HOW TO GET A READER’S ATTENTION HOOKS OR HOW TO GET A READER’S ATTENTION

Good writing starts with a good HOOK. Whether it’s a narrative, literary analysis, or a research paper, there is no excuse to bore your reader! Besides, if you can’t prove to your reader that you can write an interesting hook, why would they want to read on?

Examples from books: Bridge to Terabthia ~ Katherine Paterson “Ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity – Good. His dad had the pickup going.” ~ Katherine Paterson Bridge to Terabthia

Examples from books: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." ~ T.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia

Examples from books: “The eyes of the starving wolf pack gleamed like hot coals in the blackness of the frozen Arctic forest. They stared hungrily at the two man- animals and their dog-sled team huddled around the campfire. These man-animals had fish and they had meat. To a starving wolf-pack, who had had little to eat in months, the dogs and the man-animals were meat, too.” ~ Jack London White Fang

Examples from books: "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.“ ~ J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Examples from books: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” ~ Albert Camus The Stranger (Q4)

Types of Hooks Fact/Statistic Nearly one-third of the population of Europe was killed by the plague.

Tone/Mood The bodies piled up in the streets of London, untouched, uncared for, mourned by the frightened masses that were left behind wondering when it was going to be their turn to die.

Simile/Metaphor The Black Death swept across the land like a broom brushing away people as it would dirt.

Definition The Black Death was an unstoppable disease caused by the fleas carried by the rats that co-habited with the people of Medieval Europe.

Dialogue “I see there’s been no improvement,” the apothecary sadly admitted, looking at the small girl trembling and sweating with fever before him.

Onomatopoeia Sizzle. The fever burned through the victim’s body.

Staccato three word lead Rats. Sewers. Filth. London was not a city of great cleanliness.

Lyrics “Ring around the rosie. Pockets full of rosies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”

Theme Some people believed that the Plague was sent to punish the evil on Earth, but they would soon learn that the disease knew no such ethics. It did not distinguish its victims.

LET’S PRACTICE Take out your Rough Draft. Look at the list of possible hooks and your notes. Write 5 different hooks, each in a different style, to start your essay in a powerful way. Pass your paper to the left and have the next person ADD 1 more possible hook style to your list. Then pass to the left again; have that peer HIGHLIGHT the MOST EFFECTIVE hooks.

It’s your story, your essay! You pick the best of the 3. Modify/edit if needed. Add to your final draft.