How to Bait Your Hook

1. How to Bait Your Hook start with an unusual detail Ex: The driving age of 15 was set to coincide with the age at which a student could leave school. put a strong statement Ex: If the government raised the age at which a young person could drive, they would outrage hundreds of thousands of its future voters. quote a famous person George Billings once said that the common thing that unites all people is the belief that they drive above average.

2. How to Bait Your Hook • introduce a short and up-to-the-point anecdote • Mr. Thoreau, who runs a driving school in New York, tells his 14-year-old trainees: “Driver's education is an introduction to the adult world of learning to deal with experienced drivers who don't always make good decisions." • open the essay with a statistic or fact • Last year, 21% of accidents were caused by teenage drivers; 31% were caused by adults over the age of 65. • start with an emphatic rhetorical question • Should we devalue the rights and freedoms of teenage drivers in America by raising the driving age?

3. Next… • Introduce a sentence that will show that you see both pros and cons of the subject matter under consideration. • Ex: Americans are divided on how they feel about raising the age at which a young person can obtain a driver’s license. • You may also insert some sort of transition statement between your hook and the opinion statement.

4. Then, what is your theme? • Reveal your own point of view • A well-formulated thesis statement is the key to success • It is the central part of your essay, around which all other parts are organized • Ex: I firmly believe that the driving age should not be changed.

5. The last sentence of the opening paragraph… • Write a closing sentence that will be transitional to the next paragraph • EX: The reasons to keep it the same are overwhelming.

6. Body: What is your argument? • Your body paragraphs should present the points in support of your main idea.(That would be your reasons…) • Each body paragraph should focus on one point. • Be sure to provide evidence or examples for each point. Try to use facts, expert testimony, and anecdotes to back up your reasons.

7. Body Example • In our busy world of today, many teenagers are invaluable in assisting their parents. Today, only 43% of families have both parents living in the home. That means that 57% do not. So often that remaining parent is busy juggling work, household chores, soccer,…

8. Another Body Paragraph • Also, the statistics do not support that raising the age would have any positive impact on accidents or fatalities. Clearly, they show that raising the age simply shifts any negative beginner driving results to the next age group…

9. Last Body Paragraph: Counter-argument • I realize there are people who disagree. They claim that lives would be saved. But research tells us that the only intervention that does make a difference is more training. If 14-year-olds had a year of supervised driving practice, precious lives would be saved and we could maintain the current driving age…

10. Conclusion • Refresh the reader’s memory and remind him of the thesis statement you put in the introduction • Ex: The reasons to keep the current driving age are abundant. • Don’t forget your call to action.

11. Conclusion • Write a personal comment or call for action. It could be: • 1) your prediction; • 2) a question that will let the readers make their own predictions; • 3) your recommendations to solve a problem; • 4) a quotation. It’s up to you to decide!

12. The last sentence… • Your tag line: wrap it all up…look at your hook to bring in a punch. • Ex: By keeping the current driving age, we would ensure that our future voters did not feel that their rights were violated when they first became drivers.