HOOKS OR HOW TO GET A READER’S ATTENTION

Good writing starts with a good Hook. Whether it is a Narrative, a Response to Literature, 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: “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.” White Fang by Jack London

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

Examples from books: “ ‘The king is dead.’ Those four words, cold as marble and sharp as flint, were uttered by the thin, cruel lips of Edward Seymour, the king’s privy counselor and my brother’s uncle. In this way I learned of my father’s death.” Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer

POSSIBLE HOOKS: Fact/Statistic Nearly 1/3 of the population of Europe was killed by the plague. Vivid Description Hundreds of corpses 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 if they were dirt. In the Middle of the Action Creaking menacingly, the catapult cranked back slowly, then released suddenly, launching the stone up and over the walls of the city.

POSSIBLE HOOKS: Definition The Black Death was an unstoppable disease caused by the fleas carried by the rats that co- habitated with the people of Medieval Europe. Dialogue/Quote “I see there’s been no improvement,” the doctor sadly admitted, shaking his head slowly at the tiny girl trembling and sweating with fever before him. Onomatopoeia Sssssss. Sizzle. The fever burned through the victim’s body.

POSSIBLE HOOKS: Staccato three word lead Rats. Sewers. Filth. London was little more than a garbage dump. Lyrics “Ring around the rosie. Pockets full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!” Comparison Two hundred twenty million people worldwide died of the horrible disease known as the Black Plague, a death toll what was higher than all those that died in both World Wars and the Holocaust.

ASSIGNMENT Take out one of your essays. Look at your list of possible hooks. Mimic 5 different styles to start your essay in a powerful way. Pass your paper to the left and have the next person add 1 more possible revision to your list of new hooks. Then pass your paper to the left again and have that peer circle the three hooks on the list that they find the most effective. It is your paper, so from that list of 3, pick the best hook and use it in your final draft.