Writing an essay is similar to composing a piece of music: every note counts and has its own role. The listener will hear it even if one little note sounds off-key and will switch to the next song in the playlist. This is why such things as attention hooks matter in the essay. First, they concentrate the reader’s attention on the right things so that even if there are some off-key notes, they will be less likely to notice them. Second, a great hook makes the reader invested in your essay, earning you some respect and attention.
If you wish to find an easy way out of any essay trouble, you can contact an essay service like EssayHave. However, if you have a free few minutes, we can teach you how to write a hook for an essay yourself.
What is a hook and why do you need it?
Before we start, let’s clarify what a hook is and why you need it.
A hook sentence is the first sentence of the essay, specifically composed to catch the reader’s attention and cause an interest in the subject. As the essay is a fluid and flexible genre, bordering with different written and spoken formats, here are a few key examples of why hook sentence matters:
- The first few sentences define how the audience will perceive the speaker in the speech format. If the speaker fails to start with something of great importance, the whole speech will fail, too.
- The hook in an essay format gives your reader an understanding of what to expect from this text. Writing a strong hook means engaging the reader in the conversation with you while and after they read your essay.
- Mastering the art of grabbing attention through the text will benefit you in many aspects of life. This skill will transfer to writing work memos, professional letters, effective reports, and even teaching you to be more persuasive in your conversations.
How to write a hook for an essay: 10 best tips
Imagine yourself reading a book of your favorite genre. What is it that catches your attention? What makes you stop and highlight a particular author’s opinion in the pages? The best first tip to give students right away is to think outside the box when writing a good hook for an essay. But let’s dive deeper into how you do that and nine more things to perfect your hook sentences.
Tip #1. Think outside the box
The novelty of thoughts catches the reader’s attention the most in any text. To write a hook for an essay, write down all the ideas that come to mind about how to start your essay. Be it five or twenty sentences, write until you run out of ideas. Now, reread them all and try to develop a cumulative new and enriched idea based on your previous sketches.
For example, here is the first-though idea that comes to mind when you think of ecology’s importance: “Ecology is the most basic and important factor in the survival of the whole humankind.” It’s true, but it does not catch attention. Here is the improved option: “The cockroaches in our kitchens will likely survive whatever we do to our planet, but we will not.” It’s more personal, a bit humorous, and still true, and that’s why it catches the attention, doesn’t it?
Tip #2. Be interactive
Have you thought about whether you have cockroaches in the kitchen while reading the previous paragraph? Whether you did or not, you have just answered “yes” or “no” to the question in your head. That’s what you want your readers to do: confront or agree with you but not be indifferent.
Tip #3. Use convincing facts and statistics
Learning something new is not the best activity for many people. However, if the person happens to read the first sentence and it teaches something new, curiosity sparks interest anyway. For example, you can start an essay like this: “The human behavior runs on the unconscious mechanisms in 90% of cases.” Whatever topic you are writing about, make sure your hook sentences speak to the experiences or interests of broad groups of people.
Tip #4. Appeal to the reader’s emotions, of course
A good hook for an essay exploits the knowledge we have about human psychology. We know emotions are among the most influential factors driving human attention. To invoke an emotional response, you can ask the reader to imagine some case scenario. For instance, “Imagine the heart-wrenching pain of a parent watching their child battle a rare and incurable disease. This is the experience people go through in…”
Tip #5. Employ a powerful quotation
In our technological times, the quotations of famous people serve as some sort of exchangeable coin in interactions. It provides the speaker with the authority of knowing the author’s works and the reader or listener with another token into the collection to use the next time. For example, when writing an essay about political or social science, you can start with the following sentence: “In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Tip #6. Offer a startling visualized comparison
One of the weaknesses of the text format is the lack of visualization. You can easily follow the carpet cleaning process with relaxed attention while a robotic voice in TikTok retells a Reddit post. However, you cannot do that with the essay format, can you? You do. Just use the visualized metaphors and comparisons, like this one: “The weight of plastic waste in the oceans is expected to surpass the weight of fish by the year 2050”.
Tip #7. Choose a hook sentence appropriate to your essay genre
An argumentative essay may require a more formal, analysis-based tone of voice in your essay. Similarly, it is best to use the statistics and facts hook format for an analytical essay or an informative essay. However, if you write a descriptive or a narrative essay, you can opt for more frivolous and creative hook types.
Tip #8. Use a literary device
Literary and rhetorical devices are powerful tools used in poetry, literature, films, speeches, and every area of life where you need people to remember what you said. For example, here is a good analogy for a technology essay: “If social media and blue screens are the modern gods, then we must think of what is required as a sacrifice.”
Tip #9. Challenge common assumption
Many people mistakenly use a common assumption as a hook sentence. Instead, ruin some popular myth right in plain sight of the audience. Here is an example: “Have you heard of introverts being shy and antisocial? They are not, and the studies reveal that introverts and extroverts may not exist as scientific categories”.
Tip #10. Ask yourself what would catch your attention
There are many more good ways to write a hook sentence. You can also use jokes, what-if questions, or propose a paradox to think about. However, the most powerful tool is staying truthful to your interests in the topic so the reader will feel it, too.
