Think about your favorite book or movie: How does it start? Is there action or mystery? Does the first line surprise you? Does the main character open the scene with a funny line of dialogue or a dramatic prophecy?
This is what’s called a “hook,” or an intriguing opening that leaves the audience wanting more, and it’s a useful tool for any writer, including college applicants. In this article, we’ll explore how to write a good hook for a college essay.
What is an Essay hook?
The purpose of an essay hook is to capture the reader’s attention. During an average college application season, admissions counselors read hundreds of essays. Your essay should stand out and hook the reader, encouraging them to keep reading.
The main thing you need to know about an essay hook is that it always comes at the beginning of the essay—it will almost always be the first sentence of your Common App personal statement. If the reader isn’t interested in your essay from the beginning, they may start skimming or worse, stop reading.
But never fear! In this guide, we’ll look at all the best ways to write a good hook for a college essay. Whether surprising, interrogative, intense, declarative, or evocative, your hook should be sharp enough to reel in the biggest fish of all: your top-choice school.
What’s a Good Hook?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” This famous first line from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities may elicit wonder and amazement…or dread if this was required reading in AP English. However, this opening line is so famous because it does several things well in setting up the novel’s premise.
Foremost, it establishes the central theme of the novel, duality, and alludes to the class war raging in its pages. It’s a strong, declarative statement that exudes authority. It also creates tension with its mysterious contradiction: How can it be both the best of times and the worst of times? You’ll have to read more to find out.
While you may not be the next Charles Dickens, you can use this line as inspiration for writing your own good hook for a college essay.
How to Write a Good Hook for a College Essay
It’s important to know that a good hook depends on your essay topic. If you haven’t selected your essay topic yet, check out this article on choosing a winning personal statement topic.
Let’s look at five ways to write a good hook for a college essay in greater detail.
1. Surprise the reader!
“Yuck!” I yelled as the pigeon pooped on my head.
While silly, this sensational situation is not improbable. Perhaps you’ve had a similarly surprising encounter that left you stunned and questioning your place in this world. That’s a little too dramatic for this humorous situation, but shock and awe can be the quickest ways to garner attention.
A surprising essay hook can take many forms, and this deviation from the typical opening line of an essay—a dull, explanatory sentence—is what makes this hook so surprising. Quotes, dialogue, jokes, and shocking facts or statistics can surprise and delight the reader. For example, another surprising hook for this essay might be: The likelihood of a pigeon pooping on you is less than 1%—so if it happens, consider yourself lucky!
Fortunately, with our help, you won’t need luck to write a good hook for a college essay.
2. Ask a question.
While it may seem obvious, asking a question is another quick way to interest a reader. Interrogative statements require an answer, and while the reader may not have one, they’ll likely become interested in finding one through your essay.
It’s important to remember that if you ask a question, the answer should be somewhere in your essay. You may not have to answer the question directly, especially if you’re asking a philosophical question, like “Why do bad things happen to good people?” but if your hook is interrogative, you should spend at least part of your essay articulating an answer.
3. Create tension.
Indiana Jones jumps, dives, swings, and crawls away from every deadly booby trap that lies in his way. Indy is always in incredibly tense situations. Now, you’re not a heroic archeologist, so your life is probably a lot safer, but that doesn’t mean that everyday stressors can’t be high stakes.
Maybe your essay is about your love of rock climbing, but on your first day, you found yourself stuck at the top of the wall unable to come down. By opening with this scene, you’re creating tension—of course, the reader knows that you eventually made it back down, but they don’t know how or when, and they’ll keep reading to find out.
This is also a great way to write a cliffhanger into your essay.
4. Declare your truth.
We all have deeply held beliefs. Maybe you’re an avid vegan—you’ll preach the importance of a plant-based diet to anyone who will listen. Or, maybe you believe a steady carnivorous diet is essential to supporting our nation’s farmers and ranchers. If you’re passionate about a social issue, declaring your belief at the beginning of your essay shows your confidence and authority about the subject. Through being assertive, others will be invested in what you have to say.
It’s important to remember that a good hook and a thesis statement are two different sentences. Ideally, your essay should have both, but while the thesis statement is the road map of your essay, the essay hook is only responsible for grabbing the reader’s attention. Your essay’s hook and thesis statement should still be aligned, however.
5. Paint a picture.
We’re writing, not painting, but beautiful descriptions will always capture attention. Appealing to one’s senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell—can elicit an intense response from the reader.
A good, descriptive essay hook can appeal to any or all of the senses as long as you’re using sensory language. If you’re writing about your grandmother’s recipes, you’ll want to make sure the reader knows that your grandma’s special dumplings are always steamy and fragrant, spicy and full of umami—use just enough descriptions to make the reader’s mouth water!
Descriptive hooks can ground the reader in something real and interest them in your unique perspective. If you’re capable of writing about something as small as dumplings so evocatively, then the reader will be interested to read the rest of your essay.
Bonus: When in doubt, start at the end.
If you hit a snag at the end of your line and are struggling to write a clever and enticing opening line that hooks the reader, it may be easier to start with the body paragraphs or conclusion first. It can be easier to know how you want to begin your essay once you have part of it already written, so if you find yourself struggling to write a good hook, try writing the rest of the essay first and seeing if that sparks anything.
Conclusion
A good hook for a college essay should immediately capture attention and propel the reader into your essay. A good hook can be the difference between an engaged reader and a disinterested one. With these tips, and a little preparation, inspiration, and creativity, you can write a good hook that’ll catch the reader’s attention and secure your dream school.
It’s never too early to start working on your Common App personal statement. For more tips on writing a stand-out essay and more information about working one-on-one with an expert Essay Coach, contact HelloCollege for a free consultation.
