How to Create an Impressive Essay Title

Whether it is an essay assignment or blog, the title is the first thing your readers notice in the content. Students often focus on creating a perfect essay piece that stands out from the rest. But without an impressive title, you cannot expect good grades. The reason is simple: the title of your essay is the first thing your audience and professor will take into consideration before reading the entire essay.

Why is it Important to Write Engaging Title?

Research suggests than more than 80% of the people decide whether they want to continue reading the content or leave the page just by looking at the title. An intriguing and engaging title has the potential to tempt your readers to read the full content and find out how well you have proved the thesis. On the contrary, a dull title can drive away your audience.

No one wants to spend days creating their essay only to get a dull reaction like "Oh God! This essay is going to be boring". Some of the vital elements you should consider while crafting a title is humor, suspense, curiosity, and mystery. If you want your essay to outperform the other student's content, then you must write it perfectly right from the starting. You can do that by creating a decent yet engaging title that catches the attention of your readers. Let's see how you can do that.

1. Write Title After Completing the Essay

A lot of people believe that “There’s no logic in writing the essay before selecting a title”. If you ask around, you will know that most of the authors consider writing the essay first. You only need to have a rough idea of the topic in mind. That’s it! You can proceed with the essay and decide the title later. When you complete your essay and read it, you automatically come up with an idea of how to bring that curiosity in the title and intrigue your readers.

By now, you already know what you have written in the essay. This makes it easier to craft a title that sounds intriguing. Of course, it must not reveal the main areas of your essay but it should be engaging. One of the main benefits of writing the title last is that you get enough time to decide the proper title. Usually, students spend hours searching for the perfect title for their essays. Instead of wasting your time in figuring out the title, why not invest it in outlining the main points and crafting the body of your essay? Once you do that part, your mind will automatically get filled with different title ideas.

2. Use the Thesis Statement

Sure, you cannot copy the thesis statement in the title section. Your title and thesis have to be different, though the title should complement the thesis. Read your thesis statement and see if there's any way you could add a part of it into the title. You can even use quotes or phrases in the title.

Let’s say your thesis statement says “Alcohol consumption is harmful to your heart, kidneys, and overall health”. If that’s your thesis statement, you can write a title like “Here’s Why People Must Stop Alcohol Consumption”.

3. Write a Unique Title

Plagiarism is a major issue in writing. Sure, you can write a unique essay. But when it comes to writing a unique title, you often get confused and end up copying it from some author's work. Make sure that your title is 100% original.

4. Add Focus Keywords in the Title

Your title should be informative and provide information about what readers are going to explore in the essay. It should completely match the prompt and thesis statement. The best way to ensure that your title is in line with the essay is to add focus keywords in it.

You don't have to stuff your title with all the keywords but add some keywords. For example, the title for an essay based on the Internet and its uses for kids should contain keywords like the Internet, computers, benefits, kids, etc.

5. Use Proper Vocabulary

Your audience can judge your essay by the title. Do you think they would like to read your essay if the title was full of jargon? When you write a title, make sure that you use full forms and avoid jargon. Any complexity can drive your audience away from your content.

Furthermore, you should consider the tone of your essay to decide the right title. For example, you should write a professional title if the essay is written in a professional tone. On the contrary, if you are writing a personal essay; a witty title should work. However, you must never use abbreviations and jargon. They complicate the title and make it look dull.

6. Capitalize Each Word

Have you ever seen a title with small-letter words? A title never starts with words written in small letters. You don’t want your essay to look unprofessional. There are, basically, two ways of capitalizing the title.

- Capitalize the entire title i.e. write the title in capital letters

- Capitalize the first of every word except for the conjunctions, prepositions, and determiners. For example "How the Internet Helps Students in Education".

Either the entire title or the first letter of each word should be capitalized.

7. Bold or Underline – Choose one

You are already highlighting the title by using the Italics and Bold feature. You don't want to put more emphasis on the title by underlining or coloring it. If you want your essay title to look professional, either bold or underline the title.

8. Proofread and Edit the Title

There can't be a poorer essay than the one with spelling and grammar errors. While checking the entire essay for grammar and punctuation issues is necessary, you should also check the title for errors. Check it on Grammarly or have it checked by professionals. Either way, you should ensure that the title of your essay is free of grammar and spelling issues.