An opening paragraph consists of three main parts.: Hook Transition Thesis Statement

1. Hook Your Audience • An opening paragraph consists of three main parts.: • Hook • Transition • Thesis Statement • The hook, or opening sentence of an essay, should connect to a person’s life in the real world. Essay’s are long and take time to read, so before you begin, you need to let your audience know why this is worth reading. • A hook sentence grabs the readers attention and creates a desire to read further. There are many ways to achieve this goal, but the most common is a use a question, quote, surprising statistic, popular songs, dialogue ,or humorous anecdote (a funny comment or joke). This is followed by a transition that ultimately flows into the thesis. It all begins, however, with an engaging hook! • Try writing a hook sentence that could connect to your thesis using the following techniques. An example is included for each based on writing an essay about Mercutio as a tragic hero. • 1. Question – How far would you go to protect your best friend? • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 2. Quote – “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 3. Surprising Statistic – In 2010, 14,748 people were murdered. That averages to over 40 deaths per day. • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 4. Popular Song – “We are young so let's set the world on fire . We can burn brighter than the sun.” • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 5. Dialogue – “Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. ” • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 6. Humorous Anecdote – An old adage says that, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But what happens if it does kill you? • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________