Today let's talk about a skill to improve your writing it's how to make a great title that
will be the perfect beginning to any essay you write in today's video first I will talk about
what a title is and why it's important then I'll give you five rules for making a correct
title and then I will show you how to make a great title that your readers will love
finally we will practice together before we begin if this is your first time here i'd
like to say a quick welcome to my channel Learn Academic English on this channel I teach English
learners how to improve their academic English to be successful in college or university study
so why is a good title important in the writing class I teach I always tell my students about
the importance of making a strong first impression in your writing remember
when you write you always want to think about your reader who's going to read your writing
in a class it's your professor or teacher or maybe your classmates but in some cases it
might be other people for example if you apply to a university or for a scholarship there's a
group of people called a committee who will read your application and those people are very busy
can you imagine how many applications they need to read hundreds or maybe thousands your teacher is
also a very busy person who has many student essays to read so for these reasons you want
people to notice your writing from the beginning and to have a good feeling about it that's
why it's so important to make a strong first impression and a great title is one way to do that
next let's look at five rules for writing a good title now it's important to know these rules
because your title is the first thing that your reader sees so you want to make sure that you
don't have any mistakes in your title okay rule number one always capitalize the first letter
of the first word of your title so the first letter of your title must have a capital letter
it doesn't matter what type of word it is you always use a capital letter for
the first word of your title let's see some examples a helpful mentor
qualities of a helpful mentor so a mentor is a person who helps you or guides you for example
if you go to a new school or if you get a new job you might have a mentor it's a person who
has experience who guides or helps a new person so look at the first title a helpful mentor and
notice that the word a has a capital letter in the second one qualities of a helpful mentor
qualities is quite a long word but we have a capital letter let's look at the next two
one day in my life the worst day ever now in the next one the first word is a number
one and in the next one the first word is the you can see that no matter what the first word of the
title is it always starts with a capital letter rule number two use correct capital letters so now
we're going to look at the rest of the title and when you write a title it's super important to use
capital letters correctly to do this you need to think about what types of words are in your title
basically we put a capital letter at the beginning of every word except for three types of words
the first one is prepositions prepositions are usually small words for example in for with on
at the second type of word is articles there are three articles a and and the and the third type of
word is conjunctions conjunctions are and or but so if you have one of these words in your title
you're going to use a small letter for all the other words you're going to use a capital letter
let's look at some examples in this example title qualities of a helpful mentor all of the words
have a capital letter except for of and a why of is a preposition an a is an article so those
words do not have a capital letter how about this example one day in my life in this title the word
in does not have a capital letter because n is a preposition now notice that the word my is also
a short little word but my is not one of those three types of words my is not a preposition it's
not an article and it's not a conjunction so we use a capital letter for that word let's look at
one more the dog and the child in this title and has no capital letter because it's a conjunction
and the the child the also does not have a capital letter because it's an article
now notice here that the first the the the that starts the title the dog the has a capital t
why because it's the first word of the title rule number three a title should never be a complete
sentence that means that the title should not have a subject and verb now most titles are also
not very long usually a good title is between two and five words long but remember that a
title should never be a complete sentence let's see some examples I will never forget that day
a day to remember an unforgettable day the day I almost died which of these titles are correct
so if you look at the second and the third title
those titles are correct because they are not sentences take a look at the first title
that title is not correct because it has a subject and a verb it has a subject I and verb
will forget so that's a complete sentence that title is not correct and the last title
one day I almost died this title also is not correct because it has a subject I and the verb
died it's a complete sentence and a title should never be a complete sentence rule number four
a title should never end in a period now this rule is pretty self-explanatory because if a
title should not be a complete sentence then it also should not have a period never put a
period at the end of a title this can be a little confusing because sometimes we can put a question
mark at the end of a title but that's different when we use a question mark at the end of a title
we're not putting it at the end of a complete question usually it's a short question that's not
a complete sentence and it's a kind of question that shows like a choice or maybe some kind of
mystery that the reader will need to understand in the essay let me give you an example to stay
or to go this is a good question title because it shows that there's a choice and in the essay
we're going to find out should the writer stay or go another example heaven or hell
maybe the student is writing about his or her life and wants to show is it good or bad in the essay
we will read more and find out rule number five your title needs to be clear your title needs
to use good vocabulary and grammar so that it's easy for the reader to understand one tip I have
for this is after you write your title show it to somebody and ask them if it's clear and
easy to read let's see an example of a title that's not clear life lessons from five years
this title is not clear to me I don't understand what the writer is trying to say maybe something
short and clear like life lessons would be better one tip for making a good title that's very clear
is to use a colon and for the title to have two parts let me show you an example health care
challenges and solutions first this title has two parts the first part is health care the second
part is challenges and solutions we use the more general topic of healthcare first then we put a
colon and then we put the parts or the controlling ideas in the next part challenges and solutions
in this title I know that the essay will be talking about health care and that it will
address two aspects challenges and solutions this is an example of a super clear effective title
next let's learn how to write a title that will catch your reader's attention basically there are
two types of titles you can choose from the first type is a clear title and there's nothing wrong
with a clear title sometimes if I don't have any interesting ideas for my title I just
make a super clear effective title and that's fine but the second type is a creative title
this type of title allows you to have some fun and make it more interesting and this is a great
way to catch your reader's attention it makes your reader curious and interested so as some practice
think about your favorite movie does your favorite movie have a clear title or a creative title some
movies have clear titles and some movies have more creative titles let me give you an example
Avengers the end game this is an example of a movie that has a clear title it tells us what's
the movie about the movie is about the Avengers and what's going to happen in this movie it's
the end game it's probably their last battle or the end of their story but a creative title is
different an example is the movie born on the 4th of July I understand what it means born on the 4th
of July but I don't know what the movie's going to be about it's probably about a person who was
born on the 4th of July but really this title is more creative and it makes me wonder what's
the movie going to talk about another example is the movie La La Land what's that when we see this
title we feel curious and interested and we want to know more so let's practice imagine that you're
taking an English class and the professor asks you to write an essay about your life
what title might you choose for an essay about your life if you want to you can pause the
video and take a couple minutes to think about some titles that you might use for this essay
but let's also look at some examples see which ones you like my life the story of my life
my life past to present the story of an immigrant the ups and downs one big roller coaster so as you
can see some of these titles are very clear and um maybe a little bit boring like the first one
my life this title is very boring and if this student is in my class I will tell this student
you need to write another title this title is not interesting enough the story of my life is also
a pretty boring title but it's correct it has it follows the rules it has correct capital letters
my life past to present this one is a little more interesting because it gives a little more
information we know what's the topic the topic is my life and the essay will talk about from the
past to the present the story of an immigrant this is a nice title because we understand that the
essay will focus on the student being an immigrant the ups and downs this title is nice because it
shows us that the student is going to talk about both the good times and the bad times and finally
one big roller coaster I love this title this is a creative title and it shows us that the student's
life goes up and down like a roller coaster and I really want to know more now imagine
that you're writing an essay for a scholarship and the topic is your goals for the future what
title will you choose let's see some examples and let's see which ones you like my future my dreams
my goals for the future dreams or reality one step forward the road to success so you can see
that some of these titles are clear but maybe a little bit boring and others are more creative
and I can imagine that for a scholarship essay a more creative title would be more effective
because it makes a stronger first impression it makes the reader curious and want to know more
so to wrap up remember that your title is one of the first things that your reader sees
so you want to make sure that you can make a strong first impression with a great title
you can do this by making sure that your title is correct it must follow the rules you also want to
be sure that your title uses good vocabulary and correct grammar so that your reader can
understand it easily and finally you can choose if you want to make a good clear title or a creative
more interesting title whatever you do remember that even though your title is only a few words
it's one of the most important parts of your essay if you enjoyed this video please give it
a like and subscribe so that you don't miss any upcoming videos thanks so much and see you soon!