Titles

Congratulations you did it.

You finished Section 1 then we’re now onto Section 2 which is organizing your ideas.

So welcome everyone to Lecture 1 Section 2.

Today’s topic is titles and so is going to be a very brief lecture just like your title should be very

brief and to the point we’re going to talk about the purposes of a title functions some of the possible

sources of where to find or where to come up with a good title.

We’ll give you some examples and also some some basic things to consider.

All right.

So let’s start.

Purpose of a title to attract the attention of your reader.

A good title should draw your reader in and make them want to read your paper.

A good title is also to tell your reader what your paper is about.

So the purposes need both of these purposes need to be fulfilled with a good title.

It’s not OK to just attract your reader and it’s also not okay to tell your to only tell your reader

what your paper is about.

We need to do both title functions the title functions are to tell the general topic tell about the

general topic.

It’s also to gain the interest of the reader and to set the tone.

So whether it’s going to be very formal and academic or whether it’s going to be more opinion or a more

a little more casual and possible tidal sources or things like a key idea or a phrase from the thesis

statement.

It could be a key question that you would that you plan to address in your paper.

It could be a key phrase from the paper or so actually from the body of the paper.

Maybe a phrase that you repeat multiple times for emphasis.

It could also be a pertinent quotation from another source that you’ll be taking up throughout your

paper.

OK so let’s let’s look at a few examples.

Before though let’s again remind ourselves of the key components.

First it needs a hook to introduce the paper creatively.

Key words to identify the topics or concepts.

Your paper will discuss and another really good component that students so often forget is the place

or time where or when your exploration or your discussion is happening.

So setting your discussion within its context.

So here are some examples or just goofy ones that I came up with.

Number one monkey business mapping the international monkey market in twentieth century South Africa.

OK so we have our hook monkey business.

Sounds kind of fun.

Kind of creative.

And then we have the key concepts or topics international monkey market.

Hey that’s the key topic.

And then we also have the setting 20th century South and South Africa.

So it’s goofy but it’s a good title.

Number two pious persecution religious intolerance in antebellum America.

So here again we have the hook pious persecution.

It’s contradictory.

So catches the audience.

How is persecution also pious.

Right.

We then have the main topic which is religious intolerance.

Again it also catches the audience.

We’re used to hearing the term religious tolerance especially in America.

So religious intolerance the topic and the setting is antebellum America.

Right.

So Antebellum meaning the time before the American Civil War.

Right.

So that’s the setting.

Our third example putting on the pants the shift in domestic generals in 1960s America.

So again we have that hook putting on the pants.

It’s kind of fun.

It’s catchy it hooks the audience or it draws the audience’s or your readers attention.

And then we have the topic a shift in domestic gender roles.

OK.

So the main topic the key words are domestic gender roles.

And we have the setting 1960s America.

It’s actually that simple and you’ll see even the highest academics using this basic formula of writing

a good title a hook key words and the setting here are a few things to consider.

First thing to consider when you’re writing a title is to consider your audiences you’ll never want

to offend your audience in an attempt to be creative or to gain interest.

So everyone saw and academic gets away with it.

But as a general rule as a general rule no cursing no dirty words no strange things that are just offensive.

Right.

Second make sure the tone and content of your title match your audience.

So if you’re writing an opinion paper for a local newspaper you could be casual.

Right.

You can write with the common vernacular slang of the area if you are addressing your professor or if

you’re addressing a committee of academics.

Your title needs to reflect that you need to reflect that you understand the level of your audience

and the formalities that are required for that level.

Next only use quotation marks in your title if you are quoting from a different source.

So this is really basic.

But you don’t put quotation marks around your title you only put quotation marks in the title if you’ve

inserted a quotation from somewhere else as part of your title.

Finally know how to use the colon title.

All of the examples I showed you before use the colon title.

Again this is a very very standard academic college writing title formula but it works.

I use it all the time.

It’s a very good way to catch the reader and then to give the description of what the what the paper’s

going to be about.

But we need to use where we need to know how to use that code and title.

So first before the colon is where you put the catchy creative hook thing that grabs your readers attention

and after the colon is where we need to give the descriptive key words signal the topic and setting

of your paper and that’s it.