2.9: Title of a Paragraph
- Page ID
- 304211
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A title gives the readers information about what you write in the paragraph. It usually states or implies (say indirectly) the topic of your writing.
1. A good title is often very short. Sometimes it is only one word or one phrase. It is usually not a complete sentence.
The Best Invention
The Reasons for My Mediterranean Diet
The Characteristics of a Good Boss
2. A good title catches the readers’ interest. It tells the readers about the main topic, but it does not tell everything.
Why Not Studying Hard?
A Long-Kept Secret
To Mask or Not to Mask
3. A good title follows capitalization and punctuation rules.
- The first letter of the first word is always capitalized.
- Do not capitalize a short preposition, an article, or a coordinating conjunction unless it is the first word.
- Never capitalize the entire title.
- Do not put a period at the end.
- Do not put quotation marks around the title.
- Do not underline the title.
Discuss each pair of the titles below and notice how the errors are corrected.
the day I arrived in Chicago X
The Day I Arrived in Chicago √
THE MAKING OF A DOCTOR X
The Making of a Doctor √
A Very Frustrating Experience. X
A Very Frustrating Experience √
“Advice from My Mother” X
Advice from My Mother √
The Mysterious Noise X
The Mysterious Noise √
For more explanations and examples in capitalization, please refer to Appendix 1 Capitalization.
Exercise 19
Here are the titles of some paragraphs. Do they follow the rules? Write the correct title in the box. After you finish all the titles, you can check your answers by clicking the “Check” button. You may retry the exercise or see all the answers.
Example:
From my home to school
Correction: From My Home to School
You can view and complete this exercise online in the original text.
Attributions:
- Content on this page was adapted from Building Academic Writing Skills (Cui)(opens in new window), which was shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0(opens in new window) license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lin Cui(opens in new window).
- Photo: lots of books showing titles on shelves © Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash