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How to Title an Essay: A Step by Step Guide

by Ayantan Maity
Last Updated on: February 4, 2025

Essay titles are essential to maintaining academic standards and adding value to your writing. While most people are confused and in a dilemma on how to title an essay, I have also found it difficult sometimes to craft proper titles for specifics after so many years of experience in essay writing.

To be honest, while everyone can write, most writers never think about what readers want to read. It is not about how well you can write but more about how convenient your writing style and structure are for a reader.

If you read essays or even articles regularly, you will find that titles summarize what the paper is all about. Therefore, you get an idea of what you are going to read even before you start reading. If you are reading this, you already know what we are going to offer you here. 

While you know and give titles to your essay paper, you might not know the proper steps to create the title. 

It is not just about making relevant titles but also:

  • Attracting the readers
  • Following the actual format
  • Holding a grip of your entire paper

Interested? Check out what makes your essay title purposeful and appealing.

Drawbacks of Not Giving a Good Essay Title

An essay title is essential as it simply entertains the reader with the idea of the reading. Also, the title- 

  • Helps catch your reader’s attention
  • Decide how deep you dive into the subject matter.

But what if you don’t give a proper essay title?

Well, an essay without a title might seem less professional and confusing to the readers.

Every reader wants to understand the paper even before they start reading. Any confusion will negatively impact the reader’s mind.

  • Lack of clarity: Without a good essay title, you cannot properly communicate the whole essay concept to the reader. Sometimes, a writer also gets confused with it.
  • Messed-up Essay: Without a title, an essay highlights a lack of organization. A well-crafted essay decides proper navigation through headings as everything is interlinked, which we call chronology.
  • Scouting Failure: When submitting your essay paper or sending it as a draft without a title, you can take more than usual time to send the particular file, as finding the messy one is difficult.

Therefore, a title is a must!

Simple Concept Of How To Title An Essay

The title includes very few but important points of writings. 

Giving a short idea about an essay only can not fulfill the viewer’s expectations. There are specific parameters that you must follow to add a perfect title for your writings.

If you hesitate to give the appropriate title, then focus on these fundamental things. Here are some simple tips about how to title an essay.

Realistic View

The catchy title is all time required, but the unrealistic title, which does not match the context, never works out for any writings. Try to use realistic phrases, keywords, and subjects that match the essay body.

Grab The Reader’s Instant Attention

The reader’s attention is the most desirable thing for any writer. But that does not mean you can write any wrong information-related data for the sake of the reader’s attention. Research for the authentic data and then go through the essay body to get past multiple times and do not hesitate to try many types of titles.

At last, you will get to know what will be appropriate for it. If you crack this formula of catching the readers’ instant attention, you never have to ask anyone how to title an essay.

Read Also: How to Write a Reflective Essay: A Definite Guide

Write the title in an active voice

The active voice is more appropriate for grabbing the attention of the readers and the viewers. By using the active voice, you will get more attention from the viewers. And the audiences are more prone to connect with your tone.

Error-free title

At the beginning of the essay, with grammatical or sentence construction errors just not worthy at all, try to avoid making this type of technical faults. Some of the readers are very conscious when they are reading an article or essay.

Think of a situation! If they find any grammatical errors in your essay title, there is a big change; you already lose a reader who will not read your content anymore.

Short and interesting

Many times, people are repeatedly asking me one question on how to title an essay. But one prime thumb rule of writing a title is to keep it simple and exciting. Short and easy readable titles are more attractive among all age viewers.

Read Also: Best College Essay Writing Tips for Beginners

Rules of How to Title an Essay

Most students don’t know that the title format can be different based on their area of research. As a subject matter expert, you need to have a good idea of crafting a compelling title that resonates with particular rules. 

MLA format

If you are considering MLA format, prepare your title using the title case. However, leave the articles, prepositions, and conjunctions, including infinitive pairs, in small cases. The only exception here is the first and last words of each title, which will remain capitalized.

Example: 5 Essentials to Keep Your Instagram Feed as Dynamic and Varied as Your Life

APA format

APA format also entertains title case. However, the APA format does not allow unnecessary abbreviations. Therefore, try to make it succinct and too direct.

Example: Strategic Logistics Solution to Overcome International Trading Obstacles

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) format

Chicago style follows the same formation as MLA as it allows title case. Apart from that, it does not have any specific requirements to hold your title separately. 

Example: Business Check Endorsements 101: How to Endorse a Check?

Tips to Apply the Essay Writing Concept

Now you know all the formats for crafting an essay title, is that enough? Well, no! 

You need to be in a proper application area from where your titles can reflect a clear vision and engaging tone. 

Essay Writing Concept

Now you know all concepts of perfect writings, but you are quite confused about the application area. Forgiving you a clear vision about titling, here are some tiling tips for the essay in a proper way.

1. Follow a Topic First -Title Last Concept

Maybe you feel unusual, but the conclusion part should be writing before then the essay. Then comes the body of the essay, and the title comes at the last. If you are more prone to write the title first. Then maybe most of the time, you are making more mistakes about giving the proper information contained in the title.

 So be conscious and try to write down the title at the end. The one benefit is there when you are writing the title at the end. The content will be more apparent to you, and the title comes in a very smooth and spontaneous way. If you can use this principle, you never have to ask anyone how to title an essay.

2. Use The Summarized Version Of the Essay

The title is the small version of the full essay. An attractive and catchy title is also required. But here, you have to be more careful while giving a title for the essay. It never should look like an out of the box. The relevant subjects’ titles are more positively inclined to the viewer’s perspectives.

3. Make It Simple And Easy

Short, catchy, and straight forward are the main key rules of how to title an essay. Short and simple does not mean that you are giving unrealistic short and give a title full of grammatical errors. You have to use a straight to the point catchy title for the essay. 

4. Give A Brief Idea About The Essay Topic Within One Single Line

While giving a brief idea means the viewers are getting the full concept about the subjects and the topics. The full idea is not required, but a small brief view of the topic will create more interest among the viewers.

5. Use Appropriate Quotes And Phrases

Find the appropriate quotes and phrases for the essay. Start researching the quotes and relevant phrases before giving the title. The specific keyword, phrase, and quotes these three things which are more used on the titles.

The phrase and the titles are always looking great in the title. In some cases, I have seen the viewers remember the essay for some specific quotes and phrases.

6. Proofread Multiple Times To Free It From The Grammatical Errors

The grammatical-error-free title is another requirement when you are more prone to professionally writing any essay. So the proofreading process is holding the key to perfection.

Read Also: Top 10 Essay Templates in PDF

7. Check The Formatting

The formatting of good essay writing is fixed. But do you know about the title formatting? If you do not know the title formatting, then try to summarize the whole essay with a simple three to four word.

Remember one thing ‘practice makes people perfect, so just keep practicing the techniques, and with some time, you do not have to ask anyone about how to title an essay.

Avoid This Type Of Mistake While Making The Title

  • Do not ask irrelevant questions. Stick to the point and ask only what you want to be real to the reader.
  • Don’t be too personal with anyone specifically. Instead, a diplomatic and professional approach will bring more attention to your writing.
  • Avoid the rebellious view and the aggressive approach in the title as well as in your paper, even if it is an argumentative essay. If you choose any discomforting topic, then the first thing you should remember is that very few people view uneasy and rebellious topics. As a result, you may experience a wide viewer base.

Craft a Title that Appeals to the Reader

Whenever you wonder how to title an essay, think about fulfilling the viewer’s need. They should be your primary target, and thus, create titles based on what you are going to offer them in your paper.

Additionally, follow the formatting and parameters to be technically right with your essay titles.

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