How to Write a

Hook
Note to teacher

If you need a lesson on teaching

students how to write one type
of hook for their essays, here’s a
lesson, which was inspired by
Stanley Fish’s How to Write a
Sentence and How to Read One.
This lesson would work best for
AP or honors students.
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Types of Hooks

Some types of hooks include:

◎ Quotation
◎ Thought-provoking question
◎ Paradox
◎ Interesting anecdote
◎ Wise statement

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Wise Statements

For today, we will examine what a

wise statement is and how to
craft one.

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What is a Hook?

A hook grabs a reader’s

attention and entices him/her to
read the rest of your essay. You
want your first sentence to be
clear, polished, and relevant to
the topic you are writing about.

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 5 requirements for a Wise
Statement

Be Keep it Use Use Use every

confident short and present parallel day
simple tense structure words

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 You must be confident
Requirement 1
in what you write. If
Be confident you don’t believe in
what you are
expressing then your
reader won’t either.

Avoid words like “may,”

“maybe,” “perhaps,”
“can,” etc. These words
express hesitancy,
which a wise
statement mustn’t
contain.
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Requirement 2 Keep your wise statement
short and simple. If your
Keep it short and statement is long-winded or
simple convoluted, you will lose your
reader’s attention. Instead,
you want to impress your
reader with a jab of insight
into a topic.

I suggest you have a word

limit of no
more than 10 words, but 5
words would be ideal.

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Requirement 3 Think of your
insights as
Use present tense
timeless– a
classic– and thus
you want to write
your wise
statement in
present tense.

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 Parallel structure is a
Requirement 4
grammatical
Use parallel construction in which
structure two or more elements
of a sentence are
identical or near
identical. The use of
parallel structure
adds balance and
effectiveness to the
sentence.

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Examples of parallel structure

“If you want others “Success is

to be happy, getting what
practice
you want.
compassion. If you
Happiness is
want to be happy,
practice wanting what
compassion.” you get.” —Dale
—Dalai Lama Carnegie

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 Using fancy words
Requirement 5
that send a reader do
Use every day the dictionary doesn’t
words help convey
knowledge or
wisdom. Instead, use
a variety of everyday
words to craft your
Wise Statement.

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 Student Examples of wise statements

“ In life, as in literature, men reign.”

This paper focused on women’s lack of
agency in novels from the 1950s

“When work fails to bring satisfaction, nature

succeeds.”
This paper focuses on the role of nature in
Frankenstein.
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 Your Turn

Craft a wise statement and don’t

forgot:
◎ Be confident
◎ Keep it short and simple
◎ Use present tense
◎ Use parallel structure
◎ Use every day words

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If you like this lesson…
◎ If you have any questions about this lesson,
please email me at
Rachel@theoakparktutor.com
◎ If you’d like to be part of my journey to
becoming a curriculum designer and new
teacher mentor, sign up for my blog at
TheOakParkTutor.com and follow me on
Teachers Pay Teachers–The Oak Park Tutor

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