Monday, June 8, 2020

Admirable Hooks

Hook (film) - Wikipedia
A not-so-great hook.

Visit https://thisibelieve.org/youth/ and look at the various hooks (e.g., first sentences or paragraphs) of the sample essays. What is one hook you admire? Why? Share your thoughts on our class discussion page.

40 comments:

  1. I admired the hook "America is built on the idea of freedom, and there is no exception for Muslim women." They make their opinion known in the first sentence of the essay, which makes you think, grabs your attention and brings up a topic that needs to be discussed.

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  2. "I believe in finding a good frog" what. I admire this hook because it catches the reader off guard. The reader will come up with many questions that will not be answered until he/she begins reading, fulfilling the purpose of the hook.

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  3. The hook "I believe in finding a good frog" catches your attention and makes you think. It's not a sentence you hear every day, so it makes you want to keep reading to see what she's talking about.

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  4. "I believe that teenagers have just as much capacity to speak about the government as anyone else does" This caught my attention because I can relate to the writer and makes me want to read about why she thinks this.

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  5. The hook "When I was growing up, I was a teenager no one listened to" is interesting and makes you want to find out more. This hook catches your attention and makes you want to keep reading, which is why it makes a good hook.

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  6. I liked the hook "I believe in finding a good frog." because it's something that requires an explanation, so it made me want to read what came next. It's a strange enough claim to start with that it draws the reader in, searching for some justification.

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  7. The hook “Wait, so you’re straight?” was interesting to me and caught my attention because i wanted to know why this questions was meaningful to the author so i kept reading.

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  8. I liked the hook, “I believe in catching a good frog”. It is extremely creative and so out there, there is no way you can’t keep reading to figure out what fries have to do with a person’s core beliefs.

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  9. A hook that intrigued me was, "I believe in finding a good frog", because without reading the rest of the essay, I would have no idea what the writer was talking about, and not knowing would probably bother me for the rest of the day.

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  10. I liked the hook, "I believe in finding a good frog". It is extremely interesting because it makes you read the rest of the text in order to figure out the meaning of that hook. It draws the reader in through a strange sentence

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  11. I like the hook in “I believe in finding a good frog” because it draws you in and makes you want to keep reading.

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  12. The hook "As a child, I was generally happy; singing and dancing to my favorite songs; smiling and laughing with my friends and family" caught my eye because it was relatable, but seemed too positive. After reading it I assumed there would be a "but" to follow.

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  13. I admired the hook, "When I was growing up, I was a teenager no one listened to -- and I got sick of it". This hook captivates the reader because the author decided to take action, but we don't know what they are going to do. I also relate to this hook which intrigues me further.

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  14. I (like many of us) liked the hook "I believe in finding a good frog". It was such a strange belief to focus on that it made me want to keep reading, since I thought the writer really liked trying to catch frogs. The hook required that we keep reading to know what she was actually talking about.

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  15. Like many other people, the hook “I believe in finding a good frog” was the most interesting. I liked how the hook was so simple and yet was able to catch my attention. It made me want to read more and see where it led.

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  16. Delia Motavalli's "I believe in finding a good frog" is a well constructed hook. It works for several reasons. For one, it is humorous and therefore immediately starts the reader in a positive mood. Even if the reader does not find it humours, at the very least they will most likely appreciate the creativity of it. In addition, because the hook will most likely take readers by surprise, it makes the central message which revolves around the the idea of a frog more memorable.

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  17. I'm not sure to what extent this would be considered a hook, but I really liked the first sentence of Jocelyn Fong's opening sentence "Until four years ago, when cancer took my grandma, the Chinese side of my family, my dad’s side, spent every Thanksgiving at her house", it really reflects the thoughtful tone of her essay, and instantly captivated me because of the contrast of the way her "Chinese side of the family" and stereotypically American holiday, which immediately makes a great point about the way America is a country of immigrants.

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  18. I really liked the hook “I believe in finding a good frog” because it was really surprising and got me interested to read the rest of the essay. From reading the hook, I had no idea what the essay was going to be about but it made me want to read the rest.

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  19. I liked Brighton Early's hook: "Every Friday night the cashier at the Chevron gas station food mart on Eagle Rock Boulevard and Avenue 40 offers us a discount on all the leftover apples and bananas". I really like this hook because it gives intrigue to the writing, it makes me want to know more about the life of the writer. Something about its specificity is interesting too, and it puts a picture in your head immediately.

    -Evan Bak

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  20. Hello,
    I really liked Delia Motavalli's first paragraph. It was set up to make their whole essay very approachable by asking rhetorical questions and comparing the subject to a relatable topic. I especially liked how they ended their paragraph: "it’s something I got from my mom." This sets up the rest of their essay really well and maintains the approachable tone.

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  21. I really liked Jocelyn Fong's hook because it drew me in from the start. I liked how it was raw and talked about the stereotypes of being an immigrant family in America.

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  22. I liked Motavalli's hook "I believe in finding a good frog". It's very specific and not something that most people would be inclined to agree with immediately because it's not something most people have given any thought to. It makes you want to keep reading because you want to know the explanation for such a strange sounding belief.

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  23. I liked Alexxandra Schuman's hook because I think it touched on an important subject of always needing to feel like you are happy because everyone around you is. It really intrigued me to read more.

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  24. I liked the hook “I believe in finding a good frog,” by Delia Motavalli. It was the first one that captured my attention, making me want to continue reading because it is such an unusual belief.

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  25. I liked Schuman's hook because it implies that something much more sinister would happen later in the story. It really "hooked" me in and made me want to find out what happened.

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  26. I really liked Nora Lupi’s hook because it captures the readers attention and taps into their curiosity. The reader wants to read more to find out what she did to change her situation.

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  27. I liked the first paragraph of Alexxandra Schuman's essay because the happiness of childhood is something most of us can relate to. That, combined with the sharp contrast of the second sentence, draws the reader in to understand the shift.

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  28. I liked the hook “ I believe in hip-hop” because I feel like it’s clear and simple. That person didn’t need to say something like “when I was little...” or “when this happened...” (although I do like these too). I liked how straight dorm the beginning we know what we are talking about.

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  29. I liked Alaa El-Saad's hook, because it clearly identifies the problem that she is facing in her life and the one that the essay is targeting. It's similar to Nora Lupi's essay in which they identified their problem off the start as older people not listening to her generation until they grew up and became strong enough to become a disturbance in their conservative lives.
    -Cameron Gurwell

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  30. I liked the hook in Alexxandra Schuman's essay because it touches on a feeling that I think most people can relate too. We have all at one time or another felt like we needed to portray a more happy version of ourselves.

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  31. I liked Emily Vutech's hook because I thought that it was able to identify and show us the problem she faced right in the first sentence.It was also very effective at inciting me read the entire essay, which is crucial for any sort of hook.

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  32. I liked Brighton Early's hook because it made me interested in reading the whole essay; it tells you some relevant information but it does not immediately tell you what the main point is, so it makes you read on and think about the main message slightly deeper than if it given to you immediately (at least in my case on this specific day).

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  33. I liked Vutech’s hook (“wait, so you’re straight?”) as it is a very blunt line that I can picture someone saying, and it foreshadows the topic of the piece well.

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  34. I liked Fong's hook and first paragraph because I like the somewhat striking contrast it depicts between American and Asian cuisines and how that factored into her Thanksgiving. It also gives a homely, warm description of her experiences that allows me to picture being at her grandmother's Thanksgiving.

    -Oliver

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  35. I liked Caballero's hook because it immediately set up that her belief is different to a more widely held societal belief, which made me interested to read further. I liked how it tied in the same elements from the first sentence into the first sentence of the final paragraph because it wrapped up the idea of everyday people being revolutionaries nicely.

    -Jona Lehmann

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  36. I liked Emily Vutechs opening hook. It's unexpected and makes you want to find out the context of the question. It also worked to immediately introduce the theme of the essay.

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  37. "Every Friday night the cashier at the Chevron gas station food mart on Eagle Rock Boulevard and Avenue 40 offers us a discount on all the leftover apples and bananas."

    I admire this hook because it provides an immediate sense of place and introduces the reader/listener to the struggle, the conflict facing the narrator. Moreover, this hook introduces no belief, so it benefits its specificity in forcing the audience to guess what the belief will be, and forcing the audience to continue reading or listening.

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Admirable Hooks

A not-so-great hook. Visit https://thisibelieve.org/youth/ and look at the various hooks (e.g., first sentences or paragraphs) of the...