Writing the title for your essay is the icing on the cake. The title of your essay welcomes the reader to read it or choose not to. A well-worded one will offer the reader enough information to help him or her understand what you are talking about. You cannot understate the importance of it and therefore you need to know how to title your essay appropriately. This post will give you an idea of how to do it.
Format On How To Title Your Essay
- Title your essay after writing it
- Answer the essay question
- Use a central idea
- Reword a cliche
- Use a hook
Title your Essay After Writing It
Many people will start their essay with the title. While this works for some people, it is not the case for everyone else. Some people will get writer’s block if they start with the title. For yet another group, they fear that having the title in place before writing will hamper their creativity.
What essay experts recommend is that you write your essay first. By doing this, you are able to word a title that describes what you wrote about in the essay. Additionally, this method of writing a title allows you to change the plot of the story as you wish without having to fear that you will deviate from your title.
An Example Of How You Can Title Your Essay
Answer The Essay Question
Answering the essay question is another great way of coming up with an essay title. For the most part, the person reading your essay will be looking for the answer to the questions he or she has. More often than not, the question they have is what the essay asks in the first place.
While writing the actual essay is the best way to answer the question, you can begin this process right from the title. Let it address the issue in the essay question directly and set the tone for the rest of the essay.
Use A Central Idea
The use of a central idea to formulate your essay’s title closely relates to point (a) above. The central idea of your essay will emanate from the body of the essay. The approach here is to use your resolution in the body to formulate your essay title.
If for example, you are writing an argumentative essay and your resolution is to agree, use this as a central idea. Using this central idea, try to reword your resolution in the body of the essay and turn this into an essay title. Continue practising and experimenting with different words to arrive at the one that communicates your message the best.
Re-word A Cliche
Re-wording clichés are one of the most effective ways through which you can title your essays creatively. The process of re-wording clichés starts with identifying a particular title that you may want to re-word. The cliché you want to re-word can also be a common phrase that people use in conversations or writing.
Add a creative touch to the cliché to make sound different but maintain its originality. Re-worded clichés add a new lease of life to an otherwise boring or all too common title or phrase. With a re-worded cliché, you welcome your audience to marvel at your creativity before even reading the essay itself.
Use A Hook
Hooks are common when writing titles for academic essays. However, hooks also work well for other essays when used. The use of a hook in coming up with your essay’s title allows you room to chip in more descriptive words to your title.
Hooks also offer you the chance to experiment more than one title for the same essay. You can choose your primary title and then pair this with the hook chosen. Through this, your audience gets a better understanding of what your essay will handle. A hook also allows you to experiment with long essay titles without any monotony.
Final Thoughts
The best essay titles come after the essay itself. If you are looking to write captivating titles for your essays, you should write your essay first. By doing this, you welcome yourself to immerse in the writing process, and through that, you can formulate a better title for your essay. Additionally, writing your title last allows you enough room to experiment with a couple of them.
How do you write a good title?
Here are ways on how to write a good title:
1. Research on a title that best fits the topic you are discussing.
2. Come up with a comprehensible topic that is understandable to many.
3. Ensure your title length is more than 5words but less than 20 words.
4. Ensure your title follows the topic being discussed.
Do you italicize the title of an essay?
Only short works title are to be italicized.
Should an essay have a title?
All essays should be titled to give direction on the subject being discussed and also capture the reader’s attention.
Can a title be a question?
A title can be a question so long as you include the answers to your questions in the contents of your essay.
