Okay, so here's the deal: A title is an important part of any writing
project. It helps to orient your reader. It provides a key insight
into your main point. It is an invaluable expression of your writer's
voice. In an ironic twist, I have now graded about 10 papers about
writer's voice as an "important issue," but these papers all had titles
like "Important Issues Paper: Final Draft." Oooh! Riveting! I can't
wait to read another boring paper with the same boring title about the
importance of writing with creativity and originality. Do you see? The
irony?
So what's up with this? I have decided that you must have
learned somewhere along the line in your education to hate titles.
Maybe you were penalized unfairly for a snarky (if clever) title on a
high school essay. Maybe you are intimidated by the long, onerous,
colon-happy titles common in academic prose ("Oh the humanity: Long and
Onerous Titles as a Commonplace in Academic Research Writing"). Maybe
you have another professor for another class who thinks titles are
stupid. I get it; sometimes our subconscious fears and anxieties about
writing surface in strange ways.
But now that it's out in the
open, let's all stop. Stop it. Now. Let's put all of this aside for
the good of your writer's voice, and for the collective good of all
humankind. No one wants to read 30 student essays in a few days, not
even the kindest, most compassionate writing teacher. But clever,
interesting titles make the process enjoyable, because they help me (the
grader) focus on what's unique and interesting about your work rather
than what's the same and frustrating about student writing in general.
As future writing teachers, you will all be in my position soon, so have
a heart!
The trick is to write a title that reveals something (but
not everything) about what YOU have to add to this ongoing conversation
about literacy and composition pedagogy. Make it clever, make it
snarky, or make it polished, professional, and smart, but for the love
of Pete, make it your own. Show me what makes your writing
unique and creative. Make me want to keep reading. I am a writing
teacher, and this is my job, but I'm also a person, darn it. And I have unreasonably high expectations for all of you.
That's all. Mairin, out.
