How Do You Write a Hook for an Essay

Every college student will agree that writing an essay is hard. It takes lots of time for generating excellent and fresh ideas, connecting all pieces and arguments together, organizing the paper, and proofreading it to ensure that it meets the requirements. However, there is one thing that is the most important. It is a catchy hook for an essay. If you understand how to an essay of high quality, you should also know how important it is to create a great hook for an essay!

What is a hook when how to write a literary essay? A hook in an essay is exactly what makes your audience engaged – it catches their attention and makes them read your paper to the end. How can one sentence be so important? Below you can find the answer!

There is a rule known as the 20-second rule – this is a proven theory that assumes that a reader subconsciously makes an assessment of the value of a particular text within the first 20 seconds of reading it. Of course, within only 20 seconds it is impossible to highlight all the key ideas from the paper and get its main message, but it is the time a reader requires to decide whether it is worth reading or not. Within this time, your audience receives a first impression about your work. Therefore, no matter how good the rest of your essay is, if you can't make a good first impression, you are going lose your readers, which is why you always have to create a good hook for an essay!

You may wonder how this applies to your academic assignments. Of course, if you had an assignment to write a paper, your teacher will have to read the whole thing regardless of whether he wants to or not. However, the 20-second rule also applies here. In this case, a hook of an essay also plays a decisive role – this is the first thing your teacher will see and, as a rule, this will help him or her define the grade you are going to get. Your intro will help make your paper worthy and memorable. That is why you have to make it as catchy as possible.

Best Tips On How To Write A Good Essay Hook

When you understand the importance of this component for your paper's success, the main question is how to create a hook for an essay that will attract attention to your work and get a high grade. We have a few tips to help you with this.

1. You have to know exactly what your purpose and goals are

If you have a specific goal and a clear purpose, this will allow you to define a perfect approach in the text that your readers will love. Define whether it should have a formal or informal tone. Decide what feelings you are striving to awaken in your readers. This will help you decide what some good hook sentences you may use to reach a specific goal.

2. Know what type of work you are writing

There are four common essay types – persuasive, argumentative, narrative, and descriptive, and each of them requires a different strategy. Therefore, you have to consider this nuance not only to write a top-notch hook for a college essay but also to make your whole paper look harmonic and logical!

3. Always start by creating an outline

Although this task is not the biggest or most complicated assignment a student can get in college or school, it does not mean that you can just make a perfect text without some planning. Writing an outline is always important as it allows you to see how to structure your text better and also define what it is missing or what has to be removed.

4. Consider your audience

The success of choosing types of essay topics, setting the right tone, and making a good persuasive essay hook depends on how well you understand your audience! Every group of people, every generation – they all speak their own language and your main task as a writer is to use the right language to keep your target audience engaged. This is one of the main rules to keep in mind!

7 Ideas Of How To Write A Good Hook For A College Essay

Now you have a few effective tips that can come in handy when writing your work but there is no better way to master it than to find quality hook essay examples! Below you can find some outstanding hook sentences that should give you enough inspiration and ideas for generating your own introduction hook. Let's start!

1. Use a quote

This is the most commonly used essay hook example, so if you don't know how to start your introduction – use a quote and you will not be mistaken! Here is a good example:

"Be a worthy worker and work will come" ― Amit Kalantri.

2. Give advice

"

If you are writing, for example, a narrative paper, then giving advice to your readers at the beginning of your text can be a good idea. Below is an example:

"Never reply when you are angry, never make a promise when you are happy, and never make a decision when you are sad".

3. Add a shocking and engaging fact

Try to add some intrigue by adding an interesting and shocking fact that your audience may not have known about. This is another simple way to keep your readers interested. Here is a good sample:

"Celery has negative calories: it takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it, and It's the same with apples".

4. Use a rhetorical question

It is a good approach to attract attention and set a serious tone by making your readers think about some important issue or question. Here is an example:

"What should be done if...?".

5. Make a contradictory statement

Like a rhetorical question, making a statement that is contradictory will help you encourage your readers to think about something important and thus, prepare them for an upcoming discussion. For example:

"I believe in nothing, everything is sacred; I believe in everything, nothing is sacred" ― Tom Robbins.

6. Add a joke

If the tone of your paper is informal, there is no better way to attract attention and make your readers love your work than to make a funny joke! Example:

"They say marriages are made in Heaven but so is thunder and lightning" ― Clint Eastwood.

7. Add some statistics

This tip can help you make a perfect hook in an essay with a formal tone that does not tolerate jokes or other inappropriate informal statements. It can be the right move. Here is an example:

"Over 100 million Internet users tend to watch videos online every day".

After looking at the list of the top best essay hook examples, you should have an idea of how to make your own. However, do not get upset if this is not so. Without a doubt, writing academic papers is a hard and challenging task that not everyone can handle but this does not mean that there is nothing you can do about it. Even if you have no clue how to make an argumentative essay hook or simply lack time to perform your homework assignments, there is nothing wrong with it and luckily, we have a solution! You can pay our professional writers to do an essay! At PapersOwl, we employ over 500 of the most experienced and educated academic writers with MA and Ph.D. degrees, who can easily tackle all your college matters and help you succeed!

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Prof Miriam

Prof Miriam holds a Master's Degree in Education Arts from Stanford University. She is a competent writer with five years experience in online academic writing. Over the years, she has gained enough expertise in fields such as Business, Medicine, Psychology, Engineering, Communication, and Philosophy, among other areas of specialization.

How Do You Write a Hook for an Essay

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