How to Write a Title in An Essay to Catch Readers' Attention?

When you start working on an essay, the title always confuses you. You cannot confine your ideas to a few words that would explain a title perfectly. In such a case, knowing how to write a title in an essay effectively is important.

Here, we will show you why you need a good title for an essay, what types of essay title writing have, and how to write an awesome title for an essay.

But before that, what you should do is write the essay with only a simple title first. Writing an essay is not easy, you can use some productivity tools, like UPDF which can help you create an essay in PDF format, take notes directly on the PDF essay writing needed files, share your essays via link or email, and more.

Once you do finish your essay, then, go with us to check the below parts to know how to write a title for your essay.

Part 1: Why Do I Need a Good Title for An Essay?

An essay without a good title is useless because readers always read writings with captivating titles. That is why giving extra attention and time to creating the essay's title is recommended, as it is the first thing readers view. In this section, you will learn about the benefits of writing a good title:

1. Engages the Readers

Millions of essays on every topic are available online, and each is filled with much information. Before choosing one, readers first read the title of the essay. If the title is engaging, then they proceed with it. Otherwise, they leave it and move to the next. It is wise to focus on writing a well-crafted title to engage readers.

2. Explain the Purpose of the Essay

The title explains the purpose of the essay to readers. If the title is unclear, how could anyone understand the essay? Due to this, it is good to give a clear and concise title to your writing. For example, if you are going to write about the benefits of eating apples, then your title should hold keywords that explain it properly.

3. A Preview of Your Content

A good title helps the reader know about the content of the essay. This made them decide whether to proceed further or move to the following essay. If you have given an unclear title to your essay, then chances are high that readers will reject it without reading the whole. Moreover, a well-crafted title also depicts the tone of the essay's meaning, whether informative, serious, or humorous.

Part 2: What are the Types of Essay Title Writing Formats?

Apart from focusing on writing a clear and concise title, try to use proper writing formats for essay titles. It is because an essay with a suitable and comfortable title grabs the reader's attention manifold. Before learning how to write an essay title, let's explore the four most used title-writing formats:

1. APA Style

Many writers use this writing style for writing concise, clear, and powerful titles for research papers. In APA style, the first letter of every significant word of the title is capitalized, while the prepositions or articles are given small alphabets. This type of title writing format offers readers a good idea about the actual content of the essay.

Along with that, you can also underline and bold the title across the paper where you are using this particular style format.

Example: “The Harmful Effects of Junk Foods on the Human Body.”

2. AP Style

In AP style, the essay's title is written in sentence case, where the first letter of the major words and proper nouns are capitalized. Moreover, prepositions, articles, and conjugation also process under the title case capitalization format, thus their first letter appearing capitalized. Mainly such a format adds consistency and clarity to the essay title.

Example: The Effect Of Excessive Use Of Social Media On The Human Brain: A General Overview.

3. MLA Style

MLA style accurately describes the content of the essay. In this style, all the first letters of nouns, pronouns, verbs, subordinating conjunctions, and adjectives are capitalized. However, prepositions, articles, and coordinating conjunctions are written in lowercase if they are not the first word of the title. It seems quite similar to the APA Style format; however, there are some slight fundamental differences.

Normally, MLA-style titles are neither bold nor underlined. Instead, longer titles in the MLA style that are mainly used in books or journals are italicized.

Example: The Tales of Two Cities: The Concept of Resurrection.

4. Chicago Style

The essay's title in this type of writing format is written in headline style. You must capitalize the first word's first letter and all major words. Besides that, the articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are given small lowercase letters. It is mainly used for writing historical article titles because it directs readers' focus on the evidence instead of essay information.

While it represents a similar structure to APA and MLA, it is not italicized or highlighted in research papers or enclosed in quotation marks like APA-style titles.

Example: Women's Suffrage in the Progressive Era: The Changes in Women's Public Roles.

Part 3: How to Write an Eye-Catching Title for An Essay?

Writing an eye-catching title for an essay is a challenging task. You have to spend restless hours selecting a single eye-catching essay topic. In the following, instructions are provided which you can use to write a good title:

Step 1. Reread Your Content

It is wise to write the essay first before creating its title. For writing an essay, you can use UPDF AI because it provides incredible features which will help you write a well-organized essay in PDF format. After completing the essay, reread its content thoroughly and carefully so that you can revise the actual theme of it. This will help you write a clear, concise, and attention-catching title.

Moreover, you don’t have to worry about how to write a good title for an essay because rereading the essay helps you remain focused on the fundamental concept. In addition, when you go through the essay, all the main objectives of the essay pop up in your mind. As you view all of them, you can easily write a good title.

Step 2. Define the Essay Title Purpose

If you want to stoke the curiosity of readers, write a title that defines the essay's purpose. You can do this by thoroughly understanding the essay and pinpointing its theme. Avoid writing a confusing title that doesn't depict what is coming next.

For example, if you have written an essay about changes that climate causes in our body, the title could be "The Effect of Climate Change on the Human Body."

Step 3. Choose the Correct Essay Title Writing Format

After rereading the essay content and defining the purpose, choose the correct title writing format. You cannot haphazardly select any form because each title format has its usage. For example, the APA style is mainly used for giving titles to essays based on behavioral and social sciences like psychology or history. 

Step 4. Search for Some Good Title Examples

Once the title format is selected, search for examples of good titles. Doing this, you will better understand what type of title should be suitable for your essay. Moreover, it will also help you know about the latest trends other writers follow for writing a good title. Here are ways that you can use to search for good title examples.

• Make proper use of search engines and find examples related to the topic you are going to discuss. Use keywords like “examples” and “best options” for better results.
• Give good research throughout the social media platforms and find pages and people that have discussed a similar topic. Look for such ideas through hashtags and keyword searching.
• If your work involves industrial publications, it is best to navigate into publication sites and search for similar topics that you will work on.
• Approach multiple blog sites and successful websites and try to identify the trend in the titles of their articles and blogs. In this way, you will be able to assess all dynamics and ideas properly.

Step 5. Get Ideas with Essay Title Generator

Humans have walked through many milestones without the use of tools. However, in some places, the use of technology has become compulsory. The same happens when you cannot think of a good title for an essay. You can go for essay title generators that create essay titles with a breeze.

They also allow you to create multiple titles for a single essay, and you can select any of them. If you don't want to use the generated titles as it is, you can use them as a template and devise your title related to them. In the following, a list of essay topic-generating tools is given from which you can choose any according to your needs:

• EduBirdie
• Studyfy
• GradesFixer
• Elite Writings 

Step 6. Brainstorm The Essay Titles

After considering all the above steps, start brainstorming to generate great ideas about the essay title. You can use brainstorming techniques like drawing mind maps, word association, or free speaking. The best practice is to highlight all the critical parts of the essay and give each part a separate heading. After that, all the headings should be appropriately viewed, and a final one should be made according to them.

You can use UPDF to smoothen your brainstorming because it allows you to highlight, underline and strikethrough text. You can also add comments in sticky notes, text boxes, or text callouts. Apart from that, this tool also offers an edit feature that can be used to edit text and links in the essay. Still, thinking about how to write a title in an essay? Continue reading the following steps to create an optimal title.

Step 7. Pick Up Some Great Essay Titles

The titles you have generated while brainstorming should be jotted down in a well-organized list. Pick the title from that list that excites you more because if you are pleased with it, viewers will also be attracted to it. Moreover, if you have selected one, then keep editing it unless and until that title suites well with your essay. 

Step 8. Get Suggestions from Teachers or Friends

You can also show your brainstorming list to friends or family for suggestions. Try to opt for the title that receives more votes. For that purpose, you can take help from UPDF because it allows you to share your list with anyone via email or link. Moreover, this tool is highly secure, which means no third party can access your file.

Step 9. Make The Final Decision

The above-given steps for how to write a title in an essay are helpful enough to create a good title. Considering all of them, you can easily create a title that will be clear, descriptive, and eye-catching. Irrespective of taking suggestions from others, it is your right to make the final decision. Once the decision is made, go for it firmly.

Final Words

You have to write a good title for the essay to grab the viewer's attention. However, most people do not know how to write a title in an essay. That is why we have provided all the steps to help you create a great essay title. It is recommended that you should use UPDF because it offers innovative features that are useful for creating an essay and its title.