How do you write an opening “hook” for an essay?

To write a "hook" or introduction of an essay it is necessary to take into account some issues. First, the introduction must capture the reader's attention and attract him to arouse his curiosity. Therefore, it must consist of interesting, entertaining sentences that give an advance of the topic that is going to be developed in the essay.

What is an essay

The essay is a literary genre that is characterized by being an academic writing that analyzes or evaluates a certain topic. Generally, the essay uses a formal tone free of sarcasm, colloquial vocabulary and humor.

The recipient of an essay is a reader who does not know the topic to be developed in depth. The essay is also commonly used as an assessment for students, as a tool by which they must demonstrate their knowledge.

Therefore, the essay must meet certain qualities: have relevant content, be well documented and organized, and obviously reflect a correct use of language.

Parts of an essay

An essay has three main parts: introduction, body or core, and conclusion. Each of these parts presents defined characteristics that allow the organized and effective development of the theme.

Introduction: it is the first contact with the reader. State the writer's purpose in writing the essay, introduce the topic, and suggest how the essay will follow. It is also known as "hook" or "opening", because it is what will "hook" the reader to continue reading.

Knot or body: in this part everything that was hinted at in the introduction is developed. Approximately, each aspect of the thesis will occupy a paragraph of the essay and will depend on the arguments that the writer wishes to use. In general, the academic essay can be based on:

●      statement of facts with proper documentation.

●      the analysis or description of a topic.

●      comparison and contrast.

●      the use of other strategies that include definitions, classifications, or cause and effect.

Conclusion: This is the last paragraph of the essay and should go over the ideas or themes that were presented in the introduction. Include a brief summary and end with a sentence that highlights the key point of the essay.

Introduction or opening hook

The opening hook usually appears in the first sentence of the introduction. It can be a quote, statistics, famous words or another phrase that piques the interest of the reader. In addition, the opening hook must be drawn up taking into account some features:

You can include strategies like:

●      surprise or unforeseen events.

●      based on information that the reader already knows.

●      contradict an accepted idea.

Produce suspense.

Its length can be a paragraph or two.

It should provide a brief introduction to the topic.

You can indicate the order in which the essay will take place.

It can be a phrase that responds to the question or issue that the essay will deal with.

Next we will see a series of theses corresponding to specific questions.

How to write an essay introduction

In order to write an essay with an effective and interesting introduction, it is important to follow a series of steps. First, it is essential to prepare before writing. For this, it is necessary to understand well what the objective of the essay is and take into account the profile of the reader. Also select a specific topic and conduct prior research. Then, you must make a thesis statement and create an outline that will serve as a guide for the development of the essay.

Once the previous steps have been carried out, the writing can begin, writing the introduction, displaying the arguments and evidence and ending with the conclusion.

Finally, it is also important to review and reassess the organization of the essay and the content of each paragraph. If necessary, grammatical and spelling errors should be corrected. In addition, it must be verified that there has been no plagiarism.

How to create the opening hook

As mentioned before, the ingredients for creating the introduction or opening hook are:

●      Capture the interest of the reader. The hook must have a great impact and get the audience to continue reading the text. For this, statistics or bold phrases can be used.

●      Provide background and context for the topic to be developed. This can be done through an overview of the topic, which will allow you to delve into details later.

●      Include the objective of the essay and the thesis statement. This will provide the focus of the essay and indicate the position of the author.

●      Point out the organization of the content, providing a general idea of ​​the content that will be explored in each part of the essay.

In many cases, at the end of writing the essay it is important to revisit the hook and the rest of the introduction to check that it is in line with the rest of the writing. In addition, a final polishing or correction can be done, if necessary. It's always a good idea to give the essay one last check to see if we missed any details.

It is common for the introduction to be finished once the organization of the entire essay is defined. Nor should we forget the importance of the title of the essay, which by itself can be the main hook to capture the reader.