A Rhetoric of Titles: Eighteen Forms for Student Writers

Strong writers often implicitly know how to create strong titles by managing audience expectations to draw interest and describe information. This article makes these internalized strategies explicit for all writers. The list of eighteen forms and examples provides students with concrete starting points to create an engaging preview. Creating the title allows students to think globally about their projects, as well as to signal their entrance into academic discourse. By mixing and matching forms from the list of strategies, students learn to concisely and coherently relay the content of their papers to an academic audience.