Attention Grabbers
Estimated Time: 20 minutes
At the end of the lesson, you will understand how to create a engage your audience with an attention-grabbing introduction.
How do I Get the Reader's Attention?
Having a good attention getter for an essay is absolutely crucial. On average, people only read the first two sentences before deciding if your essay will be an interesting read or a chore — something they must read. A good attention-getter will arouse your reader’s curiosity.
You can use one of several techniques, such as a surprising statistic, a generalization, or even a story. However, no matter which method you use, you need to make sure that your hook either supports your thesis or provides an opposing stance to which you can argue.
In this video, you’ll learn how to get the reader’s attention in your introductory paragraph. You can find the presentation in the video here.
Rhetorical Generalizations
One effective way to grab your reader’s attention is to issue a general statement about your subject as a pathway into the argument. Consider the following thesis: “We could assist the earth enormously by appropriately recycling household waste.” You could open with a generalization, such as “We can all agree that recycling is a good idea.”
A statement like this aligns your sensibilities with your reader’s, and simultaneously introduces your subject in a way that leads you into an argument that will challenge the way readers think about recycling.
Surprising Facts
Surprising facts work as attention grabbers because they teach the reader something interesting and unexpected. These facts can take the form of statistics or obscure information related to your subject. For example, if your essay argues that higher education is a waste of money, you could open with a statistic about the shocking number of college graduates who can’t find employment within their fields of study. Remember, if you’re going to use a surprising fact or statistic, make sure it works to support your thesis and isn’t just an unrelated trick to get your reader’s attention.
Anecdotes
Perhaps the most effective method of grabbing a reader’s attention is to use an anecdote. Anecdotes are short stories that illustrate a point. When used properly, they can captivate your audience, and even make them forget they’re reading an essay. When opening with a story, start right in the middle of a scene. Use descriptive language to paint the setting, and strong verbs to describe the actions so your reader can experience the events as though they were reading a novel. Furthermore, don’t tell readers how they should feel about the anecdote, show them in a way that allows them to figure out the theme for themselves. For example, if you’re writing a personal essay about how your brother always stole from your family and made life difficult, don’t say that he’s a thief; show him stealing something.
Quotations
Quotations can be for engaging your reader. When quoting someone directly, make sure to place their words in quotation marks and cite its source. For example, if you are writing an essay arguing that the U.S. government should increase funding for NASA to search for alien life on distant planets, you might open with a quotation and attribution.
‘To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.’
These were Dr. Stephen Hawking’s words regarding our need to explore the cosmos.”
Questions
A rhetorical question is a question asked to create an impact rather than get an answer. This simple technique will get your readers to start thinking about your question. You capture the reader’s attention and allow him or her to make connections to real-life by thinking about what the answer might be.
Examples of opening an essay with a question:
- Have you ever wondered ___?
- What if ___ happened to you?
- Do you know the real story behind____?
- Have you ever wondered why the city of San Francisco has such high instances of dog ownership?
Extras
Some examples of introductory hooks are below and more detail about how to use them and which are best for each type of essay can be found here.
Check Yourself
Complete the task below to check your understanding of today’s lesson.