Hi, this is Mr. Sato. Let's talk about hooks. Okay, listen to this.
"There are three guys, stranded on a deserted island, One day, a magic lantern washes ashore,
and lo and behold it contains a genie, who grants them one wish each.
The first guy wishes he was off the island and back home. Poof, he's gone.
The second guy wishes the same. Poof, he's gone too.
The third guy looks around him, sees that he's all by himself, and says
"Gee, I'm lonely. I wish my friends were back here."
I don't know if you think that's funny, maybe you don't, but as soon as the joke began
you knew it was supposed to be a joke, right? The situation got your attention
the three guys, the deserted island, and so forth it set up certain expectations
that made you look forward to the punchline. In an essay, the hook is like the setup to a joke.
Really, a better metaphor might be the bait, rather than the hook.
Its purpose is to grab your reader's attention and make him or her want to read what comes next.
Sometimes I say that in an academic essay, it's the best opportunity to do a little imaginative
writing because the rest of the essay is mainly analytical in nature. So here are five different
ways to approach the hook. 1. Inverted pyramid
2. Fact or statistic 3. Anecdote or personal experience
4. Rhetorical question 5. Bold pronouncement
First, the Inverted Pyramid. An inverted pyramid is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.
Inverted means "upside down." In newswriting or journalism, this term means something very
different, but for our purposes, essay writing, it means this: you start out with a broad
abstract statement that narrows to your thesis. So let's say your thesis is something like this:
"The theme of Macbeth by William Shakespeare is that the truth will eventually come out."
We'll use this thesis for all of this video's examples.
What's the main idea in this statement? It's that "the truth will eventually come out."
This is the specific, narrow point at the bottom of your first paragraph.
On the pyramid, it goes right here. Above that before that is your hook. So
talk generally about the truth coming out, not in the book, but in life in general. You
might say something like, "Every one of us has told a lie at one point in our lives,
but because lies always contradict something we know to be true, lies are nearly always exposed,
revealing the truth beneath them." Then you just need a little transition into your thesis, like:
"Macbeth learns this the hard way." So line em up: Hook+transition+thesis. So this is
what your first paragraph will look like. "Every one of us has told a lie at one point
in our lives, but because lies always contradict something we know to be true,
lies are nearly always exposed, revealing the truth beneath them. Macbeth learns this the hard
way. One theme in Macbeth by William Shakespeare is that the truth will eventually come out."
Some teachers or professors will ask you at this point to follow your thesis with a preview of
your main supporting arguments, which fits the idea of the inverted pyramid perfectly
because the evidence is even more specific than the thesis. However, in short essays 2 or 3 pages
this step may be unnecessary. Ask your teacher. A second kind of hook is the Fact or Statistic.
In this kind of hook, you start with a startling fact or relevant statistic. Again, using our
thesis about truth and Macbeth, here's a statistic and transition you might use for the same thesis.
"People lie in 1 out of every 5 conversations lasting more than 10 minutes, according
to Allison Komet writing for Psychology Today magazine. If Macbeth is any guide,
then most of those people are going to get caught, because one theme in Macbeth... etc."
A little bit of research can quickly turn up a useable statistic but remember to cite
your source and try to choose a source that you think your teacher will consider reliable.
Then there's the Anecdote or Personal Experience.
An anecdote is a little story designed to illustrate some point you're trying to make.
For example: "In 1972, President Richard Nixon was running for re-election.
Nixon gave the greenlight to a plan to break into the opposing candidate's offices
to steal information to help him get re-elected. But the burglars were caught. If at this point,
Nixon had just admitted what he'd done and fired a few staffers, he'd probably be okay,
but instead he denied it and covered it up, asking the CIA to interfere with the FBI investigation.
And because of these two investigative reporters, the truth was revealed, and he was
almost impeached because of the cover-up, not the original crime. So, in 1974, Nixon resigned in
disgrace." Then follow this anecdote with that thesis about the truth always coming out.
A personal experience hook is usually interesting but ask your teacher if it's OK
to use personal pronouns like I, me, my, and you. An example would be, "When I was sixteen,
I dented the door of my mom's car. When she asked me about it, I lied. I was guilty but I denied it
no matter how many times she asked me. It wasn't until I was older that I realized how obvious my
guilt had been and that all I accomplished was making my mother trust me less."
Next, the Rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is when you ask a
question to which you don't actually expect an answer, like "Have you ever told a lie?
Did you eventually get caught?" This kind of hook is easy, but as a result it's often overused and
is unlikely to impress your reader, so I advise caution. Still, it can be effective if used with
a little imagination or originality. Lastly, the Bold pronouncement.
"If you say you've never told a lie, then you're lying." I found that hook in a Internet article at
Businessinsider.com. Or if your teacher says never to use personal pronouns like "you,"
here's another: "Everyone lies, including the person who wrote this sentence as well as the
person who is now reading it. But most of those lies will eventually be found out, as the main
characters learned in Macbeth." And as always, follow your hook with a transition and thesis.
Now here are three hooks to avoid. There's nothing inherently wrong with
the first two, but they're so boring and overused that you should avoid them like the stomach flu!
The first is the dictionary quote. I've seen way too many hooks like this: "Webster's Dictionary
defines 'truth' as the state of being the case; factual; the body of real things, events,
and facts.'" Like the rhetorical question, this could be used imaginatively, but the
dictionary definition hooks I've seen are almost always lazy and unoriginal. Do not use these.
In the same vein, the Googled quote is usually copied and pasted without any real thought.
"If you tell the truth, you never have to remember anything." Mark Twain said that. Now, I agree,
that's a great quote. But student writers rarely take the necessary second step of
commenting on the quote with any sort of original thought. And besides, like the dictionary quote,
it's nearly always a bad idea to begin or end your essay with someone's words other than your own.
Possibly the worst hook of all is the "I was thinking about what to write and came
up with this." Anyone beginning his or her essay with this should
be struck on the head repeatedly with his or her own computer.
But whatever you do, don't skip the hook. Even these bad examples will get you a better
grade from me than opening with your thesis minus any sort of attention-getting intro.
It's like walking up to someone and saying, "Can I borrow your bike?" It's too blunt; it's
overeager. It has no style. You need to preface it by giving your reader some idea of what's coming:
"Hey dude, old friend, pal, buddy, I'm in a bit of a situation and I wonder if you wouldn't
mind helping me out." That's a hook. If you know how to write an effective
attention-getting intro, you're more likely to get your reader on your side,
ready to go along with your reasoning and hear what you have to say. And if that reader is
your teacher or professor, you're more likely to get a grade with which you will be satisfied.
Once you're done with this step, you're already off to a good start. Good luck with your essay!