1. Make sure the title is in the same "voice" of your writing style. Reason stands that a title will exemplify the writer! (Ernest Hemingway would create a list of 100 titles, and whittle down from there, to find the best title.)
2. The title is the first insight into your mindset as the writer. It is the first opportunity the reader has with you and your view on topic.
3. In an Academic Essay, generic titles can disengage your reader. Therefore, if you have a "catchy" main title, think about a sub-title that will "set the stage" for your research focus
- Notice how many professional academic essay titles include key concepts or key words that are used to within the essay.
- Sub-titles are another chance, then, to clarify to reader what they can expect to be discussed in regards to your subject.
Creating/Revising a Title: Inspirational Questions:
- Who am I writing on, within culture (gender, gender terms (senoras), age, age terms (adolescents)?
- Where did I focus my studies (city, neighborhood (nickname, street), place of business/worhship/etc.)?
- What larger idea does my research focus on? What larger idea do I include in my thesis, and keep coming back to in my paper? (Transcendentalism, Gentrification, Proxemics,
- What is the relationship among a behavior (or belief), aspect of culture (such as "food") and concept (such as "respect")? ex: "Take Off Your Shoes for Dinner: Ideas of Respect in the _____ Culture"
- What is a key phrase used by people within your culture that represents what your essay is about?
Other Strategies:
- Bookstores! Go to a store, go to the Cultural Studies section, and skim for attention-getting titles.
- Substitution: find a article/cultural studies book title that you admire, and replace the nouns (and possibly verbs) with your own subject. But leave the syntax: placement of articles (the, of, and) and punctuation...
- Imitation: Play off your favorite book/movie/TV show title. ("Pride and Prejudice in Teen Cliques at Lane Tech"; "Breaking the Law & Creating New Order: Political Graffiti Artists"; The Southpark Generation: The Empowerment of Vulgar Language and Satire")
EXAMPLES
- "Gender Role Stereotyping in Advertisements on Three Radio Stations: Does Musical Genre Make a Difference?" by Elizabeth Monk-Turner, Tiffany Kouts, et al
- "The Coming of the Young and Sexy Lesbian: The Israeli Urban Scenario" by Diana Luzzato and Liora Gvion
- "Nonverbal Cues in Mobile Phone Text Messages: The Effects of Chronemics and Proxemics" by anonymous
- Crystal Methamphetamine use among American Indian and White Youth in Appalachia: Social Context, Masculinity and Desistance" by Ryan A. Brown
- "The Rise of 'Me Culture' in Postsocialist China" by Yangzi Sima
- "Moral distress among Ugandan nurses providing HIV care: A critical ethnography" by Jean N. Harrowing
- "Doing 'Diversity' at Dynamic High: Problems and Possibilities of Multicultural Education in Practice" by Bic Ngo
- "The Art of Decay and Eternity: Ritualization in Aipan Practice" by Gudrun Frommherz
- “Researching “Race” in Lesbian Space: A Critical Reflection.” by Held, Nina
- "Fame is a Losing Game: Celebrity Gossip Blogging, Bitch Culture and Postfeminism” by Kristy Fairclough
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“Trinidad Calypso as Postmodernism in the Diaspora: Linking Rhythms, Lyrics, and the Ancestral Spirits” by Michael Toussaint
