How to Create a Catchy, but Informative, Title for an Analytical Essay Titling Your Essay How to Create a Catchy, but Informative, Title for an Analytical Essay

Which title do you prefer? Why? Is The Odyssey a Valuable Piece of Literature? The Odyssey Is a Valuable Piece of Literature The Odyssey: A Must-Read The Odyssey: A Story of Love, Loss, and Adventure What’s in a Name?: How Homer’s Use of Epithets in The Odyssey Helps Modern Readers Connect with Ancient Mythological Characters

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Determine your essay’s theme. Titles are designed to let readers anticipate whether or not they’re interested in the content of the work. This means that your title should be specific enough to prepare the reader for your argument, not simply some vague larger topic (ex. death, symbolism, etc.).

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Determine your audience. Who are you writing this essay for? A friend? A teacher? The general public? The language you use, including the title, should change depending on your audience. Once you figure out who your audience is, put yourself in your audience’s shoes: what would draw you to read your essay? Clarity? Brevity? Humor?

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Find a catchy phrase. Option #1: Pull a phrase out of your essay. You might be able to find a word or phrase in your essay that both captures your thesis (or theme) and your audience's imagination. The concluding paragraph, for example, should already have done the heavy lifting in terms of condensing the main point of the paper; in fact, borrowing a phrase from the conclusion and using it as your title will give your essay a nice “circle” effect, providing the reader with a sense of closure.

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Find a catchy phrase. Option #2: Use a quotation from the text. If the author of the work you’re referencing has already said it better than you ever could, go ahead and use a quoted snippet in your title. However, don’t let this be a standalone solution: make sure to modify the quote so that the purpose of your essay still comes through (e.g., “Borne Ceaselessly Back: Retrospective Narration in The Great Gatsby”).

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Find a catchy phrase. Option #3: Use a quotation from a source other than the text. You might try picking a few key words of your essay topic and entering them into a quotations search website such as Bartlett's Quotations. If you find a relevant quote, pick a fragment of it and use it as your title.

Steps to Creating Your Title (adapted from WikiHow article “How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay”) Suggestion: Use a Subtitle If you have a catchy title that doesn't give enough information, use it anyway but clarify it using a subtitle. This can also help spice up a boring title. Separate the catchy part from the informative part with a colon. Examples: It’s a Frog’s Life: The Lifespan of a South American Tree Frog The Stronger Sex?: A Comparison between the Roles of Women in The Metamorphosis and The Stranger

MLA Rules for Titles: General Rules After your heading (using the MLA format), double space and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.

Sample First Page with Title

Sample First Page with Title

MLA Rules for Titles: Capitalization Capitalize all words except prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.  Prepositions show position or location in space or time: on, to, over, under, through, between, before, after. Conjunctions link words, phrases, and/or sentences together: and, but, or, for, yet, nor, so. Articles precede nouns.  There are only two articles in English: “the" and "a/an." If you are not sure whether a word should be capitalized in a title, look the word up in a dictionary.  The dictionary definition should have a small italicized letter like v. or prep. that indicates which part of speech a word is.  Once you know which part of speech or word type a word falls into, you will know whether to capitalize it or not. Example: The Symbols and Myths between the Pages

MLA Rules for Titles: References to Titles of Other Works Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. Examples: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"

Now create your own! Using the rules and tips we just reviewed, create a catchy but informative title for your analytical essay. Remember that it should tell the reader exactly what YOUR particular essay will be about. Since we are all writing about the same book, you want to distinguish your paper from the others.