Selecting a Catchy Title

Finding a captivating title for your article can sometimes be quite frustrating, especially if your article is related to common topics that others have written about. The major differences between your article and others' - your style of writing and your perspective on that particular topic. Regardless of how frustrating it could be, picking a catchy title for each of the articles that I've written is my daily task. Through years of experience, I've found some effective ways to look for a catchy title for my articles. Some of you might have similar ways of finding a suitable title like mine, while some of you don't. If you are one of the latter, then, I really hope the following tips can help you find a better title for whatever articles that you have written or will be writing soon.

1. Whenever possible, try to limit your title between 2 to 6 words.

   Titles that are too long are not suitable for articles, especially for magazines or newspapers (but it might work for academic writings, as they are more specific) as long titles are less captivating to readers.

2. Use a thesaurus.

   For example, if you are writing an article about tips on travelling with your baby and how to avoid unwanted circumstances, instead of picking a dull title such as “Travelling with your baby without any problems,” you may look up for words that have similar meaning to the word “problem” in the thesaurus. Words such as “trouble” or “hassle” or “hurly-burly” have similar meaning with the word “problem”. Perhaps “A Hassle-free Trip” or “A Trouble-free Travel with your Baby” or “An outing without hurly-burly” would better suit the article as mentioned in the above example.

3. Find a phrase or a remark made by an interviewee.

   For example, if you're writing a cover story based on an interview, try to look for an extraordinary or an important remark or phrase made by the person whom you have interviewed.

4. Using proverbs or idioms.

   If your article's content can be described with an idiom or proverb, you may use it as your title.

5. Use words that show either the positive or the negative side.

    For instance, if your article is about illnesses or a disease, and you wish to portray the negative impact of this disease, words such as “threat, death toll and kill” can be use in the title. Likewise, if you wish to portray the positive side of things in your article, choose words such as “prevention, protection against …, save lives” etc.

6. Use contradicting words together.

   For example, “Familiarise the unfamiliar” or “De-stress your stress” etc.