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Writing Clear, Informative Titles

The title of a document is crucial because it is your first chance to define your subject and purpose for your readers, giving them their first clue to whether the document contains the information they need. The title is an implicit promise to readers: “This document is about Subject A, and it was written to achieve Purpose B.” Everything that follows has to relate clearly to the subject and purpose defined in the title; if it doesn’t, either the title is misleading or the document has failed to make good on the title’s promise.

You might want to put off giving a final title to your document until you have completed the document, because you cannot be sure that the subject and purpose you established during the planning stages will not change. However, you should jot down a working title before you start drafting; you can revise it later. To give yourself a strong sense of direction, make sure the working title defines not only the subject of the document but also its purpose. The working title “Snowboarding Injuries” states the subject but not the purpose. “How To Prevent Snowboarding Injuries” is better because it helps keep you focused on your purpose.

An effective title is precise. For example, if you are writing a feasibility study on the subject of offering free cholesterol screening at your company, the title should contain the key terms free cholesterol screening and feasibility. The following title would be effective:

Offering Free Cholesterol Screening at Thrall Associates: A Feasibility Study

If your document is an internal report discussing company business, you might not need to identify the company. In that case, the following would be clear:

Offering Free Cholesterol Screening: A Feasibility Study

Or you could present the purpose before the subject:

A Feasibility Study of Offering Free Cholesterol Screening

Avoid substituting general terms, such as health screening for cholesterol screening or study for feasibility study; the more precise your terms, the more useful your readers will find the title. An added benefit of using precise terms is that your document can be more accurately and effectively indexed in databases and online libraries, increasing the chances that someone researching your subject will be able to find the document.

Before settling on a title, test its effectiveness by asking whether readers will be able to paraphrase it in a clear, meaningful sentence. For instance, “A Feasibility Study of Offering Free Cholesterol Screening to Employees of Thrall Associates” could be paraphrased as follows: “This document reports on a project to determine whether it is feasible to offer free cholesterol screening to employees of Thrall Associates.”

But notice what happens when the title is incomplete: “Free Cholesterol Screening.” With only those three words to go on, the reader has to guess about the document’s purpose. The reader knows that the document has something to do with free cholesterol screening, but is the writer recommending that screening be implemented, modified, or discontinued? Or is the writer reporting on the success of an existing screening program?

Clear, comprehensive titles can be long. If you need eight or ten words to say what you want to say about your subject and purpose, use them.