The first sentence of your essay is called a hook, and just like a fishing hook, it should catch the attention of your readers, making them want to read the whole essay. The hook should be interesting, entertaining, or thought-provoking. The opening paragraph of an essay should include the hook and a thesis statement. Writers-House team of professionals has prepared information on the most common types of hooks: quotes, interesting facts, and statistics.
Quote Hooks
A quote is a great solution if you write an essay based on some book or story. A quote from the author will help you prove that you know what you’re writing about and support your own claims.
Your quote should open the essay. After this, provide some relevant examples that will explain how this quote is related to your topic and the main point of the essay, leading your readers to the thesis statement.
General Statement
The advantage of using general statements as a hook is that you can get straight to the point — such an approach is appreciated by many readers.
For example, you can start your essay by mentioning some significant consequences of global warming. After this, you can elaborate on this, saying that people can minimize global warming if they use alternative sources of energy. The last sentence should be a thesis statement. For example, your thesis statement may focus on alternative sources of energy and their effectiveness for fighting global warming.
Statistics
Interesting statistics can immediately catch the attention of your readers, making them want to learn more. For example, you may say that the number of icebergs in Glacier National Park decreased from 150 to less than 30 since 1910. You may also provide statistics on the rising of sea level and the decrease in populations of arctic animals.
The Right Hook for You
As you can see, there are many types of hooks, so how can you choose the right one for your essay? We suggest that you start writing the hook after the thesis statement. This way, you’ll be able to choose an approach that fits your objectives. Many writers go even further and write their introduction when the whole essay is already completed.
The Steps for Writing an Essay
- First paragraph: Develop your thesis statement
- Body section: Provide evidence
- Last paragraph: Restate the thesis and draw a conclusion
- Revise your first paragraph and find the right hook.
We suggest that you start by writing your thesis statement so that you can clearly understand what your essay is about, and what idea is the basis of the whole paper. Write your thesis statement, and then start writing the body of the essay, providing evidence that supports your ideas. You may use such pieces of evidence as expert opinions, statistics, etc.
Once your body is finished, write the conclusion. It should include a brief summary of the body and final words, where you draw conclusions or indicate what research needs to be done in this field.
After you finished writing the conclusion, go back to the introduction and figure out what your hook should look like. Choose a relevant shocking fact or a quote that is related to your thesis statement. You may also choose an anecdote. The main thing is to choose a hook the fits the style and the type of your essay.
If you don’t like your first ideas when writing an introduction, don’t be afraid to write the hook later, when your essay will be ready and it will be easier to figure out what kind of a hook will work for you. Try different options and go with the most interesting and impressive one.
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