Essays often change during the drafting and revising process. A title you come up with at the beginning may not reflect your essay when you have finished it. Make sure to also revise your title after you finish your paper.

Look at your thesis statement. This sentence contains the major argument of your paper and can help you craft a title. Look at your topic sentences. Reading these sentences together can help you pick out themes, symbols, or motifs in your paper that can be integrated into the title. Consider asking a friend to read your work to help you identify themes.

If you are writing a school assignment, or your audience are academics and specialists in your topic, use formal language. Avoid using a playful tone or slang terms. If you are trying to reach an online audience, think of what keywords a reader might use to find your article. For example, if you wrote a how-to article, include words like “beginner” or “do it yourself” that would identify your writing as appropriate for all levels of ability. If your piece is a news story, consider who you are writing about. For example, if are writing about an athletic team write down terms like “fan,” “coach,” “referee,” or the team name. Readers with an interest in sports or that team can quickly identify your perspective and the topic of your story.

Declarative titles state the main findings or conclusions. Descriptive titles describe the subject of the article but do not reveal the main conclusions. Interrogative titles introduce the subject in the form of a question. [6] X Research source

Look for attention-grabbing descriptions or phrases you’re proud of. For example, in an essay on censorship choose a phrase like “forbidden music” that is descriptive but also intriguing.

For example, in an essay on religious persecution, a quote like “God was silent” is arresting and thought-provoking. Readers may immediately agree or disagree and will want to read your explanation. If you use someone else’s words, make sure to put them in quotation marks, even in the title.

The Negative Impact of Replacement Referees on Football Fans (Theme and Audience) “A Crucible of Victory”: Understanding the Western Front in World War One (Quote and Theme) The Queen of Diamonds: Marie-Antoinette and Revolutionary Propaganda (Phrase and Theme)

Most words in your title should begin with a capital letter. The first word and the first word after a colon should always be capitalized even if one of the “short words. " In general, do not capitalize the following words: and, a, an, the, or short prepositions if they are not the first letter in the title. If the title of a book or film is part of your essay title, it should be put in italics, e. g. , Gender Relationships Between Vampires in Twilight. Short story titles are always in quotation marks. Know if the paper follows MLA, APA, or another style. Websites like Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab, APA Style, and MLA Handbook can help you with conventions for titles.

For example, many young adult fantasy novels hinge on one or two intriguing words: Twilight, Bitten, Cinder, The Selection.

Try adding a more descriptive word to the basic title. Successful titles using the above words include The Giving Tree, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, The Mystery of the Blue Train, and The Orphan Train.

Read your title out loud. Does it roll off the tongue? Is it exciting? Does it sound boring? Would you check out this title? The answers to these questions can help you revise the title.

For example, the use of the word desire in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms is far more interesting than Love Under the Elms. [10] X Research source

Examples of this type of title include: The Grapes of Wrath; Absalom, Absalom; Gaudy Night and, The Fault in Our Stars.

Examples of this type of title include To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, and Catcher in the Rye.