Writing & Content Creation
“The best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action.” — Stephen King
Published in · 7 min read · Jul 7, 2020
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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 first 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.
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…
