unrelated things to each other, but a simile uses the words like or as to connect them. A simile is less strong than a comparison in a metaphor. For example:  Writing a research paper is like running a marathon when it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

If your essay topic is on business blogging you could write the metaphor hook:

A business blog is a magnet pulling clients to a company. 

Or the simile hook:

A business blog is like a magnet that pulls clients to a company.

 

5. The Story Hook

This is a hook where you begin with a short story or episode that relates to your topic.

Readers love stories, especially a well-written story that is memorable.  The key to a great story hook is making sure the story directly connects to your essay or paper topic.

Your story can be personal or someone else’s story.

Here’s an example of a story hook for an essay about the differences between British and American English.   I used my own story about a trip to England.

I got off the train and pulled my luggage behind me.  A cab pulled up to the curb, and the driver got out.  He lifted my luggage and said, “Miss, I’m just going to put your stuff in the boot.”  I didn’t know what he meant until I saw him open the car’s trunk.  Then I realized the boot means car trunk.  I got in the cab, wondering how many other words would be different in England. 

You’ll see this story hook is longer than other types of essay hooks.   That’s okay.  Your hook can be longer, but it shouldn’t be a large part of your essay or paper.   Compare the length of your hook to the length of the essay.

Also, consider your audience (especially an academic audience).  Ask yourself, “Will a story hook be acceptable in this course?”  If you’re unsure you can ask your teacher or professor or you could select a different type of hook.

 

6.  The Description Hook

This is a hook where a vivid description of a scene draws your readers into your writing.  A good description hook will make your reader want to know what comes next in your writing.    It’s most popular in narrative essays, but you can use a description hook with any type of writing (yes even academic papers).   But, like the story hook ask yourself, “Will this description hook be acceptable in this course?”

Here’s an example of a description hook for a personal narrative essay about saving a dog:

The dog howled in pain and limped along the side of the road.  His leg was cut and blood streamed down his leg. 

Doesn’t this scene make you curious about what will happen to the dog?

 

7.  The Quotation Hook

This is a hook where you begin your essay with a quotation.  The quotation could be from a famous person, but it doesn’t have to be. You can quote anyone if it connects to what you’re writing about.

If you write an essay on the topic of education you could begin with: Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

If you want to use a quotation for a hook, make sure you quote the words exactly.  Choose quotations where the words are striking, powerful, and/ or memorable.

Part 3

Anyone who’s ever been a student will agree that writing an essay is not easy. In fact, it seems to be quite a challenging task: finding proper ideas, arranging the text according to the rules, keeping the style consistent throughout the entire work. Let us assume that you’ve composed a great essay but when you give it to others for editing, they literally force themselves to read till the end. Not because you lack writing skills, but because your essay is…simply boring. In short, readers don’t enjoy following the flow of your thoughts. Why does it happen? Here comes an explanation.

The 20 seconds rule

The reader subconsciously estimates the value of the text during the first 20 seconds of reading it. Obviously, it is impossible to get all the worthy ideas from the text in 20 seconds, but that’s how much time it takes to make your impression and decide whether you want to keep on reading or not. Sure, your college professor MUST read your essay until the end, but when it comes to the online audience, you have to fight for their attention.

The 20 seconds rule

What you need is a “hook” to grab the interest of those to whom your essay is addressed. Sounds like taking part in a competition, perhaps, but it is exactly what you should be best at in order for your works to get noticed and appreciated.

What’s a hook in writing?

A hook is not merely a metaphor. Actually, this widely used tool was first mentioned by Aristotle in the context of drama. Hooks were used to involve spectators in the action, make them captivated by whatever happens on stage. Such a technique can be applied to writing as well. So, here comes the hook definition in literature: a hook is a literary device in an opening sentence (-s) used in order to attract a reader’s attention. That is to say, you should offer a striking beginning to motivate your readers and encourage further reading.

Offer the intriguing or mysterious setting, create the right mood, allude to the theme or conflict, surprise the reader with casting him/her into the middle of an action. This is one of the features that literature and movies have in common: both of them have to capture and keep attention, both need a proper hook.

What is a hook in an essay?

As you know, each kind of essay starts with the introduction of presenting a topic and posing a statement. However, the statement should be presented in a logical manner; that is why it is usually preceded by a few generalized sentences. These sentences are your hook. A pitfall here is that you may ponder on the hook words for essays for hours while generating the essay body in your mind. Therefore, get down to business: write the essay body first and then work on the hook. Having the framework in front of you eases the construction of the lacking essay parts. That is an effective “recipe” for many writers.

What is a hook in an essay?

Not only the first sentences but also the last ones may serve as a hook for your essay. Introduce the closing hooks for essays through posing a controversial or tricky question, intriguing with unusual outlook, presenting the generally known facts as brand new ones. In short, get your audience really interested. A conclusion usually echoes the intro part, so if your essay is framed by hooks, you hit the target.

How to write a hook?

Well, knowing how to use essay hooks is undoubtedly a must for every writer. Below there are some tips that will help you write effective hooks for all essay types. Consider different kinds of hooks and choose the optimal one for writing either an introduction or a conclusion. Since it’s the introduction that goes first, let us start off with hook introduction examples.

13 of them — the sacred number — with examples are offered below, as well as several more hook ideas are offered in our blog post about intros and conclusions for the essays.

1. Quote of a well-known person

Indicating the author is obligatory. Quoting the acknowledged personality not only grabs attention immediately but also brings a sense of credibility to your writing. Check out the following quotes, and you will see that they are all well-suited to be followed by a thesis:

“Never say more than is necessary.” ― Richard Brinsley Sheridan;

“Be a worthy worker and work will come.” ― Amit Kalantri;

“Great losses are great lessons.” ― Amit Kalantri;

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” ― H. Jackson Brown;

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” ― Benjamin Franklin;

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” ― Buddha.

Click on the links below to find plenty of wise sayings worth being used as hook sentences for essays:

Brainyquote.com

Goodreads.com

Keepinsiring.me

2. A piece of advice:

“Never reply when you are angry. Never make a promise when you are happy. Never make a decision when you are sad”;

“When you say yes to others make sure you are not saying no to yourself.” ― Paulo Coehlo;

“Don’t ever dumb yourself down just to make someone else feel comfortable”;

“Best advice in two lines: Silence is the best answer for all questions. Smiling is the best reaction in all situations”;

“Listen to advice from people who have been there and done that. It is so hard to believe that when you are young, but parents, mentors, teachers, they can all be so valuable when it comes to advice”;

3. Contradictory statement:

“The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.” ― Oscar Wilde;

“Everybody sets out to do something, and everybody does something, but no one does what he sets out to do.” ― George A. Moore;

“I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.” ― Tom Robbins;

4. Surprising and interesting fact:

“Bill Gates’ first business was Traf-O-Data, a company involved in producing machines that recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road”

“Ketchup was being sold in the 1830s as medicine”;

“Celery has negative calories: it takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples”;

“If you were to remove all of the empty space from the atoms that make up every human on earth, the entire world population could fit into an apple.”

5. Rhetorical question:

Why bother about…?

What if…?

How come…?

What does it mean to…?

What should be done if…?

6. Humorous statement:

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” ― Elbert Hubbard;

“There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments.” ― Chris Rock;

“They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.” ― Clint Eastwood;

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” ― Charles Dudley Warner;

“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they make a good excuse.” ― Thomas Szasz.

7. Describing the setting:

Choose the book or story your essay will be based on and use its first lines in your introduction. It should set the mood, introduce characters, hint towards the historical or cultural background. Such hooks to start an essay take the reader straightforwardly into the action, without long preambles.

8. Statistics:

“The number of worldwide social media users is expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2018”;

“70% of the U.S. population has at least one social networking profile”;

“100 million Internet users watch online video each day”;

“Only 12% of businesses feel that they are using social media effectively, and yet approximately 60% of businesses have their profiles on various social media channels”.

9. Unusual comparison:

“Life is like a bar of soap, once you think you’ve got a hold of it, it slips away”;

“Life is like a 1,000-page book. You want to quit halfway through, but then you realize you have a lot left to look forward to”;

“Life is like a party. You invite a lot of people; some go, some join you, some laugh with you, some didn’t come. But in the end, after the fun, there would be a few who would clean up the mess with you. And most of the time, those were the uninvited ones”.

10. Personal experience:

“In childhood, I was so scared of water that to fight my phobia, I had no other choice but to join a high school swim team”;

“I was born into a low-income family and I am not ashamed of it. In fact, it makes me proud because I definitely realize how much money is worth now, seeing how my peers waste away fortunes in casinos”;

“As a public speaking expert with 10+ years of experience, I can reassure you that the fear of public speaking never vanishes, you can only get it under control”.

11. A metaphor or a simile:

“His story was as funny as a barrel of monkeys”;

“The land was as strong as Captain Hook’s invincible metal arm”;

“Most stories posted on the internet are as clear as mud and you have to work really hard to make some sense out of them”;

“SEO is the light of our lives — it makes texts more structured, clear, and to the point. There is no excuse for straying away from the point into the dark deep woods of gibberish”.

13. A definition:

“When someone has a strong urge to do something that is very unadvisable or undesirable, it is very rarely referred to with a beautiful word cacoethes”;

“Effable is not a commonly used word but it is, in essence, an antonym to ineffable — something that is hard to put in words”;

“Autophobia is the fear of having to be alone”.

Also read: National Honor Society Essay Example

Closing hooks for essays: really needed?

Closing hooks for essays: really needed?

The hook examples listed above may serve as hooks for a conclusion as well. Don’t underestimate the importance of the concluding part of your essay: it should not be just a summary of each body paragraph. It’s like putting a cherry on top of the cake: conclusion has to leave your audience satisfied, but at the same time intrigue them to investigate the topic more.

Rewriting the thesis doesn’t fit: better do it in an interesting, innovative way. Try to step into your potential readers’ shoes and read your essay again. Now, what questions are left unanswered? Write them down as rhetorical ones. What saying comes to your mind after reading an essay? Include it in your conclusion in the shape of a quote. Or just offer a humorous, sarcastic idea. Get your audience hooked for the second time while reading your essay.

Closing hooks for essays: really needed? 2

For the first part, it’s important to stay focused and reiterate old ideas in new ways, and metaphors, similes, as well as other hook techniques will definitely help do that. However, do not introduce the reader to new facts or statistics. A conclusion is a place to help digest what’s already been said.

For the second part, it’s very easy — just make sure to use guiding phrases such as “to sum up”, “all in all”, “in conclusion”, etc. In this article, we also talk more about the techniques of using hook methods in conclusion effectively.

Well, confess: having read all the tips, do you feel inspired, especially now that you know exactly how to begin an essay and finish it? Do not waste time then, get down to writing!

But have you ever fallen in thoughts about starting every paragraph of your essay uniquely? Have you ever found yourself at a loss of metaphors, similes, oxymorons, and paradoxes? We have great news for you!WritOlogy is a team of literary Jedi with experience in all types of hooks and literary devices.

Our writers breathe metaphors and similes — they can craft a mouth-watering piece of text that is easy to read and follow, in under a day. They will be happy as clams to share their experiences and help you attract the target audience in mysterious ways.