How To Leverage the Power of a Strong Title in Your Writing

Writers rely on their style, and no two writers will have identical style. Style is what makes each piece of writing unique, and it also attracts readers.

So do titles.

(Follow Industry Typing and Formatting Conventions for Your Writing Genre)

Titles vary as much as the styles of writers. Some titles are short, especially in certain genres. Consider the concise, punchy headlines of journalism. Other titles are longer; consider explanatory titles found in many academic journals. Whatever a writer’s genre and audience, a title should never be wasted. Instead, it should be used as leverage for inviting a reader into the work.

But in order to title effectively, writers will want to consider these questions.

If a writer is targeting a particular publishing outlet, follow the expected length, style, and word choice in the titles used. Model a title from what that publication favors. For longer projects like books, titles may also need to evoke a certain mood or include hooks, like those that target readers of genre fiction.

A title may need to fit a certain number of allotted characters in an entry blank for a contest submission or may simply need to be attractive on a book cover or fit on a spine. Whatever the case, writers will want to consider general parameters that might exist for their project.

Does my title need to include articles and prepositions?

Small words may or may not be necessary for a title. “A,” “an,” and “the” are articles, and directional words like “in,” “of,” and “on” are prepositions. These words can add clarity to titles, but consider the stylistic differences of eliminating them:

Considering slight changes like this can help a writer choose the title that ultimately achieves the desired impact.

Since punctuation carries meaning, different marks can create different effects next to words. Consider these titles with punctuation:

Comma usage (or eliminating it, like with the Oxford comma) can create a bold statement, as can other marks of punctuation.

Subtitles offer a greater explanation to readers. In prose, a subtitle is separated from the title with a colon. On a book cover, a subtitle may simply be in a smaller font. Nonfiction favors subtitles, but they can be found in fiction writing and other genres as well.

Even shorter projects like single poems and essays can have subtitles.

This may be a bit old-fashioned for the world of publishing today, but some works have had success with double titles. Typically, these are used for longer works (like novels) and can be connected by “or.”

Double titles are memorable, and they are certainly stylistic.

Titles can include more than words.

The use of numbers, foreign words, or unique characters may affect alphabetizing or indexing, so keep those considerations in mind.

Finally, bear in mind that standards for punctuating titles will differ based on style guides. For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, APA, and MLA favor italicizing titles of stand-alone works (such as books, periodicals, and films) but only the Chicago Manual of Style and MLA uses quotation marks around article titles (APA does not). If including a title inside of a story or if writing it in other forms of correspondence, default to the preferred style guide for the situation.

Titles are subjective, and writers may want to weigh other possibilities when choosing a title such as dialect uses (You or Y’all), word varieties (Amid or Amidst?), and alternative spellings (Judgement or Judgment?). Ultimately, writers need to be comfortable with their titles. By trying different combinations and considering the questions above, they can help ensure they leverage titles to their fullest potential.

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