How to Write a Hook for Your Essay: Attention-Grabbing Techniques

Being proficient at writing essay hooks is a vital skill to master for students in academic writing. It will be harder to make your readers get excited to read your essays without it. Suppose that you have produced some reliable content to present. Still, if you miss using a strong attention grabber, your audience will unlikely want to read the rest.

But don't worry, with our tips, you will learn how to write a hook that will keep your readers' attentionuntil the end. Let this article be a shiny pearl you just found in a deep blue sea. Or you can always request help from an essay writerat our professinal academic service.

What Is an Effective Hook?

A hook in any piece of writing is a catchy sentence or paragraphin the introduction. Its primary purpose is to draw your reader's attention to your report.

If someone is searching for a book or article to read, they will decide from the very beginning whether this work is worth attention. For example, a book can be incredible in terms of content. But if the opening lines are dull, a reader will unlikely keep reading the rest.

The ability to motivate people to review the entire text defines the effectiveness of the hook. A hook sentence is the best way to start an academic paper of any type. This attention grabbergives a hint of what the topic is and what kind of questions will be observed. A good hook can keep the reader intrigued until the end.

Steps Before Choosing a Type of Hook

An excellent hook is a perfect method to start an argumentative or a persuasive essay. But don't forget that apart from the hook itself, the rest of the paper should be captivating. That's why it's essential to define the target audience , thesis, and supporting argumentsnot to fall off the point.

• You must understand what type of paper you tackle.Descriptive and narrative essays differ from argumentative and persuasive essays because they require different approaches to writing. The first ones ask you to describe certain events or concepts. In contrast, the second group requires you to use persuasive techniques to support your argument.
• Realize why you are writing this essay.If it is a paper on a popular magazine topic, you can go funny and humorous. Your readers will like this approach. Yet, if you are writing a report to present at a conference, try to be more formal. Great hooks must fit in your writing frame, your tone, and style.
• Understand who your target audience is.Each generation has its language, and your primary task is to choose a particular way in which your work will develop. When you write for children, try to make your writing easier to understand. If you produce content for language professionals, take their specific vocabulary into account.
• Begin your work by creating an outline.It allows writers to see how the work is structured better and which points to highlight. An outline is an excellent tool to use, not to forget the ideas you want to describe.

Great Essay Hooks Strategies

Remember that you shouldn't use more than one hook in the essay introduction. A higher number of catchy phrases might make the reader lose the main point. In one or two sentences, express a single exciting hook to grab your reader's attention.

There are many types of hooks you can use while writing an essay. It is sometimes difficult to choose the most suitable one. But any attention grabber will work if done the right way. Our writing gurus gathered the most effective strategies for your perusal.

Start With an Interesting Fact

Do you want to make the audience read your full text? Get them hooked with the help of a factthey have never heard of and keep them interested throughout the entire work. Such hook sentences do not necessarily need specific figures.

For example:

>"Archeologists believe, based on marks they have seen on mummies, that human beings had tattoos between 4000 and 2000 B.C. in Egypt."

Place Your Favorite Literary Quotation

Example:

>"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)

It would be a great essay opening: a writer can choose to focus on the value of time, review " The Fellowship of the Ring" storyline, or describe Gandalf's character. A right hook has many different applications in one text.

Quote a Famous Personality

Example:

>"Any achievement in business is never accomplished by a single person; a team of skilled members from diversified fields is always needed."

(Steve Jobs)

The wisdom of this man has no doubts. People tend to believe Steve Jobs as he has achieved remarkable results, a wealthy being, and a new technology age. Such people are worth your attention. You can start an essay on business, management, leadership, marketing, or I.T. with these words.

Use a Great Story as an Opening

Example:

>"In late 1979, a twenty-four-year-old entrepreneur paid a visit to a research center in Silicon Valley called Xerox PARC. He was the co-founder of a small computer startup down the road, in Cupertino. His name was Steve Jobs."

It is a great hook for an essay. Stories are always compelling, but stories about famous people are on top. Do the research, read their biographies, and find correlations with your writing theme. Give readers a nice story, and they will like it.

Anecdotal Hook

Every day we learn different jokes from our colleagues, family, or friends. You can use these funny stories as attention grabbers, but only if they are directly related to your main topic. Humor is an excellent way to smooth out stressful situations and put a smile on your face. It can also be a perfect tool to use in an observation essay.

For example:

>A Chukcha comes into a shop and asks: "Do you have color T.Vs?" "Yes we do." "give me a green one."

(Unknown author)

In our case, such a hook may start a serious topic like the problems people with colorblindness experience. The tale can serve as an introduction to the research on stereotypes about Chukcha, especially their intellect. The same hook may open an essay on different types of humor.

Strike With Numbers and Statistics

You can write a hook that starts with numbers and interesting statistics. Demonstrate that you did extensive research and created a reasonable basis for your discussion.

For instance:

>According to MarketWatch, the total earnings of the global videogame industry is expected to rise by 20% to $197.7 billion in 2020. These numbers tell us that the videogame industry is a more prominent source of steady profit than the movie industry.

Reveal a Common Misconception

What can be more intriguing than finding out that an idea you have had in mind for years is wrong? It is a perfect trigger that will make a great impact on your readers in a second.

Example:

>"We all know that a tongue has several sections which are exclusively responsible for a particular taste: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The idea was disproven by other studies and research."

Involve a Contradiction

Essay hooks may also include contradictions. A good essay starter can show opposite ideas or situations in a single excerpt. The main feature of such a hook is leaving some food for thought for your reader.

For instance:

>Mrs. Lynch's freaky dress made me feel excited and disgusted at the same time; it was not the best choice.

Create a Metaphor or a Comparison

Example:

>"To make an omelet you need not only those broken eggs but someone 'oppressed' to beat them..."

(Joan Didion, The Women's Movement)

Obviously, this isn't a recipe or a story about eggs. The writer starts with a straightforward, everyday image and then adds a drop of unpredictability -'oppressed' ones to break the eggs. We call such a sentence a fantastic starter and a strong hook.

Pose a Rhetorical Question

Not all questions may have answers. Yes, we are referring to rhetorical ones. Rhetorical questionshave obvious interpretation and do not require further explanation. You can use them as your reader's attention grabber. It is one way to let them ponder and guess about the content of your writing before actually reading it.

Examples:

>

• We all need food and water to live, don't we?
• How much would you pay to save the live of your beloved ones?
• Children always find something new interesting, don't they?

So it's called a rhetorical question hook. It is an exciting way to start essays on hate crime, life, existence, sense of life, moral or ethical values, etc. However, this method mostly works for narrative or descriptive writing. We would not recommend using it for other academic papers.

Ask a Question - Give an Answer

For instance:

>"Why do novelists write essays? Most publishers would rather have a novel."

(Zadie Smith, The Rise of the Essay)

What a lovely question! We want to know the answer now, and we keep reading and realize that we have finished the entire essay. Nothing is more hooking than a question that interests lots of people. Don't be afraid to use this trick if you want your audience to get sincerely interested in your writing.

Conclusion

Hooks are a handy tool that can help to succeed in writing. It doesn't matter whether it's a hook for an essay or another type of written content. It should do its job every time. But hooks alone will not grant you a perfect score on your paper. Students should also remember to be precise with describing the topic of their assignment. Here's one of the tips: keep it simple but excitingand worth your readers' time.

If you are unsure which hook to choose for your essay, you can always trust our writers. Our experts will suggest the best solution or complete the entire paper for you. They know precisely how to start an essay with an attention grabber. Just give it a shot, and you won't regret it!