How to Write Hook For Essay and What to Consider

When it comes to essay writing, students often experience lots of struggles. The writing process might be challenging by itself, but it's not the only challenge students face. They also need to stick to a certain writing style, which means paying a lot of attention to the details. They also need to make their writing not simply informative but also interesting to read - and this means catching the readers' attention and holding it until the very end of an essay. The latter is nearly impossible to achieve without coming with a proper essay hook. What is a hook in an essay? A hook in essay is its first (or first two) sentences. It is a part of an introduction, so it has to relate to the essay in general. But what's even more important is that it has to catch the readers' attention at the same time. If a person who reads the first couple of sentences decides they want to continue reading, this means that the hook is written properly. Why is an essay hook so important? Before you start asking yourself "How to write a hook for an essay?", you probably might ask "Why do I need to write one?". Why catching the readers' attention so quickly is so important? Isn't an essay just a task my professor assigned? Wouldn't they be interested in reading it anyway? Sure, as it's about completing an assignment, your professor is definitely going to read this. But this still doesn't mean you shouldn't do your best to impress them with a hook. While the main goal of an essay is to give information about a certain topic, this still doesn't mean this essay should be dull and boring. Professors give you writing assignments not only because they want you to learn how to research, how to formulate your opinion, and how to defend it. They also want you to learn how to write compelling texts that can engage the audience. You might not need to write any academic papers once you graduate but there's still a chance you'll need to write something, be it articles, books, presentations, and cover letters. In any of those cases catching the readers' attention right from the start is crucial - so you'd better start learning how to do so while you're still in college. While first one or two sentences might not yet tell the readers what your essay is about, they do make an impression, even if it's the first one. This impression might change as they read the rest of your essay, but it might not as well. So work hard to create that good first impression. How to write a good hook for an essay? Now that you know why coming up with a strong hook is so important, you might be a bit more eager to learn how to make a hook for an essay. Of course, it isn't easy. There are different types of hooks - but before you even start choosing some of them, you need to know for sure what your essay is going to say. So ask yourself some questions first: Which type of essay do I need to write? Who's my audience? Which guidelines do I have? Am I able to choose a style or a tone or do I have specific requirements about that? What would the structure of my essay be? If you need to craft a serious essay, starting it with an anecdote hook wouldn't be appropriate. If you need to write a good hook for an analytical essay, choosing some personal facts not related to the topic won't do. That's why answering the questions listed above will make it much easier for you. Types of hooks If you look at hooks and attention grabbers examples, you'll see that all the hooks are different. To make it easier for you, we want to offer you a list of the most commonly used hooks. 1. Quotes An appropriate quote makes your essay look more sophisticated. However, not any essay should start with a quote. For example, if you check out argumentative essay hook examples, you'll see that many of them are quotes from certain authoritative and influential people. Such quotes also suit analytical essays well as they offer some interesting information from a relevant source. When it comes to essays about books, authors, stories, literature reviews, and so on, you can also use book quote as a hook. This will make your essay sound fresher. However, in any case, you should avoid quotes that are very common - otherwise, your writing might look cliche, not fresh. 2. Statistics Those, who want to learn how to write a good hook for an argumentative essay, might want to pay special attention to this part. Using statistical data as a hook helps to create interest. It also shows that you did your research well. Statistical data works best with essays that are research-heavy and serious. But it won't work with personal ones, literature ones, descriptive ones, etc. 3. Interesting facts One of the most common types of hooks. It works well with most of the essays and helps to surprise the readers with information that might be new and fresh to them. Of course, this information has to be relevant to essay's topic somehow. However, in some cases you might try stating a fact that doesn't seem to relate to your essay, tying it to the topic right after and surprising your readers even more. But remember to be very careful with this. 4. Misconception revealing People like to stick to their beliefs - but they also like to be taught something new. So when you start your essay with revealing that some of the common truths are actually false, you'll kill two birds with one stone. First, you'll provoke an emotional reaction in your readers. Second, you'll indeed teach many of them something new. 5. Questions If a question is constructed well enough and is provoking by its nature, it will help you hook the readers. They would want to read the rest of your essay to find the answer to that question. However, you should be careful here. Keep in mind that questions that can be answered "Yes" or "No" aren't very effective. Pick questions carefully as well: they should be provocative enough but not offensive, and encourage the readers to think critically. 6. Anecdotes Telling anecdotes isn't equal to making your essay look funny - as long as they are appropriate, of course. A properly chosen anecdote sets the right mood, making the readers react more positively to the rest of your essay as well. Just don't forget that this would work for essays that are more personal. Also, avoid using anecdotes in the admission essays - the admission board might appreciate them but also might not react to them well. Don't take a risk when the result is so important to you. 7. Scenes When you're writing a personal essay, a descriptive one, and so on, you can be a bit more creative. A good way to show your creativity is to create a picture with the help of your writing. This could be a scene where the events of an essay took place or some features of a character or a person you're writing about. 8. Thesises Sometimes it's also good to get straight to the point, especially if your essay's topic is serious. Stating your thesis in the first sentence is very effective if the thesis is formulated right. The readers would be interested in reading the rest of the essay to find out how did you come up with this idea. Now that you know which types of hooks exist, it would be much easier for you to choose a certain type to start your essay writing with. Take some time to think, come up with a few ideas, choose wisely - and you'll have an impressive essay hook faster than you imagined!