What Is A Hook In Writing Examples

5 Types of Hooks to Grab Readers' Attention

"The best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action." — Stephen King

5 Types of Hook to Grab Readers' Attention — Photo by Vishal Jadhav on Unsplash — Photo by Vishal Jadhav on Unsplash

OK, so what exactly are hooks?

A writing hook is a sentence or group of sentences that sparks people's curiosity, captures their imagination, and draws them into reading your piece. A good hook could be something completely unexpected. With a few choice words, it is possible to convert even the most skeptical reader and suck him.

In an effort to help you know how to make a f irst great impression, I've prepared a list of 5 types of hook — and 5 use cases for each one — that you can employ to encourage a reader to keep reading and find out what you will say in the rest of your post.

1. Rhetorical question

The best description of this type of hook that I've read is from Richard Nordquist:

A rhetorical question is a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected. The answer may be obvious or immediately provided by the questioner. A rhetorical question can be "an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience" (Edward P.J. Corbett). They may also be used for dramatic or comedic effect, and may be combined with other figures of speech, such as puns or double entendres.

To lay emphasis to the point, you may start approaching your topic by asking something like the following.

Examples:

"Are you keen on spending money or are you a proud saver?" (used in Is being thrifty a virtue?)
"Does the thought of writing a blog post create a massive lump in your stomach?" (used in the blog post From Blogger to Book Author)
How long does it take to get familiar with a new project? (used in my story Why Coding Standards Matter and How to Measure a Developer Velocity)
Angular 10 is nearing the finish line. Now, what does this mean? (used my story The new features in the Google-developed web framework)
"How much of what we think and feel comes from the stream of our own experience and observation?" (used in the story On the Importance of Embracing Reality and Being Truthful to Our Experiences, by Lance Baker)

2. Provocative or strong statement

A strong statement is a confident claim about your subject. It's a great technique because it doesn't matter if your reader agrees or disagrees with your declaration, they will want to see how you support it.

Examples:

"It has long been said that air (which others call argon) is the source of life. This is not in fact the case, and I engrave these words to describe how I came to understand the true source of life and, as a corollary, the means by which life will one day end." (used in Exhalation, by Ted Chiang)
"It's an odd feature of love that some of our most romantic moments include these scenarios: …" (used in The Charms of Unavailable People)
"Mental health is a frequently misunderstood topic: Many people believe that mental health is predetermined … Other people believe that it's simply a matter of will power … But the truth is in the messy middle." (used in 4 Habits Everyone Needs for Better Mental Health, by Nick Wignall)
"Have you ever met one of those people who always seems to be energized and enthusiastic — as if they had a secret supply of motivation? Well, highly motivated people do have a secret source of motivation. It's so secret, in fact, that many of them don't even realize what it is." (used in 6 Secrets of Highly Motivated People, by Nick Wignall)
"I don't know you, but I know this. You have internet access and enough time to spend some of it watching. It sounds obvious, but this tells me two more important things about you: One, you're in the top half of humanity's wealth distribution … And two, you're likely fighting a very modern human fight…: laziness, boredom, self-doubt, procrastination." (used in You're Not Lazy, Bored, or Unmotivated)

3. Shocking fact or statistic

Facts and statistics give real information about a topic. They impress your reader with evidence from the very beginning of your post. Sometimes creating anger or depression can be a good technique because you're promising relief of those feelings at the end of your piece.

You need to include facts that are accurate, interesting, and reliable. Make sure your information comes from a credible source.

Examples:

It is estimated that 99% of all the species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct. (Source)
Between 43% and 54% of pilots have admitted to falling asleep while flying. And almost a third said they woke up to find their co-pilot asleep. (Source)
Twitter posts with images see 35% more retweets than those without. (used in my story How to Create an Animated GIF to Captivate Your Audience)
80% of Soviet males born in 1923 did not survive World War 2. (Source)
28% of people who work in IT don't tell their family and friends for fear of being asked to help fixing computers. (Source)

4. Story or personal experience

This is my favorite one. Readers love stories, especially well-written ones that are memorable. This type of hooks requires inspiration and creativity. It opens the door to an extra way of connection between you as a writer and your reader.

Here are examples of short personal stories that I've used as hooks for my own articles:

"I've recently received an email from Joel Mwakasege, the editor of "Be Yourself", where he mentioned some tips about "How a writer should connect with the audience". I've to apologize here." (used in my story This is Not a Poem, This Is a Dance of the Shores of Soul)
"It was almost two years ago. I was sitting on my sofa, reading an article from Zat Rana as I was stopped by an equation describing the attractive personality and the process of reaching it. ... The last sentence got me thinking about it. I started asking: why suffering? Why is it necessary and why is it not enough? Why do we need a reconciliation? I was looking for an answer that makes sense and I think I found it now." (used in my story What's the Role of Suffering in the Empowerment Process)
"In the last year, my team assigned me a task about fixing a performance problem in one of our Angular apps. At that moment, I was scared. I felt like I'm punished by that task. A big part of the target app was written by me, but I didn't know what I should do to fix it. The app was running smoothly at the beginning, but after adding new features to it, it was running slower and slower and took a long time to load that the end-user was totally unhappy with it. Armed with some knowledge learned from Addy Osmani's tutorials, I started my mission." (used in my story How to Create and Fix Memory Leaks With Chrome DevTools)
"In one of my last projects, my team and I were asked to estimate the time required to implement a new feature in our software. We did it, but the implementation took 10 days instead of the estimated 3 days. Unsatisfied with this result, and trying to find out what was the reason for this gap between estimation and real work, we noticed that we've ignored the "training period" needed by one of our developers who was contributing for the first time in that project.
That was not the only reason for our wrong estimation, but I want to focus on it and answer — based on what I've learned from my success and my mistakes from my 14 years of professional experience as a developer, technical leader, and recruiter — the question of our project manager: 'How long does it take to get familiar with a new project?'." (used in my story Why Coding Standards Matter and How to Measure a Developer Velocity)
"Just like many members of the Angular community, I tried to follow the news and see what the next major release of the framework would bring us. I read many articles, but I felt like I'm a newbie in the programming world. My years of experience with Angular didn't help me get a good understanding of what those articles were talking about. So, I decided to write a new article presenting what's new in Angular 10, making it all easier to digest." (used in my story What's New in Angular 10)

5. Quotation

If you can find an inspirational quote that works well for your piece, then it might be a good idea to start with it. The reader is able to see how you've done some research for your writing and will be more inclined to keep reading.

Make sure you choose a quotation where the words are striking, powerful, and/or memorable.

Examples:

"The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak." — Friedrich Nietzsche (used in the story What I Believe: A brief note I wrote for readers on my website)
"Write as though nobody's watching because nobody's watching." — Dan Brown (used in my story 5 Techniques to Be a Descriptive Visual Writer)
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable." — Christopher Reeve (used in my story My Medium Journey Toward Top Writer in Creativity)
"To care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things." — Fyodor Dostoevsky (used in my story The Role of Suffering in the Empowerment Process)
"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." — Nelson Mandela

The takeaway

Whether consciously or unconsciously, as readers read, they are also judging your experience, expertise, and capabilities as a writer. You have only one opportunity to make a first great impression: it's by well choosing your hook and use it as a persuasive device to intrigue your audience.

Select your favorite type, have fun, and be creative.