Effective Essay Hooks: Facts, Thesis, Stories, Scenes, Anecdotes, Numbers, Study notes of Statistics

Download Effective Essay Hooks: Facts, Thesis, Stories, Scenes, Anecdotes, Numbers and more Study notes Statistics in PDF only on Docsity! Catchy Hooks for Essays REMEMBER:​ With whatever hook you use, follow it up with a transition before you state your claim. START WITH AN INTERESTING FACT Example: "Archaeologists believe, based on marks they've seen on mummies, that human beings had tattoos between 4000 and 2000 B.C. in Egypt." STATE A THESIS (Inverted Pyramid) Example: "Few aspects of the American mythos really explain what the cowboy was to early America’s frontier."(Pamela Swanigan, Much the Same on the Other Side: The Boondocks and the Symbolic Frontier) If you have a great idea and you want to be straightforward and introduce it immediately because it is unique, do what you want. Why is this particular sentence so hooking? It intrigues the readers because using such a structure the author 'promises' she will tell us about something special. We are interested in the concept of frontier now. USE A GREAT STORY AS AN OPENING Example: "In late 1979, a twenty-four-year-old entrepreneur paid a visit to a research center in Silicon Valley called Xerox PARC. He was the co-founder of a small computer startup down the road, in Cupertino. His name was Steve Jobs."(​Malcolm Gladwell​, Creation Myth) Do you need anything else to get hooked? It is a brilliant essay starter. Stories are always effective, but stories about famous people are on top. Do the research, read great people's biographies and find correlations with the theme of your writing. Give readers a nice story, and they will enjoy it. SET A SCENE ANOTHER TIME Example: "The dark blue glitter was penetrating, leaving no space for creativity. In just one stare, Mary's eyes defined a lot about her true passion, her devotion and her commitment to her cause. Most of the employees that day left the corporation once launched by Mike Myers without saying a word, but feeling completely different people." (Unknown writer) This category of good hooks is almost the same as the previously discussed attention-grabber. The goal of the writer is to describe a certain scene taken from the fiction story or real life. No matter ​what the topic is​, it is the effective method used to make the readers not only think but feel the emotions of heroes. ANECDOTE/JOKE TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH Example: "A Chukcha comes into a shop and asks: "Do you have color TVs?" "Yes, we do." "Give me a green one." (Unknown author) Every day we learn different jokes from our colleagues, ​family​, or friends. If you want to share these funny stories with your teacher or classmates, the best way is to use anecdotes as the relaxing hook sentences. They make people both laugh and feel less stressed. Humor is one of the keys to success in our life, and a good anecdote is not an exception. In our case, the anecdote may start a serious topic like the problems people with colorblindness experience. The anecdote can serve as an introduction to the research on stereotypes about Chukcha, especially their intellect. The same anecdote may open an essay on different types of humor. STRIKE WITH NUMBERS AND STATISTICS Example: "According to 2008 figures from the Pew Research Center, 97% of today's K-12 students spend many hours each week playing video games."(​Keith Devlin​, Learning Math with a Video Game) Every time you want to draw the audience's attention, start the intro paragraph with large numbers and interesting statistics. Demonstrate that you did extensive research and created a good basis for your discussion. SURPRISE READERS BY REVEALING A COMMON MISCONCEPTION Example: "We all know that a tongue has several sections which are exclusively responsible for a particular taste: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The idea was disproved by other studies and research." What can be more intriguing than finding out that an idea you have had in mind for years is wrong? This is a perfect trigger, and it will get your audience hooked in a second. CREATE AN IMAGE, SIMILE, OR METAPHOR Example: "To make an omelet you need not only those broken eggs but someone 'oppressed' to beat them..." (​Joan Didion​, The Women's Movement) Obviously, this isn't a recipe or a story about eggs. The writer starts with a very simple, everyday image, and then adds a drop of unpredictability - 'oppressed' ones to break the eggs. We call such sentence a fantastic starter and a great hook.