[THREAD] Every semester, I force my students to give their papers titles, and every semester I am reminded that no one has taught them how to title papers, so let's do this:

Why Your Paper Needs A Title Even If Your Professor/TA Is Going To Be The Only Person Who Reads It

Paper titles exist for two basic reasons that, at first glance, might seem irrelevant for a school assignment, but are not.

The first reason is capturing your reader's attention. The second reason is establishing your topic/argument.

As for attention: yes, your reader is your professor/TA. They HAVE to read your paper. And you're in most cases responding to a prompt they gave you, and so I get why you might think that "Paper 1" or "Prompt 1" is all that's necessary.

You think wrong.

Your professor/TA is reading a whole stack—20, 30, 90, etc.—of papers, and so you DO need to try to get their attention on your paper specifically. And so you want your title to stand out, to be evocative.

Alliteration! Puns! Your paper only gets one first impression, use it!

As for establishing topic, your title is not just informational. It's about making the first assertion of your argument. Your paper doesn't start when the title is over: it starts with the title, and if it doesn't you're missing a huge opportunity to articulate your intentions.

(Aside: Sometimes people who know their title should do these things use a question for a title, but you don't want your argument to be a mystery to be solved. You want the question to be "How will they explore this clearly expressed argument?" not "What is their argument?")

If you're someone who feels confident with wordplay, channel that and put some energy into writing your title after the paper is written and you understand your argument. (You can start with a title idea, but always rewrite it once you actually figure out what the paper is).

If you're not, here’s a formula.

An effective paper title is "[Turn Of Phrase That Gets Attention or Rolls Off The Tongue]: [Clearly Stated Description Of The Topic/Argument Of The Paper]"

(If you can do both those things without a colon, go crazy, but I'm Team Colon Forever.)

Here are some examples from scholarly articles I've written. Check the papers you've been assigned to read in your classes for other examples (which could be more relevant in fields other than mine), and then strike “Paper 1” from your vocabulary. [/Thread]