Should the Title of an Essay Be Capitalized – Expert Explanation
The title of your academic assignment is similar to a title of a book or any other literary work. So, you should apply the standard capitalization rules when giving a name to your essay. Make sure to capitalize all notional words and subordinate words longer than four letters. But filler words, like prepositions and conjunctions, should not be capitalized.
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How to Title an Essay MLA – Formatting Guidelines
Overall, the MLA-style title follows the same guidelines as other referencing styles do. The only difference of MLA-style essays is that they don’t have a front page, so the essay’s title usually goes right after a small header indicating the student’s name, educational institution, course, and date of the essay’s submission. While this header is flush left on the first page, the title comes right after it, centered on the page, and capitalized in line with the conventions mentioned above. It is also typically highlighted in bold.
Besides, you may apply some additional rules when composing an MLA, APA, or other academic assignments. These rules relate to formatting the names of other sources you mention in the name of your work. For instance, if you analyze a character from a book, you should italicize the book’s name. Mentioning an article in the title, you need to put its name in the inverted commas.
How to Make a Catchy Title for an Essay – Pro Tips
The title of your work is the first thing that your audience sees, whether it is a reader of your blog, a fellow student, or a professor. So, it should be catchy and attention-grabbing by all means, suggesting that you should go the extra mile to make an essay’s name good enough.
Here are some pro tips to consider:
- Make the title provocative or perplexing; include some ideas that a reader doesn’t expect to see.
- Use a question, urging the readers to cover your essay until its very end to find the answer.
- Use humor, which is always a bulletproof attention-grabber.
- Use hooks or language means that make it intriguing, but don’t go too far as you risk remaining misunderstood.
- Use attention-grabbing words like “tips,” “secrets to,” etc., to make the readers interested.
Do’s & Dont’s of Writing an Essay Title
When writing a title for your essay, make sure to follow these pro tips and rules:
- Include ideas from your thesis statement.
- Write it after the essay is ready to make sure that they are consistent.
- Use an attention-grabbing quote.
- Make it consistent with the paper’s tone and style.
- Include your central subject.
- Avoid abbreviations and other confusing words to maximize clarity.
- The shorter – the better (an ideal standard is a three-word name).
Besides, we couldn’t help sharing some common blunders that spoil the reader’s impression from your title:
- Using jargon or slang.
- Making it longer than 15 words.
- Placing a period in the end.
- Using self-obvious terms, like “An Essay about” or “Research Paper on”.
- Using passive voice.
Final Tip
As you can see, the name of your essay is too important to give it to chance. The title is the first (and sometimes the last) thing your audience sees, so you should invest some time, effort, and creativity into making it perfect. If you have no time or desire to go the extra mile on this task, contact us for assistance.
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