How to Create a Hook for an Essay - Melanie Redd

Writing an essay is a very common assignment for students in high school and college.

Thousands of essays are written each semester or quarter.

However, most of these essays are just made to fulfill the task.

There is nothing special about them.

Average essays get average grades.

So, if you want to get an excellent grade, then you should write an outstanding essay.

Average essays get average grades. Click To Tweet

A Few Initial Considerations in Writing Essays

First and foremost, the content must be solid.

This, of course, is more easily said than done. However, in addition to good content, your essay can stand out by opening with a great hook.

A hook is a sentence placed at the beginning of your essay to intrigue and grab the reader’s attention. This way, the reader will want to read the entire essay and not just the introduction.

Nowadays, you can always enlist the service of a professional writer to do your essay.

Some experts can write a draft of an essay for you to use as an example or source of inspiration. Several websites advertise such a service online. You can send them an email and inquire, “Could you make my essay, please?”

While this is a good approach when time is a constraint, the solution is not free. You will be charged for the service.

Hence, if you prefer to write yourself the entire essay from scratch, these suggestions will help you.

Hence, if you prefer to write yourself the entire essay from scratch, these suggestions will help you. Click To Tweet

How to Create a Hook for an Essay

To begin with… start with a great opener.

Writing a good hook is crucial for the success of your essay.

Even if the content is good, someone that just reads the introduction may not be interested in reading further.

This can be avoided if you open with a sentence or several sentences that spark the reader’s curiosity.

This way, the reader will have the wish to read beyond the introduction.

But, what type of sentence should you write?

Next… try a good hook.

A good hook can be a quotation or any other sentence that creates the desire to continue reading.

Indeed, the hook must ensure that the reader wonders what else is next.

You can open the introduction with an interesting question about the topic. People are naturally inquisitive.

Usually, when we read a question, we want to read the answer too.

An example of a good question is, “Why do some students get better grades than others?”

Third… try a strong statement.

Another good hook is using a strong statement at the beginning of your essay.

The statement must make an assertion related to the topic of your essay. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with the statement is of little importance.

If the reader agrees, he or she will want to know how you support the claim.

On the other hand, if the reader disagrees, they will be forced to read the essay to argue against the statement.

For instance, a strong statement could be: “Online education is as good as traditional in-person education at a lower cost.”

Or… you might try using a statistic as a hook.

If you want to impress the reader, use a fact or a statistic as a hook.

Since this is actual information, the reader will get the impression that you are knowledgeable.

However, to create the best impression, you must use reliable and accurate information.

Moreover, the fact or statistic must be interesting and relevant to the topic of your essay. Using dubious sources can be counterproductive.

For instance, you can use a fact like this one: “In the United States, 4 out of 10 college students do not complete their degrees.”

Additionally… you can use quotations as hooks.

You can write a quotation as a hook also.

In addition, you can use a literary quotation taken from a book you have reviewed. Or you can use a quotation from a famous person.

But the person does not need to be famous as long as the quotation is relevant to your essay.

For instance, an example of a good quotation is Albert Einstein’s “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”

Furthermore… you might try a metaphor as a hook.

Another effective hook is the use of a metaphor.

When readers see your metaphor at the beginning of your essay, they will be interested in knowing what you mean.

For example, for an essay on education, you can use the following metaphor: “Learning is like setting across an open ocean.”

Finally… you might use a vivid description to hook in your readers.

For narrative or literary essays, a vivid description of a scene can capture the interest of the reader.

To achieve this goal, write so that the reader is very curious to know what happens next.

A good description can work for other types of essays though. You can write a description of your own experience or someone else’s.

In Summary

Although we’ve shared several great ideas for how to create a hook for an essay, you may have other ideas to share.

What have you done in order to make your essays more interesting?

And, what suggestions do you have?

What have you done in order to make your essays more interesting? Click To Tweet

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