TITLING YOUR ESSAY
“The Ancient Mariner” would not have taken so well had it been called “The Old
Sailor.”
(Samuel Butler commenting on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem)
Titles are important! They are the first words your reader reads. Consider your title as a part of your introduction. And as part of your introduction, your titles need to engage reader interest.
First, make sure you avoid writing perfunctory titles such as “My Childhood and Family
Experience.” Instead, consider the titles of our readings so far: “Salvation,” “Once More to the Lake,” “The Town Dump,” and “Two Kinds.”
Titles using puns and word play are clever and creative. Consider the student who wrote an essay on why she changed her mind about getting a facelift: “About Face.”
Avoid repeating the title word for word in the first sentence of your introduction. Think about making a reference to your title in your conclusion.
Capitalize the first and last words of your title. Capitalize all nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech except conjunctions (and, but), prepositions (of, for), articles (adjectives such as “the” and “an”). Note the title “Writing a Memoir for Your Family Reunion.”
Do not underline or put your title in quotation marks. Do not change the font size to a larger font size when you write (and center) your title.
Avoid the words and ineffective passive voice in a title. Prefer active voice. Instead of
“How a Memorable Memoir Should Be Written,” consider “Writing a Memorable
Memoir.”
Consider using alliteration in your title. Select words with the same beginning sounds.
Note the title “Fighting for Freedom.”
Some titles suggest the content of the essay. Consider the titles “Being a Man,” “Why
Boys Don’t Play with Dolls,” “I Want a Wife,” “Why Women Smile,” and “The Men We
Carry in Our Minds.”