Opening Sentence Strategies--Hooks

Twenty-five ways to attract a reader’s attention at the start of an introductory paragraph:

Which of these strategies involve "Research?"

1. Ask a direct question of the reader.  
2. Ask a rhetorical question.
3. Tell a story that relates your experience with the topic.
4. Use a comparison.
5. Relate your thesis to a piece of writing that your reader might be likely to have read, like a story from the Bible or a common fairy tale.
6. Give an example of what you’re going to tell the reader about.
7. Start with a joke or a light-hearted story.
8. Use a quotation that relates to the topic you’ll be discussing in the rest of the essay.
9. Directly address the reader.
10. Tell the reader about how you came to write about the topic that he or she is about to read.
11. Give a definition of the topic that is the overall focus of the essay.
12. Show that you understand that there are at least two sides to the issue in your essay.
13. Use an example from popular culture—movies, TV, music, poetry, fiction—to relate to the topic of your essay.
14. Present factual data about the topic your essay will deal with.
15. Take a well-known but incorrect idea about your topic and refute it.
16. Compare past events related to your topic with what’s happening in the present.
17. Explain the timeliness of your topic.
18. Give an example of a famous person or a famous event that relates to your topic.
19. Make an outrageous statement that will catch your readers’ attention.
20. Explain your purpose in writing.
21. Describe something.
22. Establish yourself as knowledgeable about the subject.
23. Give your readers pieces of what you’re writing about to attract their interest.
24. Set the physical scene of where the story will take place.
25. Cite the factual details of your essay as a journalist would.