Essay Glossary

Hook

An awesome movie starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. So what if it only got a Tomatometer rating of 29%. We stand by it.

Wait—a hook for an essay? Oh, that kind of hook gets a much higher Tomatometer rating.

A hook is some catchy information placed at the very beginning of an essay that grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to keep reading. It should still be relevant, though. Starting your essay with, "There's someone behind you!" is certainly surprising, but it probably doesn't go a long way to convincing your reader that Beethoven was the greatest classical composer.

Sometimes you can hook your reader with an awesome quote, sometimes with an anecdote, sometimes with a mind-bending fact or statistic, and sometimes just with a really daring statement like, "The sun is green." Pretty bold. Good luck building your argument.