Writing: Introductions

This is a handout for students when teaching them about introductions. Obviously, the examples are all from the Hunger Games. In my handout, I had the "types of hooks" as a chart.

The assignment would be to create their own example of each type of hook. My suggestion is "The first day of school," but an essay they would actually be assigned to write would be even better.

Introductions
1. Hook
2. Comments and background
3. Thesis sentence

Types of Hooks
Rhetorical Question
What do you think about two children a year being sacrificed for a “crime” that happened 74 years ago?
Sensory Image
The game was played in a deceptively beautiful forest. The aspen trees whispered in the light breeze as the sun rose over the mountains.
Story
I didn’t want to die, but I couldn’t let my sister enter that arena.
Statistic
Since the rebellion 74 years ago, 1702 children had been killed. I had no intention of being one of the next 23.
Quotation
“May the odds be always in your favor!” she said again. Boy was I tired of that phrase.
Figurative language
The children, already turned into wild animals, waited for the gong.
Interesting definition
The arena is a place designed for death.


Comments and Background
This section tells the reader a little about what the essay will say. It gives some background and an overview of the essay.

“Every year each of the twelve districts had to send two tributes - a boy and a girl - to the Capitol for a fight to the death. This year, one of them was me. There would be 23 other children trying to stay alive, and the only way to do that was to kill me.”

Thesis
This is usually the last sentence of the introduction. It is the essay in one sentence.
“I had no intention of dying in that place.”

Assignment: Using the topic “The first day of school,” write seven different hooks, one for each different type of hook.