Developing an Introduction:
Where Do I Start?
TYPES OF HOOKS

Statistical Opening (using numbers or percentages
relevant to topic)
In America, sexual harassment is a heinous crime; it makes the front
pages of newspapers and puts attackers in handcuffs, but in Egypt, being
sexually assaulted is part of everyday life. A survey in 2008 by the Egyptian
Center for Women's Rights claimed that 98% of foreign women and 83% of
Egyptian women in Egypt had been sexually harassed at least once (Davies).
It’s hard to imagine that something like this could actually be going on, but
Doaa Abdelaal, a women’s rights activist explains, "In an oppressive society,
people oppress each other...It's a justification for everyone to be unjust”
(Davies). In countries, like Egypt, where citizens have little to no control over
their government, some find the need to exercise control in their private lives,
and the results can be devastating. Just like Egypt, Panem, the country in The
Hunger Games, is oppressed by the heartless President Snow. Citizens can’t
feed themselves, can’t speak their opinions openly, and can’t rely on feeling
safe. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the author shows how the
government purposefully uses oppression to keep the citizens in line.
TYPES OF HOOKS

An Anecdote
(draw readers in with an engaging story)
Ama Abdula works day and night to be the best mother she can be.
She slaves over grass stains on her children’s clothes, reads favorite bedtime
storybooks and gives precious, lingering hugs. But it’s not easy to be such a
good mother, especially when she makes twenty dollars a week for the work
she does in a factory while her children are at school. Getting paid less than
one dollar per hour makes it difficult to purchase those fairytales she likes to
read at night or to afford the clothes that end up tattered and torn. All in all,
it makes it difficult to survive – period. However, this is what happens in
oppressive societies. When citizens are so busy trying to keep their heads
above water, they don’t have time to rebel. Although The Hunger Games is a
fictional story, some of the oppressive tactics used to control citizens sound a
lot like those used in Abdula’s home country, Egypt. In Panem, citizens worry
about starvation, fret about medical care, and put education second to
survival. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the author shows how the
government purposefully uses oppression to keep the citizens in line.
TYPES OF HOOKS

Allusion (referencing some famous literary work, event
in history, or piece of art)
Martin Luther King Junior dreamed that, someday, the United States
of America would wake up and see past the color of a person’s skin. He
dreamed that, someday, the United States would come together to move
forward instead of dividing and standing still. As an African American living in
a time of lynch mobs and Jim Crows Laws, King often had to fight for his basic
human rights and eventually became the figurehead who would fight for all his
people. Just like King, the citizens of Panem in The Hunger Games often find
themselves without their basic rights. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins, the author shows how the government purposefully uses oppression to
keep the citizens in line.
TYPES OF HOOKS
Historical Review
In the early years of United States History, African Americans were
brought over in droves to work the land for rich white men, facing beatings or
even death if they didn’t comply. In the 1940s, Hitler sent a warning to those
who didn’t want to follow him by slaughtering over six million in death camps.
In 2003, a long-standing conflict between the government of Sudan and a
group of rebels in Darfur intensified, and one year later, the conflict was
deemed“genocide” as militia groups sought to do whatever they had to do to
“take care of” rebel groups angry at the lack of government financial support.
These are only three of many examples of oppression throughout history, and
although people are supposed to learn from history, it only seems to repeat.
Similar to these instances of oppression, people who live in Panem, the country
of The Hunger Games, face the death of 23 citizens every year to remind
them of the consequences of their rebellion. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins, the author shows how the government purposefully uses oppression to
keep the citizens in line.
TYPES OF HOOKS
Descriptive Opening
Imagine being trapped in a dirt hole nine feet deep in the middle of
absolutely nowhere without a chance of escape. The only hope is that
someone will eventually hear your call or look in the deep hole by chance.
As the hot summer sun beats down with its glaring rays of light, you dig
mud up to cover your body with, so as not to become overheated and die
from heat exhaustion. Then when you feel like dying of hunger, you dig a
hole and find a few ants to keep your hunger at bay—at least for a little
while. Then finally, a big break! Your determination has paid off! A
monster rainstorm that unleashes a downpour unlike any ever seen, you
breath in the cool air and just wait until the water brings you close
enough to the surface, where you can pull yourself out. In Stephen King’s
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, readers experience through the
eyes of Andy Dufresne, the determination one must possess in order to
survive in a prison. Like being trapped in a hole, Andy is stuck in Shawshank
Prison for a crime he did not commit. He is accused of killing his wife and her
boyfriend, and only through his intense sense of determination is Andy able to
free himself of his atrocious fate.
OTHER TYPES OF HOOKS

Conversation (include meaningful dialogue and
a follow up)

Leading Questions (these are leading
questions, often grouped in three, that get the
reader to think about a topic)

Direct Quotation (use a quote from a book, a
statement from an expert in the field, or
someone famous, but don’t leave it unexplained)