Essay Introductions
In writing concepts section of your notebook
REMINDER
 Tomorrow we will have a literary terms test – study your
pink sheet!
There are 3 main parts to an
introduction:
 The hook
 The big picture
 The thesis statement
Introduction
paragraph
First body
paragraph
Second body
paragraph
Conclusion
paragraph
The Hook
 The Hook gets the reader’s attention (First sentence(s))- not
about the story that you are analyzing. Broad.
 Question
 Anecdote
 Scenario
 Interesting Fact
 Quote
Question
 Have you ever…
 Did you know…
 What would you do if…
 Have you ever thought someone was stalking you? What about
hunting you? Would it scare you?
Anecdote
 A short true story
 I remember a time when…
 Once, a man named Jack, was walking through the woods when he heard
a rustling in the bushes. He realized there was a hunter waiting there
and it really freaked him out. What if the hunter had mistaken him for
a bear? What if the hunter was hunting men?
Scenario
 An imaginary scene that helps the reader understand the
situation.
 Imagine…
 Imagine being a deer during hunting season; even eating or sleeping
would be a terrifying experience. Now imagine you are a man being
hunted by another human….
Interesting Fact
 95% percent of hunters say that to kill another human outside of
war is murder. One of the major characters of “The Most Dangerous
Game” fits into the other 5%.
Quote
 Something that someone important said that relates to your
thesis:
 Walter Cronkite, a famous television news journalist, once said,“The
perils of duck hunting are great - especially for the duck.”
Hook Quiz (open notebooks to writing
concepts – Introduction page)
 Name five different strategies to write a good hook.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Question
Interesting Fact
Anecdote
Quote
Scenario
 Which strategy is this an example of:
Walter Cronkite, a famous television news journalist, once said,“The
perils of duck hunting are great - especially for the duck.”
 Quote
Question
Interesting Fact
Anecdote
Quote
Scenario
 Which strategy is this an example of:
 Imagine being a deer during hunting season; even eating or sleeping
would be a terrifying experience. Now imagine you are a man being
hunted by another human….
 Scenario
Question
Interesting Fact
Anecdote
Quote
Scenario
 Which strategy is this an example of:
 Have you ever thought someone was stalking you? What about
hunting you? Would it scare you?
 Question
Question
Interesting Fact
Anecdote
Quote
Scenario
 Which strategy is this an example of:
 Once, a man named Jack, was walking through the woods when he heard a
rustling in the bushes. He realized there was a hunter waiting there and it
really freaked him out. What if the hunter had mistaken him for a bear?
What if the hunter was hunting men?
 Anecdote
Question
Interesting Fact
Anecdote
Quote
Scenario
 Which strategy is this an example of:
 95% percent of hunters say that to kill another human outside of
war is murder. One of the major characters of “The Most Dangerous
Game” fits into the other 5%.
 Interesting Fact
THE BIG PICTURE
 The title of the work
 The author’s name
 Brief summary 2-3 sentences
 Include names of any characters you will talk about in the essay
 Should cover the basic plot points that the reader of the essay
will need to understand your analysis.
 Your body paragraphs should not need plot summary beyond
the lead-ins.
Example
 In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard
Connell, a world famous big-game hunter Rainsford
struggled for his life against a deranged man named General
Zaroff. The General made a sport of hunting the most
intelligent animal there is: man.
Thesis (one sentence, the last)
 Opinion statement
 Plan/reasons
Example
 Person to person is the most significant type of conflict in the
story because either General Zaroff kills Rainsford or the other
way around.
Put them all together and you have
The Introduction
Imagine being a deer during hunting season. Even eating or
sleeping would be a terrifying experience. Now imagine you are
a man being hunted by another human…. In the short story, “The
Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a world famous big
game hunter, Rainsford, struggles for his life against a deranged
man named General Zaroff. The General has made a sport of
hunting the most intelligent animal there is: man. In this story,
the greatest kind of conflict is person to person because either
General Zaroff murders Rainsford or the other way around.