A well crafted title shows work of advance planning. It also can save a student writer a lot of anguish later.
A good title sums up the focus of the work. Consider these rotten titles from my class about the Space Race and the first lunar landing:
"Neil Armstrong" or "Astronaut Courage" are lousy titles; they fail at giving us a focus beyond a general one.
With a better title, the writer never loses sight of an essay's focus. In fact, as the writer drafts, the title provides a "reality check" to see if the draft has drifted off from the original intention.
Sometimes writers "write their way" to a focus. When that happens, changing the title may be in order.
A title does not do the same as the governing claim (aka Thesis) that provides a why/so what for the focal point.
Now consider these better titles:
"Neil Armstrong's Stoic Courage" or "NASA's Decision to Make Neil The First Man"
Both tell a reader (and remind the writer) where the essay will focus. Vagueness and generalizaiton are arch-enemies of all academic work, in any field of study.
Copyright: We follow Creative-Commons licensing for this site. Non-commercial users may incorporate any pages needed into their classes, institutional resources, or publications provided that they either reproduce pages in their entirety or make a full citation if only a portion of a page is used. Please contact Dr. Joe Essid, joe.essid@gmail.com, with corrections, questions, or suggestions. For outside links, please consult policies at those sites.