How to Format the Title of an Essay to Make It Engaging

Writing titles for essays requires careful attention to detail and familiarity with writing styles.

Your title format should be consistent whether you create the essay’s title and subtitles or cite other sources. Compelling essay titles capture the spirit and goal of the writing and inspire and educate the reader.

This article explains how to format the title of an essay and offers advice on creating catchy essay titles.

Steps to Creating the Title of Your Essay

Here are some things to consider when creating your essay title

1. Get Your Keywords

Begin by finding a few words that describe your topic. You can pick some words from your research question, but you can always look for your thesis statement (once you write it).

If needed, an in-text citation can help you select the best word to describe your topic. You should choose the right words depending on what kind of essay you write — the semantic, e.g., informative or persuasive essay.

2. What Makes Your Title Important

Once you have determined a few keywords, the next step is to make your title as specific as possible. You should choose a few words and mention the essay’s main idea in the last paragraph.

The broad title will be a little cumbersome. If you need to discuss particular points, you can compare them and do one review or compare and contrast essay meaning.

3. Write Title Ideas on Separate Pieces of Paper

Try to include intriguing, descriptive, and informative words in your title. A good title should be more than just catchy but also have a meaningful message to your reader.

This is because some readers might be interested in what is written in the title, and some will not care. When writing your essay, you should pay attention to the title you have chosen, as the title will help define your essay’s theme and directly affect the level of credibility the essay will have.

Titles Formatting

The Title Should Capitalize Keywords in Your Title. As a General Guideline, You Should Try the MLA Rules for Capitalization. MLA Rules Do Not Impose Capitalization on the Following Parts of Speech. the Exception Is If They Are the First Word in Your Title or the Next One:

all adjectives (e.g., “THE UNIQUE ADDRESS OF OCEAN DELIGHTS”)
all adverbs (e.g., “THE ESSAY QUESTION MAKES A POET”)
nouns, pronouns, and prepositional phrases (e.g., “ON THE CONCEPT OF COUNTRY”).

Capitalize only the first word of your title if it is an adverb or pronoun.

What Should You Avoid When Writing an Essay Title?

Some individuals need help with constructing exciting titles for essays. Keep it professional, refrain from harmful or offensive language, and avoid controversial or offensive terms.

Start well by staying positive. Try to keep negative terms in check even when things are dreary. Good essay titles use appropriate language, making readers more likely to read them. Lastly, an essay should remain neutral — do not overshare.

Conclusion

The key to writing an engaging title for your essay is to let your readers in on what they’re going to read. You should do this by including your keywords in the title.

For example, the title “The Crucial Nature of a Good Title in Academic Research” includes both how the act of writing a good title applies to academic research and what it means in the academic world.