how to make a good title for a news article

5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. —David Ogilvy

In a world full of noise, how do you get people to read what you write? It takes more than good content or great design. The most important part of writing an article is the headline.

5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines

The same principle applies to blog posts, book chapters, and so on: The title is where your focus should be. You should begin and end every article with the question: “ Would this make me want to read on?”

If not, don't publish until you've got a catchy headline. Concentrate on this, and you'll get more readers, more buzz, and more love.

How to write catchy headlines

Too often the headline is the most neglected part of writing an article. People just gloss over it without taking much time to consider it. In their minds, it's the cherry on top. No, friends; it's not. The headline is the sundae.

I sometimes deliberate over titles for 30–60 minutes before settling on one that works. And I often go back and change them. This is what it takes to write a good headline.

If you need some help concocting catchier headlines, here are a few simple tricks:

Use numbers to give concrete takeaways
Use emotional objectives to describe your reader's problem
Use unique rationale to demonstrate what the reader will get out of the article
Use what, why, how , or when
Make an audacious promise

1. Use numbers to give concrete takeaways

There's a reason why so many copywriters use numbers in their headlines. It works.

Do an experiment: Go to the grocery store, and scan the magazines in the checkout lane. Look at the front-page article headlines. It doesn't matter if it's a fitness magazine or a tabloid; many of them will be using numerals to start off the headline.

There aren't really any rules (as far as I know) regarding what numbers work best, but people typically only remember three to five points. That said, sometimes a really obscure number like 19 or 37 can catch people's attention.

Warning: don't overuse numbers or use them arbitrarily. If your article clearly has some key takeaways, adding a number to the headline can help make the takeaways more digestible. But if the article doesn't, don't force it.

2. Use emotional adjectives to describe your reader's problem

Here are some examples:

Painstaking

3. Use unique rationale to demonstrate what the reader will get out of the article

If you're going to do a list post, be original. For example consider the following:

If possible, never use things . Please, for the love of Pete, don't use things . You can do better than that.

4. Use what , why , how , or when

These are trigger words. I typically use “why” and “how” the most, because I'm often trying to persuade or enable someone. Typically, you'll use either a trigger word or a number. Rarely does it sound good to do both.

5. Make an audacious promise

Promise your reader something valuable. Will you teach her how to learn a new skill? Will you persuade her to do something she's never done before? Will you unlock an ancient mystery?

What you want to do is dare your reader to read the article. Without over-promising, be bold . Be seductive (in the most innocuous way possible, of course). Be dangerous . And then deliver what you promised.

Try this formula

Here's a simple headline-writing formula:

Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise

Example: Take the subject “bathing elephants.” You could write an article entitled, “How to Bath an Elephant” or “Why I Love Bathing Elephants.”

Or you could apply this formula and make it: “18 Unbelievable Ways You Can Bathe an Elephant Indoors”

Another (more serious) example: Take a bold promise like “selling your house in a day.”

Apply the formula and you get: “How You Can Effortlessly Sell Your Home in Less than 24 Hours”

Here are some examples of my most popular articles and the headlines behind them:

10 Ridiculously Simple Tips for Writing a Book
8 Tips for Waking Up Early & Conquering the Alarm Clock
The Short Guide to Launching a Self-hosted Blog in 8 Minutes
How to Overcome Writer's Block: 14 Tricks That Work
4 Essential Elements to Writing a Great Blog Post
5 Easy Tricks to Write Catchy Headlines (yes, the post you're reading right now)

When in doubt, be clear

People don't want to be tricked into reading something boring; they want to be drawn into something exciting. Make it worth their while.

Take extra long time to consider what headline will grab people's attention the most, and make sure that it describes your content in an honest, but attractive, way. They won't regret it, and neither will you.

And if you don't yet have a blog, check out my 8-minute video walk-through on how to launch a self-hosted WordPress blog .

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How to Write Catchy Headlines and Blog Titles Your Readers Can't Resist

Updated: September 11, 2017

Published: June 15, 2017

It's one thing to write great content, but it's another thing to get it read and ranked -- which is where nailing the title comes in.

How long should my headline be? What words should I use? What words should I avoid? Should I optimize it for search, or for social? Or both?

Luckily, we've come up with a simple formula for writing catchy headlines and blog titles that you can reference from here on out. So let's just dive right in, shall we?

A Foolproof Method for How to Write Catchy Headlines and Titles

1) start with a working title..

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of coming up with a perfect title, start with a rough draft: your working title. What is that, exactly? A lot of people confuse working titles with topics. Let's clear that up:

Topics are very general and could yield several different blog posts. Think "raising healthy kids," or "kitchen storage." A writer might look at either of those topics and choose to take them in very, very different directions.

A working title, on the other hand, is very specific and guides the creation of a single blog post. For example, from the topic "raising healthy kids," you could derive the following working titles:

"How the Right Nutrition Can Strengthen Your Kids' Bones"
"A Parent's Guide to Promoting Your Child's Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Well-Being"
"X Recipes for Quick & Healthy Dinners Your Teenagers Will Gobble Up"

See how different and specific each of those is? That's what makes them working titles , instead of overarching topics. It's also worth noting that none of those titles are perfect -- they should just be specific enough to guide your blog post. (We'll worry about making it clickable and search-friendly later.)

2) Stay accurate.

Accuracy is critical when trying to finesse a title, because it sets clear expectations for your readers. While I'm sure lots of people would love to click into a post that said "10 B2B Companies Killing Facebook So Freaking Hard They Don't Need Any Other Marketing Channel" ... it's a little bombastic, no?

Unless, of course, you truly did find 10 B2B companies rocking Facebook that hard, and you could confirm that all 10 of them had stopped using other marketing channels. First and foremost, your title needs to accurately reflect the content that follows.

One way to ensure accuracy? Add bracketed clarification to your headline, like we did in this blog post:

In a study of over 3.3 million paid link headlines, we found that headlines with this type of clarification -- [Interview], [Podcast], [Infographic], etc. -- performed 38% better than headlines without clarification . Again, it's all about setting clear expectations. Thanks to the brackets, these readers knew exactly what they were getting themselves into before they even clicked.

So if you remember nothing else from this blog post, let it be this: The most important rule of titles is to respect the reader experience. If you set high expectations in your title that you can't fulfill in the content, you'll lose readers' trust.

Accuracy encompasses more than just hyperbole, though. With the example working title above, you'd also want to confirm all of the examples are, indeed, B2B. Or even that they're all companies -- instead of, say, individual bloggers that target B2B audiences. See what I mean?

3) Make it sexy.

Just because you have to be accurate doesn't mean you can't find ways to make your title pop. There are a lot of ways to make a title sexier.

Of course, all of this hinges on understanding your core buyer persona. You need to find language that resonates with them, and know what they find valuable. (Haven't created or refined your buyer personas yet? Download this free template to create your own buyer personas for your business .)

Once you're armed with knowledge of your buyer persona's preferred style, try testing out some of these tips for making your headlines a little sexier:

Have some fun with alliteration. The title and header in this blog post, for instance, play with alliteration: "Foolproof Formula." It's a device that makes something a little lovelier to read, and that can have a subtle but strong impact on your reader.
Use strong language. Strong phrases (and, frankly, often negative ones) like "Things People Hate," or "Brilliant" pack quite a punch. However, these must be used in moderation. As one of my coworkers likes to say, "If everything is bold, nothing is bold."
Make the value clear. As we mentioned above, presenting the format and/or contents to a reader helps make your content a little sexier. According to our research , templates tend to be particularly powerful for CTR: We found that adding "[Template]" to our titles got the most average views of all bracketed terms.
Make it visual. Is there an opportunity to include visuals within your post? Make that clear in the title. Our research revealed that headlines featuring the word "photo(s)" performed 37% better than headlines without this word.
Focus on the "whos," not the "whys". Want to intrigue your audience? Focus on the "who": Headlines including the word "who" generated a 22% higher CTR than headlines without it.

For example, let's say you're writing a post titled, "15 of Our Favorite Brands on Snapchat." How might we punch up our accurate-but-boring working title? Here are some options:

15 Brilliant Brands Who Are Killing It on Snapchat
Snapchat Success: 15 Inspiring Brands Who Just Get It
15 Must-Follow Brands That Are Seeing Snapchat Success

4) Keep it short.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to how long or short your title should be. It depends what your goals are, and where your headline will appear.

Do you want this post to rank really well in search? Focus on keeping the title under 70 characters so it doesn't get cut off in search engine results.

Are you trying to optimize your title for social sharing? According to our own analysis at HubSpot, headlines between 8–12 words in length got the most Twitter shares on average. As for Facebook, headlines with either 12 or 14 words received the most Likes.

Additionally, headlines with eight words had a 21% higher clickthrough rate than the average title, according to the folks at Outbrain .

The lesson? It's always a good idea to run a few tests to see what works best for your particular audience.

Let's say I was writing this blog post: "Think Social Media Is Just for Kids? Here Are 10 Statistics Guaranteed to Prove You Wrong." To shorten it, I would simply try to rephrase it and cut out extraneous words. For instance, I might do something like this:

Before: Think Social Media Is Just for Kids? Here Are 10 Statistics Guaranteed to Prove You Wrong
After: 10 Stats That Prove Social Media Isn't Just for Kids

See? It's that easy. Try sounding out the title in your head to make sure it's easily digestible for your readers. The less of a mouthful you can make your titles, the better.

5) Try to optimize for search and social.

I say "try" because, sometimes, trying too hard to optimize for these things can make your title sound strange. Remember: You want to optimize your title for your audience above all else, but if you can optimize for both search and social, that's great.

The secret to thinking about all three at once? Focus on keywords that you know your audience is already searching for, then look into the search volume for those keywords.

Once you have a keyword in mind, you'll want to be sure to place it as closely as possible to the beginning of your headline to catch your reader's attention. (Again, you should keep your headline under 70 characters so it doesn't get cut off in search engine results.)

Another important consideration? Make sure your headlines are tweetable: "The 120-130-character range is the sweet spot for high clickthrough rate, according to an analysis of 200,000 tweets with links ," explains my colleague, Senior Marketing Manager Lindsay Kolowich . "This leaves enough space for people to include a short comment if they choose to manually retweet and cite you."

Here's an example: Let's say I'm writing a post titled, "X B2B Companies Using Facebook in Cool Ways." Looks like there's some wiggle room to optimize it without compromising clarity, right?

If the goal is to rank for the term, "Facebook Marketing," I'd recommend something like this:

"New to Facebook Marketing ? Here Are 10 B2B Companies Doing It Right"

This new title works for a few reasons:

It's 56 characters long. This means that it's short enough to not be cut off in search engines and it's short enough to be retweeted.
The keyword is in the beginning. By moving "Facebook Marketing" to the beginning of the title, we're ultimately increasing the odds that we'll grab our audience's attention.
It's human. I wasn't kidding when I said you should focus on optimizing for your audience first. This title presents both a pain point and a solution all wrapped up in one.

( Download this ebook for more data-backed SEO strategies we recommend .)

6) Brainstorm with someone else.

Once you've refined your title using the tips above, it's time to come up for air and connect with another human. Title brainstorming is an essential part of the process.

Here at HubSpot, we spend a decent amount of time and brainpower coming up with our titles. The final step before scheduling a blog post is pulling another member of our team into a back-and-forth title brainstorm in a chat room. One member of the duo will post the title they recommend into the chat pane window. The other person will then refine that title even further, or suggest other angles. After several back-and-forths, the duo will agree on the title that's accurate, sexy, concise, and SEO-friendly.

Only when both parties agree on a title do we schedule our post for publishing -- which can take as little as five seconds and as long as ten or so minutes. While that seems like a long time, it's essential to put our best feet forward with each post we publish.

What's your process for crafting titles? Let us know in the comments.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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A Data-Driven Guide to Writing Better Headlines [Free Ebook]

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17 Easy Tricks How to Write Catchy Titles and Headlines

January 7, 2023

You need to get your audience hooked! Promise that you are going to deliver value. Make sure you write titles and subheadings that tell the reader why they need to invest time reading your content.

Catchy headlines can make or break your content. There are infinite ways to write a headline. You can combine the principles of writing effective headlines to get even more possibilities. In the following post, I will give you tips and tricks have proven themselves for many years. Next time you have to write a catchy headline, use these easy and powerful headline formulas.

Great headlines give you an edge and convince your audience to read and respond to your copy. These headline examples will inspire you to get creative and write headlines that work for you.

Good headlines will make people click your content. They will also read longer and share even without reading.

On the average, 5 times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar. – David Ogilvy

First I will start with seven general principles:

1. Keep It Short, Simple, and to the Point

Great headline goes directly to the point of your content. Don’t try to be clever or intriguing. Clear headlines don’t play with words or try to make a joke. Most people will miss it. So, don’t do it. Get to the point! Bring out the benefits and make clear offers when talking about your products and services. The same applies to your content marketing articles and videos. The headline should answer your audience’s question “what’s in it for me.”

Free E-Book That Will Help You Get X
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Catchy Headlines
Now All 2021 Models 55% Off!

2. Be Clear About Your Main Benefit

Don’t list features! Turn features into benefits and make sure you put the most important one in your headline. Your headline is an ad for your content that has to convince the audience that your content has the answers they are looking for. If you promise them value in the headline, they will click through to get it.

Of course, to put the big benefit into the headline, you need to know what it is. You need to know your target audience. Even if people don’t click through, they have seen your offer.

Product review site, Above House , does a great job with this with titles like: “Alesis Nitro Drum Set Reviewed for 2021 [By a Drummer]”. The addition of [By a Drummer] is a clear unique selling proposition compared to all of the other results that pop up.

You can test different benefits to find out what works best.

Fast and Easy Way to Increase Your Investment Returns
Create Awesome Infographics in Minutes
3 Tips to Win in Salary Negotiations

Another great example of this comes from an Estonian site called TMM that reviews various gaming platforms. One of the first headlines on their page puts strong emphasis on the fact that the site is created “by gamers, for gamers” , instantly building a connection and quite likely giving a good reason to trust their information.

3. Announce Exciting News (News Your Audience Cares About)

Let’s be frank! Nobody cares about your company news – seriously. But people do care about the things that are important to them. Let them know that there is something new that makes a difference in their lives. Most businesses do not have a constant stream of news, so use old material and present it in a novel way. Use newsjacking to tie your content to recent and upcoming events.

When covering your products and services, you can introduce new features and discounts. Or, new ways to get the most out of your product.

Bring the news to your headlines and your audience is intrigued.

Finally, the Gadget Hits the Stores!
Introducing the Newest Idea in Distant Learning from X
Top SEO Trends From the Past 6 Months
Yes! The New Thing Improves Results but More Than Expected

4. Questions in the Headline

The question in the headline should be something that your audience wants to know. If you ask something they don’t care about, then you’ll lose them. To be interesting, you need to tie the question to your main benefit. You aim for one of two responses:

“Yes” as in do you want to know how to get a result that is amazing?
“Hmm? Tell me!” – This tool blew the analysts’ expectations

As you can see, you can combine questions with the news formula, and make your headlines even more irresistible. The question doesn’t always have to be in the form of the question. You can just imply or hint at it.

Do You Want to Know the Top 5 Mistakes Most Bloggers Make?
What to Do with Your Dog on a Rainy Day?
Your Boss Wants to See You in His Office? Read This!

An example of this is our Jungle Scout review (we use our own principles!): Jungle Scout Review 2021 (Do You Really Need it? YES)

5. Appeal to You Reader’s Hunger for Knowledge

If I can learn to do something in X easy steps, then I would want to know how. Most people do! Use your headline to tell your readers they can learn something. You have to make it sound easy.

Do not include the process into the headline since it tends to sound like a lot of work. Target the result and the reader’s real motivations. For example, this might not be the best headline:

Making Money by Carefully Investing for the Next 50 Years!

Instead use:

Huge Profits in Options Trading You Can Learn in 15 Minutes!

The benefit and excitement of learning something new that I can use immediately to improve my daily life will make your audience click on your headlines. The most common version of this title is the “how to” headline.

How to Stop Smoking Right Now [For Good!]
Easiest Way to Run a Marathon in Under 3 Hours
Write Headlines That Force People to Share Your Content

6. Tell Your Audience What to Do!

Create a headline with a command in it. Tell your audience what they have to do to get the value you are offering. Be direct and demand action. You, the expert, tell them to act in a certain way. You make them ask “why” and that in turn will make them click through to your website. Some examples of commanding headlines:

Subscribe to our service and get X for free!
Stop Wasting Your Budget on Social Media. Get 10x Results from Email!
Throw Away Your Old Snowboard, This Is What You Need!

7. Create the most valuable information resource

Take a look at the best content out there and create something better. Better examples or more complete guidelines let you create a definite piece of content in your industry that will work for years.

But the internet is full of information. People don’t want more information; they want to make their lives easier. We usually look for quick fixes, steps, tips, and tricks. Make sure you communicate that value in your headline.

10 Most Important Tips to Make Your Sex Life Better
Complete Guide to Cooking Perfect Meat Every Time [With Videos!]
7 Secrets That Help to Make Every Vacation a Dream

[BONUS] Add Numbers and Symbols

There’s something in the headlines that begin with numbers and contain parentheses. Numbers as digits work amazingly well even when compared with the same numbers as words. For example:

“5 Best Beaches in the World” usually gets you an engagement rate that is double of “Five Best Beaches in the World.”

Add a bonus to your headline. Include that in parenthesis or square brackets. Special characters make your headline stand out, and people will click it more.

Content Marketing Strategy that Gets You Results [SLIDES]
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A recent example from our own content is taking the boring old product review headline, and adding a spin to it by including how much work and research went into it: MasterClass Review: Is It Worth It? [50+ Courses Watched]

Now Go Make Your Content Better

You can improve your results now! Go back to your old content and edit the headlines to make them better. Set aside one hour per week for editing headlines. You will spend about 10 to 15 minutes per headline, and then you can update 30 to 40 pieces of content per month.

Of course, if you create new content make sure that your writing process includes coming up with a catchy title. Processes help you save time and be consistent in your content creation.

Coschedule's Headline Analyzer

One more thing before we continue! There's an awesome tool from coschedule.com that helps you hone your headlines to perfection: Blog Post Headline Analyzer . But that’s not all! If you want concrete examples and formulas to create catchy headlines I will show you 9+1 simple formulas to create killer headlines that work every time:

9 Formulas to Create Awesome Headlines in Minutes

Interestingly, a lot of your shares come from people who just read the catchy title. What makes the headline informative and intriguing enough for people to click and share? There are repeatable formulas for that.

Make your headline to stand out and make people click. Here are nine formulas that help you write headlines that make people pay attention, read more, and share.

1. Who Else Wants [Something]?

A classic headline format that uses social proof. By beginning with “who else wants” you show that people already do want.

Who Else Wants to Work Less and Get Paid More?
Who Else Wants a Free Social Media Marketing Training?
Who Else Wants to Work from Home and Earn $500 Per Day?

2. [Number] Secret(s) of [something]

Another great headline formula is playing on your curiosity. Who wouldn't want to know the secret? The reader assumes that they get access to inside information and this makes the headline work.

The Untold Secret of Successful Blogging
5 Secrets to Effective Time Management
10 Secrets to Better Search Engine Rankings Today

3. Here's How [Somebody] [Does Something]

Simple, straightforward, personal. Make readers recognize themselves by replacing [somebody] with your target audience. Make sure [something] is a benefit they want to achieve.

Here’s How Coca-Cola Gets Results from Social Media
Here’s How Women Can Look Younger
Here’s How You Can Double Your Organic Leads

This headline also works in a slightly modified “here’s why” version.

Here’s Why You Need to Speed up Your Old Website

4. [Number] Little Known Methods [to Do Something]

Similar to the “secrets” and “how to” but works on the idea that if it's little know, then you may get an advantage over the people who do not know.

5 Little Known Methods to Gain More Followers
8 Little-Known But Effective Methods to Avoid Stress
Little Known Method to Reduce Your Gas Consumption

5. [Number] Quick Solution (Or Ways) to [Something]

Instant gratification! Most people want things to happen yesterday and headlines that promise fast results get our attention.

5 Quick Ways to Fix Your Search Engine Rankings
Fast Solutions to Your Money Problems
10 Quick Methods to Get Rid of Spam Comments

6. Now You Can Have [Good Thing] and [Other Good Thing]

These are two good things that have not been previously possible together. Who wouldn't want the cake and eat it, too?

Now You Can Have Your Mac and Use Chrome
Now You Can Eat More and Lose Weight
Now You Can Beat the Pros Without Hard Work

7. How to Do [Something] like [World Class Example]

Identify what your target audience wants and combine that with the best example. You can also use a number in this headline to give a list of more than one way of doing things.

How to Blog Like Seth Godin
How to Dominate the Market Like Microsoft
How to Sing Like Robbie Williams

8. All You Need to Know About [Something]

This headline implies that there's not much effort involved and intrigues people to find out more.

All You Need to Know About Facebook Advertising
Everything You Need to Know About Getting Fit
All That You Need to Know About Writing Headlines

9. [Number] [Superlative] [Something]

People love lists! Lists are easy to scan and read. List of X best things works like a magnet if you know what your audience is interested in.

6 Insightful Social Media Video Interviews
22 Inspiring Examples of Facebook Page Designs
15 Must-See Interactive Youtube Ads

10. Add You!

Here's a bonus idea that will make all these headlines even better: make the headlines personal by adding just one little word – you .

Find out more about headlines, titles and copywriting here:

7 copywriting formulas to energize your social media posts, how to create engaging titles and headlines [infographic].

_____________________ Image: The Anxious Type JD Hancock Image: “Funny Camden Chronicle headline MACHETE ATTACK MANIAC HUNTED” by Cory Doctorow

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How to Write a News Article: Headlines

What Is News?
How to Interview
The Intro or Lede
Article Format/Narrative
How To Write A Review
Writing News Style
Naming Sources
Revising/Proofreading
Photos/Graphics
The Future of News?

About Headlines

Headlines are becoming increasingly important in the internet age. Not only do they capture the reader's attention, they serve as source material for search engines. Today a reader is just as likely to come across an article by reading a list of search engine results as by scanning a newspaper page.

Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article.

5-10 words at the most
City Council to Cut Taxes doesn't mean the same thing as City Council to Cut Budget
Man Skateboards for Homeless
Convention to Create Jobs
Do not use articles - a, an, the
President Declares Peace, Holiday
Crackdown on Trafficking doesn't tell you who's doing the trafficking and what kind of trafficking
Rays Win - not Rays Win Final Game of Playoffs
They Win Pennant!
Rays Flip-Flop On St. Petersburg

Catchy Titles for Articles – 21 Formulas That Work Like Magic

Writing catchy titles for articles is a key part of on-page SEO. Catchy article titles result in a higher click-through rate (CTR) from the search results.

This article gives you 21 tried and tested formulas for getting clicks from your blog post titles.

#1. Use Numbers

#2. Include the Word 'Guide'
#3. Create a 'Curiosity Gap'

#4. Titles That Solve a Problem

#5. avoidance of pain, #6. promise change, #7. use fear of failure, #8. use negatives, #9. use the unusual insight, #10. make bold statements, #11. make a prediction, #12. offer help, #13. use fomo, #14. use insider information.

#15. Use 'Secrets Of The Experts'

#16. How To Do This Without Doing That

#17. be controversial, #18. things i wish i had known.

#19. 'I Did It and So Can You'
#20. 'Things You Didn't Know'
#21. Start With The Word 'Why'

A Tool to Help You Write Better Titles

How To Write Catchy Titles for Articles

I’ve spent hours analyzing successful titles to better understand the psychology behind click-worthy headlines. From my research I’ve distilled these 21 formulas that will help you unleash the power of words and make your articles impossible to resist.

So, buckle up and get ready to master the art of writing catchy titles that grab the reader’s attention!

This is the key ingredient in writing catchy titles for articles: use numbers! Numbers produce order out of chaos (God made the world in 7 days). They also promise something people can read quickly, as in a list post :

[#] Reasons _____ Is The Best _____
[#] Ways To _____ With Your Next _____
The Best [#] Formats For _____

Further Reading: 5 reasons using numbers works in article headlines

#2. Include the Word ‘Guide’

Guides usually cover a topic from A to Z, so the word ‘guide’ suggests your article is authoritative. That’s going to help you get more clicks:

The Definitive Guide To _____
The Ultimate Guide To _____
The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need To _____

#3. Create a ‘Curiosity Gap’

One way to write catchy titles for articles is to create a curiosity gap. A curiosity gap is where your reader is left wondering what something is. Here’s an example:

7 Tips For Getting ___ (#3 Will Surprise You)

On one level, you probably know that this is a ploy to get you to click on the link. But on another level, you’re wondering what Tip #3 is: it could be a tip that you’ve never heard before. And there’s only one way to find out – so you click on the link.

Here’s another way of creating a curiosity gap. Whenever you insert the word ‘the’ before a number, it implies that these are not just any tips but very specific tips. Again, the reader wonders what these particular tips are.

Here are some examples (as you read them, try them without the word “the” and you’ll see the difference):

The [#] _____ Tips That Will Make Your _____
The [#] _____ That Tripled My _____ in 7 Days
The One Thing You Need to Know Before Starting a _____

Further Reading: The Curiosity Gap: How to Entice People to Click Your Emails and Read Your Content

When people find your pages in the Google search results , it means they have a problem they’re trying to solve.Use the word ‘How’ in your title and you immediately signal to the reader that you’re about to solve a problem:

How I Got Rid of _____ Forever With This One Simple Trick
How To Create Amazing _____ That _____
How To _____ Even If _____

Avoidance of pain is an even stronger motivator than the pursuit of pleasure. If your title suggests your reader could avoid loss, cost, or pain, you’ll likely get more clicks:

Why _____ Could Be You Business’s Biggest Enemy
Why _____ Could Be Hurting Your ____ and Costing You ____
[#] Reasons Your _____ Is Turning People Away and Costing You _____

We’re all looking for something that will change our lives. And it doesn’t have to be something huge:

How _____ Will Change the Way You Think About _____
The Little-Known Formula That Will Change the Way You _____
One Simple Technique That Got Me ____ in 7 Days

One of our greatest motivators is the fear of failure, so if you want to write catchy titles for articles , you should consider invoking fear of failure.Unfortunately, it motivates people more than the desire for success:

Why Most People Will Never Succeed with ____
Why Your ____ is Failing and What to Do About It
Why Your Competitors Are Beating You At ____

#15. Use ‘Secrets Of The Experts’

Most people believe that experts never share their best secrets, so this is another kind of title that will trigger a response:

[#] Things About ____ the Experts Won’t Tell You
[#] Things About ____ the Pros Don’t Want You to Know
[#] ____ Tips The Experts Are Keeping to Themselves

It’s a fact of life that most of the things we want involve doing something we don’t want, hence the saying: “no pain, no gain”. And that’s why this kind of title has such a strong appeal – it promises the result without the pain. This title formula takes the form of ‘How To Do This (Positive Thing) Without Doing That (Negative Thing)’.

This technique has the added benefit that it allows you to include a secondary keyword in your title:

How to Remove ____ Without Risking ____
How to Get More ____ Without Spending a Dime on ____
How To ____ Without Feeling Like a Fraud

The Internet is swamped with free content that basically regurgitates advice that’s already available in hundreds of different blog posts. And that’s why controversial or contradictory titles get clicks. You’re telling the reader: “This is something different”. Here are some examples:

Why Most ____ Experts Are Wrong About the Future of ____
The Big Mistake Most ____ Make Every Time They Hit ‘Publish’
[#] Reasons I Don’t ____ Anymore

We all know that learning from other’s mistakes can save us months, if not years, of frustration. So this is another type of title that people click on:

[#] Things I Wish Somebody Had Told Me When I Started ____
[#] Things About ____ I Wish I Had Known Before I Got ____
[#] Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started My ____

#19. ‘I Did It and So Can You’

One of the fears that people have on the Internet, especially when they are starting out, is that the people giving advice are successful because they have some advantages that the reader doesn’t have. So if you can assure people in the title that they can get the same result you did, that’s going to get clicks.

How I Got _____ And You Can Too
How I Amassed 50K Followers on ____ and So Can You
How I Got Published on ____ (& You Can Too)

#20. ‘Things You Didn’t Know’

When people read a title, they’re trying to decide (in a split second) if this is information they already have. And that’s why this kind of title gets so many clicks. Because you’re telling them, upfront, that this is information they definitely don’t have .

[#] Facts About ____ You Didn’t Know
[#] Strategies You Didn’t Know for Getting People to ____
[#] Techniques You Never Heard of For Getting More ____

#21. Start With The Word ‘Why’

When you begin your title with the word ‘why’, it tells the reader you’re about to give them a reason. And reasons have a powerful effect on human beings.

In 1977, American professor of psychology, Ellen Langer, conducted an experiment where she got students to jump the queue for a photocopy machine. The students gave three different reasons for jumping the queue:

Version 1 (request only): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
Version 2 (request with a real reason): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”
Version 3 (request with a fake reason): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I have to make copies?”

It was version #3 (which is not actually a reason) that was the most successful in getting people to agree to the queue jumping.The takeaway? Reasons are so powerful in human psychology that even a meaningless reason will work. You can read more about this experiment in James Clear’s article: The One Word That Drives Senseless and Irrational Habits .

Why You Should Avoid Selling Your Home ‘As Is’
Why Too Much Praise Could Be Ruining Your Child
Why You Shouldn’t Invest in Bitcoin, Even If The Price Is Surging

If you want help writing your headlines, try Co-Schedule’s Headline Studio .

This is a powerful content marketing tool designed to help you create compelling and engaging headlines for your online content. Whether you’re writing a blog post, social media updates, email subject lines or any other form of digital content, Headline Studio will help you craft attention-grabbing headlines that resonate with your audience.

There’s a paid version and a free version but the free version works just fine.

Headline Studio evaluates your headline based on various factors such as word balance, length, sentiment, and emotional appeal. It provides a score and suggestions for improving your headline to make it more captivating and attention-grabbing.

I’ve been using it for a couple of years – I find it a great way to get the juices flowing.

Start off by typing in your basic title (don’t worry if it’s not very good – the tool will tell you how to improve it).

Then just keep following the suggestions until you get a score in the 80’s. And then you’re good to go!

To access Headline Studio click on the link below and then scroll down to ‘Our Products’ and click on ‘Headline Studio’:

Co-Schedule’s Headline Studio (free tool for writing better headlines)

The title of your article has a huge impact on whether people click on your snippet in the search results. Yet for many bloggers, the title of their blog post is an afterthought. Titles make or break your articles. And that’s why it’s worth spending some time writing a compelling title.

Try using just some of these title formulas on your next blog post and watch as it rises up the search results.

And if you’ve got a moment, go back to your old blog posts and see if you can use these formulas to come up with better titles for them as well.

How To Write Powerful Titles For Your Blog Posts – The Complete Guide
How To Write a Blog Intro (The 4-Step Formula That Pulls Readers In)

4 thoughts on “Catchy Titles for Articles – 21 Formulas That Work Like Magic”

Excellent ! Really amazing tips, appreciate clarity explanation and excellent examples. Must read before before finalizing title to their articles. Mahesh Hegde

I like how you mentioned that people can read numbers quickly in news titles. My brother is wanting to become a news reporter and he was wondering how he can make intriguing titles for his job. I’ll be sure to tell him to make news article titles with numbers in them.

Thanks, glad it was useful – Rob

Thanks, Mahesh, glad it was useful – Rob

Comments are closed.

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How to Make a Catchy Title for a Newspaper Article

M.t. wroblewski.

If you're learning about the craft of newspaper writing in school, then you might think you're home free when it comes time to write the title of a piece. But there's more to headline writing than meets the eye. By all means, strive to write catchy headlines, but make sure you know the basics of effective headline writing first.

Explore this article

Master the Basics
Catch On to Some Headline Tips

1 Master the Basics

Headlines must accurately and succinctly communicate the substance of the article -- and in the clearest terms possible. There is no room for double meanings or confusion, or worse, offensive content. Headlines also must perform the powerhouse function of grabbing readers' attention. Short, lively verbs are the lifeblood of headlines, especially if you're determined to write a catchy one.

2 Catch On to Some Headline Tips

No one is a born headline writer; it's a learned art that takes lots of practice. So begin the process by choosing exactly the right verb -- you probably will have room for only one -- that is as catchy as it is pithy. Then look for an element of humor in the article, which opens up the opportunity for irony, a pun or a play on words. Do so only when appropriate, however, and never at the expense of accuracy or clarity. Cliches are generally frowned on in newspaper writing, but it's fun to exercise some creative license by taking a well-worn cliché and giving it a new, unexpected ending. In the same vein, look for ways to take a well-known saying or advertising slogan and infuse it with a new twist. Tweak the first draft of the headlines you write and strive to make them better, deleting “deadwood” and clutter while sharpening and enlivening each and every word. With time and practice, you will improve -- as long as you never sacrifice accuracy for catchiness.

1 Columbia University: Department of Journalism and Mass Communication: Headlines
2 The University of Kansas: Headlines: Making an Impact -- Accurately
3 Associated Press Guide to News Writing; Rene J. Cappon; 1991.

About the Author

With education, health care and small business marketing as her core interests, M.T. Wroblewski has penned pieces for Woman's Day, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and many newspapers and magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University.

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How to Write a Great Title

Maximize search-ability and engage your readers from the very beginning

Your title is the first thing anyone who reads your article is going to see, and for many it will be where they stop reading. Learn how to write a title that helps readers find your article, draws your audience in and sets the stage for your research!

How your title impacts the success of your article

Researchers are busy and there will always be more articles to read than time to read them. Good titles help readers find your research, and decide whether to keep reading. Search engines use titles to retrieve relevant articles based on users’ keyword searches. Once readers find your article, they’ll use the title as the first filter to decide whether your research is what they’re looking for. A strong and specific title is the first step toward citations, inclusion in meta-analyses, and influencing your field.

What to include in a title

Include the most important information that will signal to your target audience that they should keep reading.

Key information about the study design

Important keywords

What you discovered

Writing tips

Getting the title right can be more difficult than it seems, and researchers refine their writing skills throughout their career. Some journals even help editors to re-write their titles during the publication process!

Keep it concise and informative What’s appropriate for titles varies greatly across disciplines. Take a look at some articles published in your field, and check the journal guidelines for character limits. Aim for fewer than 12 words, and check for journal specific word limits.
Write for your audience Consider who your primary audience is: are they specialists in your specific field, are they cross-disciplinary, are they non-specialists?
Entice the reader Find a way to pique your readers’ interest, give them enough information to keep them reading.
Incorporate important keywords Consider what about your article will be most interesting to your audience: Most readers come to an article from a search engine, so take some time and include the important ones in your title!
Write in sentence case In scientific writing, titles are given in sentence case. Capitalize only the first word of the text, proper nouns, and genus names. See our examples below.

Don’t

Write your title as a question In most cases, you shouldn’t need to frame your title as a question. You have the answers, you know what you found. Writing your title as a question might draw your readers in, but it’s more likely to put them off.
Sensationalize your research Be honest with yourself about what you truly discovered. A sensationalized or dramatic title might make a few extra people read a bit further into your article, but you don’t want them disappointed when they get to the results.

Examples…

Format: Prevalence of [disease] in [population] in [location]

Example: Prevalence of tuberculosis in homeless women in San Francisco

Format: Risk factors for [condition] among [population] in [location]

Example: Risk factors for preterm births among low-income women in Mexico City

Format (systematic review/meta-analysis): Effectiveness of [treatment] for [disease] in [population] for [outcome] : A systematic review and meta-analysis

Example: Effectiveness of Hepatitis B treatment in HIV-infected adolescents in the prevention of liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Format (clinical trial): [Intervention] improved [symptoms] of [disease] in [population] : A randomized controlled clinical trial

Example: Using a sleep app lessened insomnia in post-menopausal women in southwest United States: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Format (general molecular studies): Characterization/identification/evaluation of [molecule name] in/from [organism/tissue] (b y [specific biological methods] )

Example: Identification of putative Type-I sex pheromone biosynthesis-related genes expressed in the female pheromone gland of Streltzoviella insularis

Format (general molecular studies): [specific methods/analysis] of organism/tissue reveal insights into [function/role] of [molecule name] in [biological process]

Example: Transcriptome landscape of Rafflesia cantleyi floral buds reveals insights into the roles of transcription factors and phytohormones in flower development

Format (software/method papers): [tool/method/software] for [what purpose] in [what research area]

Example: CRISPR-based tools for targeted transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in plants

Tip: How to edit your work

Editing is challenging, especially if you are acting as both a writer and an editor. Read our guidelines for advice on how to refine your work, including useful tips for setting your intentions, re-review, and consultation with colleagues.

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How to Write a News Article That's Effective

It's similar to writing academic papers, but with vital differences

Writing Research Papers
Writing Essays
English Grammar
M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Techniques for writing a news article differ from those needed for academic papers. Whether you're interested in writing for a school newspaper, fulfilling a requirement for a class, or seeking a writing job in journalism, you'll need to know the difference. To write like a real reporter, consider this guide for how to write a news article.

Choose Your Topic

First, you must decide what to write about. Sometimes an editor or instructor will give you assignments, but you’ll often have to find your own topics to cover.

If you get to choose your topic, you might be able to pick a subject related to your personal experience or family history, which would give you a strong framework and a dose of perspective. However, this route means you must work to avoid bias—you may have strong opinions that could affect your conclusions. You also could pick a topic that revolves around a personal interest, such as your favorite sport.

Research for Your News Article

Even if you end up with a topic close to your heart, you should begin with research, using books and articles that will give you a full understanding of the subject. Go to the library and find background information about people, organizations, and events you intend to cover.

Next, interview a few people to collect more information and quotes that give perspective on the topic. Don't be intimidated by the idea of interviewing important or newsworthy people—an interview can be as formal or informal as you want to make it, so relax and have fun with it. Find people with backgrounds in the topic and strong opinions, and carefully write down or record their responses for accuracy. Let the interviewees know that you will be quoting them.

Parts of a News Article

Before you write your first draft, you should be aware of the parts that make up a news story:

Headline or title

The headline of your article should be catchy and to the point. You should punctuate your title using Associated Press style guidelines unless your publication specifies something else. Other members of the publication staff frequently write the headlines, but this will help focus your thoughts and maybe save those other staffers some time.

"Lost dog finds his way home"
"Debate tonight in Jasper Hall"
"Panel chooses 3 essay winners"

The byline is the name of the writer—your name, in this case.

Lead (sometimes written "lede")

The lead is the first sentence or paragraph, written to provide a preview of the entire article. It summarizes the story and includes many of the basic facts. The lead will help readers decide if they want to read the rest of the news article or if they are satisfied knowing these details.

Once you’ve set the stage with a good lead, follow up with a well-written story that contains facts from your research and quotes from people you’ve interviewed. The article should not contain your opinions. Detail any events in chronological order. Use the active voice —not passive voice —when possible, and write in clear, short, direct sentences.

In a news article, you should use the inverted pyramid format—putting the most critical information in the early paragraphs and following with supporting information. This ensures that the reader sees the important details first. Hopefully they'll be intrigued enough to continue to the end.

The sources

Include your sources in the body with the information and quotes they provide. This is different from academic papers, where you would add these at the end of the piece.

Your conclusion can be your last bit of information, a summary, or a carefully chosen quote to leave the reader with a strong sense of your story.

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News Headline Writing

In any form and style of writing, the headline or title best describes what the article is all about. Imagine newspaper articles with no headlines? How will the readers be able to determine and identify what these articles are about? Not only that, newspaper and magazine articles without headlines can be confusing and annoying. You may also see essay writing examples & samples .

News Article Outline Examples & PDF
Entertainment News Outline Examples & PDF

In journalism, news headlines do not only capture the audiences’ attention but also give a complete overview of what the news article is all about. It is straightforward and accurate, and should be able to answer the who, what, where, when, why and how questions. By definition, a headline is a set of words set found at the head of a passage for introduction purposes. Specifically, it is found at the top of an article or page in a newspaper or magazine. You may also like article writing examples & samples .

Difference Between Headline and Title

These terms have been loosely used and associated with each other. They signify the same thing, however, there are subtle differences between the two. Here are some similarities and differences between a headline and a title:

1. Headlines are commonly used in news (i.e. newspapers or broadcast reports). It is straightforward and precise, and doesn’t leave room for more questions as it is a brief general statement given to a news article/report/story.

2. On the other hand, titles are mainly used in feature magazines. Titles for articles don’t necessarily need to give the entire information immediately similar to a headline. Feature stories and other creative writing pieces commonly use titles.

3. Titles in journalism, meanwhile, can mean differently. The title of a newspaper is the name of the newspaper publication. It is sometimes called as the “nameplate” of the newspaper.

Although these are just subtle differences and there are actually no international rules governing the usage of the two. It is important to understand that there are in fact differences in the usage and meaning of both headlines and titles. However, they are both similar in a way that they are found above the articles or write ups. And they both tell something about what the write up is all about. You may also see application writing examples & samples .

Functions of a Headline

1. attracts attention.

According to a study conducted by the Poynter Institute, headlines were determined to greatly help readers navigate through a page. The study found that the readers only see 56% of the headlines but they are informed of only 25% of the content and they have only read a portion of that. With all these said, it is apparent that headlines help attract readers to look at and read the news/news stories. You may also see tips for writing an effective essay .

2. Summarizes stories

Headlines that appear over news stories are designed to inform and not entertain. Basically, news headlines simply summarize the story as accurately as possible. Although headlines seldom win prizes for originality or bring in compliments from the readers, they are the bread and butter of headline writers and they makes news stories easier to read. This also prompts readers to read more of the story if the headline is as accurate and straightforward. You may also like formal writing examples & samples .

3. Sets the mood of the story

Headlines set the mood of the story. If a headline is straightforward, it indicates that the story is serious and intended to inform, not entertain. Headlines have a big role in helping determine the nature of the story.

4. Sets the tone of the publication

As much as it helps set the tone for news stories, it also helps set the tone of the newspaper publication. It is known that there are two types of newspapers– a broadsheet and a tabloid. Aside from the difference paper sizes, headlines in broadsheets are straightforward, direct, accurate and precise. However, in tabloids, headlines are more malicious and sensationalized. Through headlines, the tone in which the nature of the stories within the newspaper is determined. You may also check out abstract writing examples & samples .

5. Provides design elements

Aside from the other functions of a headline, it also provides typographic relief. A headline helps separate stories within the same page and relieves the “ennui” that commonly exists in newspapers.

How to Write an Effective News Headline

1. be accurate.

This is the most important thing to remember when writing a news headline. It must be accurate and must be based on the gathered facts about the story. Always stay true to the content and avoid sensationalizing just to encourage readers to read the story. You may also see report writing examples .

2. Keep it short

By nature, headlines are meant to be short and concise. It can be 5-10 word at most. Generally, in newspapers, there are limitations to the space and letters are counted to make way for other stories to be inserted in the page. You may also like free writing examples .

3. Fill the space

Speaking of space, it is a must to avoid leaving too much empty space. The headline must fully incorporate the place it is intended to fill in order to avoid white space especially in the front page of the paper.

4. Don’t repeat the lead/lede

The headline and the lead/lede always focus on the the main point of the story. However, the headline must present an angle of the story that is different from that of the lead. Best to avoid redundancy and try using different wordings or sentence syntax in the headline or lead. You may also check out minutes writing examples & samples .

5. Be direct

The news headline should be as straightforward and direct as possible. It should be able to effectively communicate the point across. It is meant to inform and not to obscure.

6. Use present tense and active verbs

An active voice entails that the event recently happened. The headline should always follow the subject-verb-object formula. However, do not start with the verb and always start the headline with the subject. For example, “Man Runs Cross-country for Homeless.” You might be interested in writing examples in pdf .

7. Avoid bad breaks

A bad break is when a headline with more than one line splits a prepositional phrase, an adjective and noun, an adverb and verb, or a proper name. Avoid awkwardly breaking apart or splitting phrases or words as it can lead to confusion. You may also see script writing examples & samples .

8. Make your headline appropriate to the story

Use or make headlines that are appropriate to the story. Humorous headlines are acceptable for lighthearted stories but not to straight news and serious stories. Always remember to match the tone of the headline to the tone of the story. You may also like writing templates & examples .

9. Know where to capitalize

Two styles of headlines are commonly used in publications: the caps with lower case and the downstyle. Regardless of the style being used, always capitalize the first letter of the first word in the headline. The rest depends on the style to be implemented. You may also check out informative writing examples & samples .

Grammar Rules for News Headline Writing

1. use present simple tense for past events.

As mentioned above, present tense helps emphasize that the action is still happening. News headlines should relay that the event is current and not something that has happened a long time ago. You may also see memo writing examples & samples .

2. Leave out auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are not necessary when using perfect, progressive and passive structures as it makes headlines appear in the past tense when it is just using the past participle of the verb. Better to leave out these verbs on the headline and use active verbs. You may also like writing examples in doc .

3. Use infinitives for future events

To indicate that the event is still yet to happen, use infinitives. With infinitives, a distinct future time is not necessary to express the future tense.

4. Leave out articles (a, an, the)

It is acceptable to leave out articles such as a , an , and the . For example, “Prime Minister skips breakfast tea for charity” (The Prime Minister skipped breakfast tea). You may also check out steps for writing contest-winning essays .

5. Leave out “to be”

Leave out linking verbs (“to be”) in headlines as it is unnecessary and can take up more space. For example, “Residents unhappy about new water system” (residents are unhappy).

6. Leave out “to say”

Reported speech is usually represented by a colon or a hyphen, with the subject introduced with ‘on…’. This entails that verbs such as comment, tell, argue, announce, shout are left out. For example, “Bush on Iraqi invasion: “This aggression will not stand.”‘ You might be interested in reflective essay examples & samples .

7. Replace conjunctions with punctuation

Punctuation marks such as commas, colons, semi-colons, hyphens and so on can replace conjunctions in the headline. For example, “Mayor, Rebel leader reaches peace agreement.”

8. Use figures for numbers

This helps communicate accurate numbers relating to the story. Instead of spelling out the number, use Arabic numerals from 0-9. This is usually applied in stories that need specific numbers to express a complete thought like death tolls, accidents, days until an event, etc. You may also see 5 step basic guide on essay writing .

Types of News Headlines

1. streamer or banner.

This is the standard headline style that is a one-line headline that stretches all the way across a story. This is commonly found in the front page and stories situated at the beginning of the page. You may also see 5 summary writing examples and samples

These are words or phrases that help catch readers’ attention. They are usually shorter than the headline itself and is set in a contrasting font style and weight.

3. Slammers

These are two-part headlines that usually use a bold face or phrase that leads into the rest of the headline. It i usually applied when a headline is separated with a colon. For example, “ Hula hoops: hot new trend.” You may also like narrative writing examples & samples

4. Raw wraps

These are usually much shorter than the main headline and set in a contrasting font style and weight. Raw wraps are usually found below the main headline and uses words or phrases to label topics or catch the eye in order to lead into the headline. You may also check out persuasive writing samples

These headlines are usually used only for special stories or features. Hammers are big bold phrases and provides a lengthier deck below.

Tripods come in three parts: a bold word or phrase (often all caps) and two decks squaring off alongside. They work better for features as they are often gimmicky and fun. You may also see argumentative writing examples & samples

7. Sidesaddles

Sidesaddles are usually found beside the story and not above it. It’s best for a story that is squeezed into the paper, preferably one that’s boxed into a shallow horizontal space. This can be flushed left, flushed right or centered. You may also like obituary writing examples & samples

Finally, there can be many ways to write a news headline and it can be oftentimes tricky. Just remember to always be accurate and straight to the point when writing a news headline. We hope you were able to find this article useful and insightful as you write your own news headline. You might be interested in descriptive writing examples & samples

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How To Write an Article Title? Quick Tips and How-To Guide

You’ve completed your article and now, it’s time to come up with a title. Here, we’ll go over what you need to know about how to write an article title.

Often, writing takes on a mind of its own. Even if you start with a title in mind for your article, book, research paper, or journal article, it’s often not the right fit when the piece is complete and ready for your reader. Figuring out the right title for your work can be tricky. It’s crucial that your title conveys the subject matter of your writing and grabs your reader’s attention without being showy or over-the-top.

If you’re struggling to develop a title for your work, don’t worry–many writers struggle to figure out exactly how to convey what they want to say to their potential readers in just a few words. It usually takes some trial and error to figure out the best title for an article, paper, or story, and figuring out how to grab the reader’s attention is all part of the intricate puzzle of creating your best work.

Here, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to write an excellent title for your article.

Creating An Article Title: Your How-To Guide

1. know when to develop your title, 2. use article title capitalizations correctly, 3. choose a publication type, 4. double-check your grammar , creating an article title: quick tips, 1. use search engine results optimization to your benefit, 2. follow a style guide: apa style and mla format, 3. avoid plagiarism: what you need to know.

First things first: if you’re not done with your writing yet, don’t worry about a title. As your research paper, book chapters, or short story come to life within your mind, and on the page (or on your computer), ideas for titles will likely come and go. When you’re hit with the idea that feels like it might be a winner, jot it down somewhere, and hold onto it for later. Don’t simply change the title of your work, as you may realize later that you had the perfect title idea a few days prior–but can no longer remember it.

If you’ve completed your writing, revised your piece, and it’s finalized, that means it’s time to think about a title. Brainstorming can be an intelligent way to get your creative juices flowing on your title creation. Remember, there are no wrong answers when brainstorming–write down whatever comes to mind. If you have the time, let your brainstorming list sit for a few days before you decide on a title, as it’s likely that you’ll come up with new ideas as you glance over the words and phrases that come to mind when you think about the themes of your work.

Asking a friend or family member to read over your work may help you develop a title. First, ask them what stood out to them about your work. Then, use their insights to direct you in your quest to develop the perfect title for your piece. Finally, write down any suggestions that your first readers have for a title, and keep their ideas in mind as you develop the right name for your work.

If you’re struggling to come up with anything, it’s ok to have a working title when you submit your piece. This means that your editor is aware that you may come back and change the title at a later time.

Your publication, professor, or teacher may have rules as to whether you’re to capitalize all the words in the title of your work. However, according to the experts at Grammarly, the first and last words of a title should always be capitalized .

In addition to capitalizing the first and last words, you’ll also want to capitalize nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. If it’s important to your title that certain words do not follow standard formatting rules, feel free to make an exception to these general rules, but don’t do so without cause.

You may also want to consider the length of your title when deciding what to capitalize. For example, if your title is only three or four words, it may make sense to capitalize every letter in the title.

How to write an article title? Choose a publication type

It’s key to consider the type of publication you’re creating when developing your title. For example, if you’re writing a creative piece or an article that pertains to your personal opinion, it may make sense for you to use a creative title that leaves the reader wanting to learn more about what you have to say. However, there’s no need for a creative piece to give away the story’s point in the title. Instead, the title is used to draw readers in and make them want to learn more.

Academic writing, however, is different. If you’re writing a research paper or journal article, your title should be straightforward, giving the information you will present to the reader. There’s no need for your title to be long or drawn-out, but it should paint a clear picture of the knowledge your reader will gain through your work.

If you’re writing a news article that includes a quote or a proper noun (such as the name of a book or a movie), it can be tough to figure out exactly how to format the quote or proper noun in the context of the title.

Most writers use a single quotation mark to indicate a quote or proper noun within a title. This is vital because when your article is quoted by another writer (in a paper or another news article), they’ll need to put the title of your article in standard quotation marks. If you include standard quotation marks within your title, it can be difficult for readers to understand where the title begins and ends.

If you come across a word or term that you would generally italicize or underline in standard writing and want to use it in the title of your article, book, or story, use a single quotation mark instead.

How to write an article title? Use search engine results optimization to your benefit

Your article title plays a significant role in determining whether your article will be seen by people searching for the topic you’re writing about. Make your title specific, and include keywords related to your story, news, or research.

Websites, blogs, and online news sites depend on popping up near the top of a search engine results page to get eyes on their material. Therefore, it’s essential to use search engine optimization, or SEO, techniques to get your work in front of readers. Use a free SEO tool to help you discover what keywords are most important to include in your title if you want to get your work noticed by as many people as possible.

Suppose you’re completing academic work for a high school, college, or graduate school class. In that case, you’ll likely be asked to work in either American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language Association (MLA) format. These formatting options offer standardized guidelines for writers to follow regarding style, punctuation, and formatting. In addition, they can offer tips to help you decide the correct way to format your title.

It can be tough to come up with a title that hasn’t been used by someone else, but you must work hard to avoid plagiarism. In addition to being against the accepted code of ethics for writers, academic institutions and publishers have strict rules against plagiarism.

When you’ve decided on a title for your piece, do a quick online search to find whether the title has been used for another piece. If your title is just a few words, you may find some other books, articles, or academic works that have the same title as your work. While this is not necessarily a problem (as some titles can apply to many types of work), try to rework your title to be more original (especially if the subject matter in similarly titled articles is close to the work you’re discussing in your piece).

If your title is longer (as is usually the case for journal articles and research papers), you’re less likely to find another word with the same title you’ve chosen for your piece. If you find a paper with the same title, rework your title slightly to ensure that you have a unique sequence of words.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our guide on how to write an article .

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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Catchy headlines for feature articles

Coin a word, go graphic and more.

Stuck for a catchy title that will make people read the article?

Next time you’re writing catchy headlines for blog posts, email marketing, social media, online business communications or other pieces of content, try these types of headlines:

Alliteration

Here’s a catchy headline template: Use alliteration.

Alliteration occurs when you repeat initial sounds in nearby words: “Sweet smell of success,” for instance. It “makes your language lyrical,” says Sam Horn, author of P OP! Stand Out in Any Crowd .

That’s the approach Eastman Chemical communicators used when they wrote this headline, summarizing some of the things the company’s R&D department had worked on recently:

Satellites, Soap and Succotash

And The New York Times used alliteration for this headline package:

Tutus and testosterone

Men behaving balletically.

This approach can make a good headline.

Learn more about alliteration .

Graphic wordplay

When the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a photo of a sign from which the “R’s” were missing, copy editors wrote this headline:

Thief st ikes again

One approach for a catchy headline: Use type to twist a phrase.

Graphic wordplay can be as simple as a headline that says:

Make Fewer Mitsakes

The Minneapolis copy editors used graphic wordplay for this headline and deck:

He (subject) teaches (verb) grammar (object)

Mike greiner is old-school about teaching students how sentences are built, despite what one student wrote: ‘you’re torturing us’.

Copyeditors at the Omaha World-Herald earned an ACES award for a portfolio including this headline:

Space rock to get thisclose to Earth

Scientists say an asteroid hurtling our way will miss us by a mere 200,000 miles..

Scott Beckett, a copy editor at Scripps central desk in Corpus Christi, Texas, submitted this ACES award winner:

Education = More chances 2

Grant gives san pat students opportunities in math, science.

(Note: Search engines don’t love these headlines. So use them for email, not listing posts.)

Half-and-half words

When Dixie Land (yes!) needed a headline for a piece about punishing workouts, the copyeditor for The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote:

Intimidating or spine-chilling physical psyche-outs possess a fitness center client

Can’t find the perfect term for your headline? Make it up! For this technique, you create a new word by gluing two old words together.

Indeed, several ACES winners coined words for their winning headlines:

Penitence goes mobile with new confession app

Software makes it easy to say, ‘forgive me father, isinned’, — copyeditors at the detroit news, short and tweet, twitterature: the new art of adding stories to your posts, — marianne tamburro, copyeditor for the star-ledger, bon app-étit, as ipads become a kitchen staple, digital cookbooks enhance the experience of following a recipe, — copyeditors at the oregonian, dinosaurigami, more pop-ups from the ‘prehistorica’ team of sabuda and reinhart, — gregory cowles of the new york times, one-word headlines.

Here’s a headline formula that’s easy to implement: “See if there is ONE word that captures the essence of your subject,” suggests Horn. “A one word title is more likely to JUMP! off the page.”

Her own book title is a good example of this approach:

Stand Out in Any Crowd

Make your title jump off the page in a single word.

Onomatopoeia

Buzz, crash, whirrr, splash . Onomatopoeia — Greek for name-making — is a word that imitates the sound it represents.

Headline writers at The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader used that approach for this ACES winner:

Squeeeak … Slam! Sniffff … Ahhhh!

Screen doors let in fresh air and nostalgia.

Too often we think of feature headlines as clever heads for cute stories. The New York Times copy editors remind us that feature heads work well for emotional — even agonizing — pieces, as well.

Several ACES winners have used this approach for their award-winning heads. Copy editors for the Los Angeles Times , for instance, came up with this headline and deck:

Surrounded by her son

The mother of nfl player chris henry wanted to meet the people who received his organs. from one death, four lives were reborn.

Don’t think of feature headlines as purely clever heads for cute stories. Expand your repertoire by writing poignant heads for touching stories, too.

“Declarations sit on the page,” Horn says. “Questions engage.”

Indeed, well-crafted question headlines can draw your reader in. To write a good question head:

Peggy Boss Barney, copy editor for the Salt Lake Tribune , posed a provocative question in this ACES award-winning headline:

What Do You Get When You Cross a Human With a Mouse?

A narrowing of laws on manipulating life, patent applicants hope.

Question leads can help you avoid giving away the ending. Roy Peter Clark, editorial guru at the Poynter Institute, suggests that instead of:

Heroic measures save heroic dog

Brutis kept a deadly snake from his master and her grandchildren, but needed some quick help in turn to keep from dying from the bite.

You consider:

Would heroic measures save heroic dog?

Brutis kept a deadly snake from his master and her grandchildren. would the antivenin arrive in time to save the dog from dying from the bite.

Try it. As Paula LaRocque, author of Championship Writing , writes: “A headline with a question mark is inherently more open and engaging than a statement headline.”

Single-syllable words

Short words are powerful words.

They clip along at a brisk rate, can look great graphically and say a lot in a little space. Plus — sometimes most important if you’re writing to a strict space limitation — they fit.

To pack a punch in your next headline, try limiting yourself to only one-syllable words. Here are some examples to get you started.

For an article about taking private jets instead of commercial airlines in Northern Trust’s Northern Update marketing magazine, Loring Leifer wrote this pithy head:

Mary Forgione, copy editor for the Los Angeles Times , earned an ACES award for this string of super-short words:

Life After Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz

In her book, an advertising lion reflects on making it in a man’s world.

Jennifer Balderama, copy editor for the Washington Post , used only one-syllable words for this ACES award-winner:

Ears wide shut

Researchers get punished for telemarketers’ crimes.

David Breen, copy editor for the Orlando Sentinel , slipped a two-syllable word into this headline, another ACES winner. But the clip of short words following it are certainly worth emulating:

Divorce: Log on, click in, break up

But critics say an online divorce is not hassle-free; others fear it’s too easy.

Still, the real queen of the one-syllable-word head is Debbie Sprong, copy editor for the Elkhart Truth . She earned an ACES award for these heads:

Cap and gone

(for an infographic on graduation), new numbers in second district race show strong lead for chocola, for many workers, lunch hour is more than a chance to eat, officials hope test plot proves merits of biosolid compost.

Gregory Cowles of The New York Times earned an ACES award for a portfolio of heads including these:

A collection of picture books teaches children about jazz and its heroes

The way of no flesh, a cultural history of vegetarianism in the west.

And Scott Beckett, copy editor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times , called out his short words in this ACES award-winning headline:

Nature’s 4-letter words: Wind, hail, rain

Violent storm destroys home, topples big rigs.

For a preview of fall TV shows, Pat Myers of The Washington Post wrote:

Ewws and Ahhs

Too many shows will give viewers the creeps this season, but a few noble souls save the day.

Steve Byers of the Huntsville (Ala.) Times limited himself to one-syllable words for this headline:

The spies who love me

Scared parents of teens spending on surveillance.

Jeff Verbus of The Repository (Canton, Ohio) had two winning heads using only super-short words:

Knock down, drag out blight

Mounting expenses won’t deter canton from ridding city of eyesore properties, bill to squeeze pop has juice, senator proposes a limit or ban on sale of soda in public schools.

Try writing headlines using only one-syllable words. The result may well pack more of a punch than headlines using longer words.

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Home / SEO SEM Blog / How to Write a Catchy Article Title? 10 Tips to Follow

How to Write a Catchy Article Title? 10 Tips to Follow

Comments: 0

What about the statistics?

Changes, changes, and even more changes.

How many words should be in a title?

Discover the magic number: 10

Even or odd, we want to read less, which words to use.

Take advantage of our love for numbers
Emphasize the unique value you give to users
Use memorable phrases
Consider your target audience
Address the recipient, speak directly
Ask questions
Come up with several titles before you choose the one
Use keywords
Don’t let your market rivals outdo you
Make a checklist
Catchy article titles- examples you should know (and use)

Don'ts when creating article titles

Examples of quality article titles, exercise for you: one article, 5 different titles, last but not least, 5 pillars of a good article title, article titles - why are they important.

According to CopyBlogger , on average 8 out of 10 people read titles of articles they come across, but only 2 out of 10 read entire articles. This means that even if a user sees your post, they won't necessarily be interested in it. This drop in the numbers can be compared to the difference between views and clicks measured by Google Search Console : the latter ones will always be smaller, but there are a bunch of things you can do to make the difference less noticeable.
David Ogilvy also referred to the 8/10 rule and stated that "on average, five times as many people read only the title, not the full text. That's why when you write a header, you spend 80 cents of your dollar" - that's how much titles matter compared to the entire content!
Peter Coachley , who used to work with UpWorthy, found that the exact same content with different titles can generate up to a 500% difference in traffic . He also repeatedly reminds us that users don't wake up wanting to read about what we write - a catchy article title is a chance to attract a person who has a thousand other things to do. In fact, he stated that it's the title that determines whether something can go viral or not.

How to write a catchy article title?

How many words should be in a title.

Of the year (e.g. the greatest discovery of this year - such phrases make us believe that something important is happening and we can’t miss it)
In X years (e.g. the best book in 3 years)
For the first time (e.g. this comet will appear near Earth for the first time in several hundred years)
One of the (e.g. one of the best selling cars)
How to make (e.g. how to make homemade soy candles) + analogical guide keywords: how to find, how to cook
Of all time (e.g. the most comfortable heels of all time)

how to write the title of an article top phrases

10 tips on how to write the title of an article

1. take advantage of our love for numbers, 2. emphasize the unique value you give to users, 3. use memorable phrases.

4. Consider your target audience

5. address the recipient, speak directly, 6. ask questions, 7. come up with several titles before you choose the one.

8. Use keywords

9. don’t let your market rivals outdo you, 10. make a checklist and check if:.

The title offers a clear reward for clicking (knowledge, satisfaction, etc.)
You can add something to make the title more believable/intriguing
The title evokes emotions that will be followed by action (clicking, reading)
The title is clear, specific, and easy to read

Catchy article titles - examples you should know (and use)

Rankings with listings
Hyperboles, all the "best" stuff
Tutorials, guides
Surprising facts and news
Catchy titles
Snapshots of unique stories

Worthless promises. Don’t write about things that can’t be found in the text. This way, you’ll annoy users and your bounce rate will increase.
Random titles. Remember that each header and title should be unique. Don’t use things that worked on other websites without thinking about your strategy. Apart from the context, it’s also important to analyze your target group and its needs.
Don't use cheap clickbaits. Keep the quality of your content high. Clickbaits may anger your audience and this won't bring you any benefits.
The title uses distinguishing words: "easy", "instant", "budget";

Appropriate length - 10 words.
Understatement - it's not clear which bank is involved;
Sense of urgency - "Watch out"; relevant information.

how to write catchy article title watch outexample

Question - interesting, SEO-friendly (frequently typed phrase);
Relates to something common (bread);
Numbering - ten facts (*It would be better if it was a number - "10", not "ten").

number ("10 pasta recipes with vegetables")
a question ("What are the pasta recipes with vegetables?")
a message to the addressee ("Pasta recipes with vegetables you must know")
a hint ("How to prepare pasta with vegetables?")
Make the user need you - offer necessary information, help, or arouse curiosity.
Create a certain sense of urgency ; let the reader know that they shouldn't wait and need to read the article.
Assert that you are unique and original - no one else offers what you do (you can express this with specific knowledge, or being the "first" or reliable).
Don't repeat generic schemes that work for other audiences, but not yours. You're the one who should know your target recipients and write for them - not for all 100 million people on the web!
Be specific and sincere , and if you're trying to attract attention, make sure that your title is refined.

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6 tips for writing a great title for your research article

Title is the first thing the reader sees from your research article. Based on the title the reader decides to have a look at the article — or not. So a better title will attract more readers and quite possibly increase the impact of your research. If you wonder what makes a good title, and how you can formulate one for your paper as well, then check out our six tips for writing a great research article title.

Goal: catch the attention of the right reader

A good title helps the reader quickly recognize whether this paper is relevant for them. The title should give the reader an accurate picture of the article — and motivate the *right* reader to go on and read the article.

Additionally, an ideal title is memorable : researchers are reading many papers, some will be inevitably forgotten. A good title ensures that your paper will stick in your reader’s mind.

Case study: Important paper missed because of its title

Let me tell you an example from my own research, about an important paper that we missed because of its title.

Article entitled Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation has been published in July 2009 in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience .

A couple of months later I started to work on a project that later became my PhD thesis. And the above mentioned article turned out to be the most important study on which my whole work was based.

Yet when I started, I didn’t know about the paper. My supervisor and another professor working on similar topics didn’t know about it either.

They had surely seen the title since they were following the journal’s publications. But they didn’t recognize that this might be a relevant paper.

Eventually we learned about the paper from a collaborator from a different institute. Later when I was presenting my work at conferences, I encountered many other researchers who missed this paper, even though it was clearly relevant to them.

So, what’s the issue with this title? Read on my tips on how to write a great title , and learn along the way what is problematic with this title and how we can fix it.

1. Headline the main result, not the main effort

If your paper has a clear main finding that can be summarized in a sentence , put it in the title. Such a title is much more interesting (and informative) than a title describing your approach.

Prof. Kevin Plaxco gives the following examples in his commentary article The art of writing science :

Main effort (not optimal): A phylogenetic analysis of humans and chimps
Main result (preferred): Phylogenetic evidence indicates an exceptionally close relationship between humans and chimps

Here is another example:

Main result missing: Cognitive-behavioural stress management skills and quality of life in stress-related disorders
Main result in the title: Cognitive-behavioural stress management skills improve quality of life in stress-related disorders

Concerning our case study example, the title Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation does (kind of) contain the main result, albeit it is not formulated as a full sentence. We’ll see later how we can improve it.

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin?

Get your Revision Checklist

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts.

2. Adapt the level of detail to your target audience

If your article is intended for a broader audience (that is, you want to publish it in a general journal), your title should be more general , so that it is understandable to this broader audience.

On the other hand, if your article is intended for a specialized audience and a specialized journal, you can include more details and jargon in the title.

article published in the broad journal Nature: The hippocampus is crucial for forming non-hippocampal long-term memory during sleep
article on a similar topic published in the specialized journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory: Sleep enhances memory consolidation in the hippocampus-dependent object-place recognition task in rats

However, be careful with short and general titles . Such titles are typical for review articles , because they suggest a broad scope of the article. So your readers might mistaken your original research article for a review article.

For example, the title Axon Initial Segment–Associated Microglia sounds like it’s a review, but it is an original research article. Such a title is misleading for the readers, so it’s better to avoid it.

Not every neuroscientist knows what is “Na V 1.6″ and “Na V 1.2″. My supervisor didn’t know either — and it turns out that this was one of the reasons why he and the other professor missed this article. “Na V 1.6″ and “Na V 1.2″ are sodium channels — and every neuroscientist knows what are those. So the keyword “sodium channels” should definitely be included in an article title published in such a general journal as Nature Neuroscience .

3. Avoid “fluff” at the beginning of the title

Beginning of the title is especially salient , especially visible to the reader. And often this is your only chance to convince your potential reader that this paper is relevant to them.

So it’s a mistake to start the title with “fluff”, that is, a phrase that doesn’t carry much content and can be safely omitted. Instead, begin your title with an important keyword .

For example:

Aspects of immune dysfunction in end-stage renal disease
Revisiting the role of xanthophylls in nonphotochemical quenching

Our case-study title Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation does not start with a meaningless phrase that can be simply deleted. However, it also doesn’t start with an important keyword. Let’s see in the next point what would be a better beginning of the title.

4. Use the Context – Emphasis structure

A great title follows the optimal sentence structure : The beginning of the title acts as context for the rest of the title while the end of the title is naturally emphasized (if the reader gets this far).

So a good strategy is to include at the beginning of the title a keyword that will be recognized by all of your target readers and at the end of the title a keyword that is specific to your paper and its contribution.

However, what is a general keyword and what is a specific contribution might depend on your audience .

For example, the title Selective Adsorption to Particular Crystal Faces of ZnO suggests that this article primarily targets researchers interested in adsorption processes: “selective adsorption” is the general process, which is examined in this paper for the particular case of ZnO. However, if the paper targets researchers working on ZnO (zinc oxide), then it would be better to mention “ZnO” at beginning of the title.

Now let’s consider our case study : Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation .

Then, what is a specific keyword related to the contribution of this paper? I would say it could be “Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels”: although there are some previous studies investigating these two channel types, this paper put all the puzzle pieces together and provided a coherent picture about the interplay of these two channel types in — you guessed it — action potential initiation and backpropagation.

So, let’s improve this title by putting “Action potential initiation and backpropagation” at the beginning and “Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels” at the end. Then we can rearrange the rest such that it makes sense — and reveals the main message of the paper:

Action potential initiation and backpropagation is differentially regulated by Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels

A much better title, don’t you think?

5. “Context: Details” structure also works

But what to do with papers that have no single take-home message that can be summarized in a sentence?

For explorative papers that cover several problems or aspects of a topic, the “Context: Details” structure is often suitable. Here, you start with the general contextual keyword(s) that grab the attention of the reader, and then supplement relevant details after the colon.

UCB revisited: Improved regret bounds for the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem
Single Cell Assay for Molecular Diagnostics and Medicine: Monitoring Intracellular Concentrations of Macromolecules by Two-photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging

Here are some examples that don’t work very well:

Noise statistics identification for Kalman filtering of the electron radiation belt observations: 2. Filtration and smoothing
A better oscillation detection method robustly extracts EEG rhythms across brain state changes: The human alpha rhythm as a test case

In these cases, the first part before the colon is too long, it provides much more information than just the context, and therefore the whole title becomes harder to understand and remember.

So for an effective “Context: Details” type of title, make sure that the first part before the colon is short and memorable . Then the second part after the colon can be longer and detailed, and the title will still create a clear image in reader’s mind.

6. Title as a question or catchy title? It depends…

Now you might ask yourself: can’t we write more interesting titles than those that accurately reflect the content of the paper? These can be pretty boring… What about titles formulated as questions? And “catchy” titles?

Well, the general rule is to follow the conventions of your field . If some of the research articles you are reading have catchy titles, then it’s most probably OK for you to do this as well.

For example, questions and catchy titles are quite common in research articles from psychology:

How often is p rep close to the true replication probability?
Must interesting things be pleasant? A test of competing appraisal structures.

On the other hand, I have rarely seen a question as a title in a research article from neuroscience.

However, in most fields catchy and even funny titles are appreciated in commentary and opinion articles . For example, the “news & views” commentary article introducing our case-study paper Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation is entitled Who let the spikes out?

Also the titles of review articles might be less formal. Which brings us to the next point…

Titles of review articles

Titles of review articles tend to be more general and broad than titles of original research articles. This, of course, reflects the broader scope and content of review articles. For example:

Carbohydrate inhibitors of cholera toxin
Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis

These titles don’t consist of a full sentence — because there is rarely a main take-home message in a review article. However, what is helpful here is to follow the Context-Emphasis structure introduced in point 4.

Titles of review articles often include the word “review” in the title, for example:

Gap junctions in developing neocortex: a review
A systematic review of COVID-19 epidemiology based on current evidence

And as we said in the previous point, titles of review articles may be less formal and more catchy even in fields where such titles are not used for original research articles:

Spooky sodium balance
Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain

How to find the perfect title for your article

Now you have learned all the rules for good titles, but one question remains: How to proceed? How to come up with a great title for your article?

Then I recommend the following procedure :

First, generate 10 possible titles . These 10 titles don’t have to be unique: some of them might only differ in one or two words or in the word order.
Next, select the best title . You can do this together with your co-authors. Or each co-author picks one or two favorites and then you discuss and select the final title together.

With this procedure it’s much easier to find the most suitable title for your paper than if you would create just one title and then try to improve it.

So that was quite some theory about how to write a great title. Now if you want to practice this new knowledge, here is a little exercise for you.

What is good and what is not optimal about these titles? How would you improve them?

Analysis of processes leading to localized electron enhancements in the outer radiation belt
Wild-type and cancer-related p53 proteins are preferentially degraded by MDM2 as dimers rather than tetramers
A New Murine Model to Define the Critical Pathologic and Therapeutic Mediators of Polymyositis

If you are currently writing a manuscript and would like to get feedback and suggestions for your title: please, feel free to post it as a comment . Alternatively, you can also ask for feedback in our Facebook group Academic writing — peer feedback .

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin? Is your text a mess and you don't know how to improve it?

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts. You will be guided through each step with concrete tips for execution.

3 thoughts on “ 6 tips for writing a great title for your research article ”

Dear Martina,

Thank you very much for another portion of valuable information! It’s really helpful!

I’d be very greatful if you could comment on a title for a review article I’m writting now. Which of the two title you think is better:

Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies: from drug combinations to epigenetic editing

Thank you for your suggestion, Kind regards, Aleksandra

Dear Aleksandra,

I am happy to hear that you found the article helpful!

Concerning your question: I prefer the second, longer title. It gives the reader a much better idea of what your review article is about. “Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies” alone is rather unspecific…

All the best, Martina

That was my choice as well! Thank you for ensuring me about it!

All the best, Aleksandra

Comments are closed.

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How to Come up With a Good Title

Last Updated: December 21, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Rachel Scoggins, PhD . Rachel Scoggins is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Lander University. Rachel's work has been presented at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association and the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. She received her PhD in Literary Studies from Georgia State University in 2016. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 576,135 times.

Writing an essay or a story can seem like the hardest part of the project, but sometimes coming up with a catchy title can be just as challenging. However, with a combination of organization and creativity, you can create a wide selection of potential titles that will allow you to choose the perfect one for your work.

Things You Should Know

For non-fiction titles, try combining 2 elements, like a quote and a main theme, with a colon between them.
For fiction titles, jot down keywords about the main topic and characters. Arrange keywords in different combinations until you find something that you like.
Use strong, vivid language to make your title stand out from the crowd.

Writing a Title for Non-Fiction

Essays often change during the drafting and revising process. A title you come up with at the beginning may not reflect your essay when you have finished it. Make sure to also revise your title after you finish your paper.

Step 2 Identify major themes in your work.

Look at your thesis statement. This sentence contains the major argument of your paper and can help you craft a title.
Look at your topic sentences. Reading these sentences together can help you pick out themes, symbols, or motifs in your paper that can be integrated into the title.
Consider asking a friend to read your work to help you identify themes.

If you are writing a school assignment, or your audience are academics and specialists in your topic, use formal language. Avoid using a playful tone or slang terms.
If you are trying to reach an online audience, think of what keywords a reader might use to find your article. For example, if you wrote a how-to article, include words like "beginner" or "do it yourself" that would identify your writing as appropriate for all levels of ability.
If your piece is a news story, consider who you are writing about. For example, if are writing about an athletic team write down terms like "fan," "coach," "referee," or the team name. Readers with an interest in sports or that team can quickly identify your perspective and the topic of your story.

Step 4 Think about the function of a title.

Declarative titles state the main findings or conclusions.
Descriptive titles describe the subject of the article but do not reveal the main conclusions.
Interrogative titles introduce the subject in the form of a question. [6] X Research source

Look for attention-grabbing descriptions or phrases you're proud of. For example, in an essay on censorship choose a phrase like "forbidden music" that is descriptive but also intriguing.

For example, in an essay on religious persecution, a quote like "God was silent" is arresting and thought-provoking. Readers may immediately agree or disagree and will want to read your explanation.
If you use someone else's words, make sure to put them in quotation marks, even in the title.

Step 9 Create a list of possible titles.

The Negative Impact of Replacement Referees on Football Fans (Theme and Audience)
"A Crucible of Victory": Understanding the Western Front in World War One (Quote and Theme)
The Queen of Diamonds: Marie-Antoinette and Revolutionary Propaganda (Phrase and Theme)

Most words in your title should begin with a capital letter.
The first word and the first word after a colon should always be capitalized even if one of the "short words."
In general, do not capitalize the following words: and, a, an, the, or short prepositions if they are not the first letter in the title.
If the title of a book or film is part of your essay title, it should be put in italics, e.g., Gender Relationships Between Vampires in Twilight. Short story titles are always in quotation marks.
Know if the paper follows MLA, APA, or another style. Websites like Purdue University's Online Writing Lab , APA Style , and MLA Handbook can help you with conventions for titles.

Writing a Title for Fiction

For example, many young adult fantasy novels hinge on one or two intriguing words: Twilight, Bitten, Cinder, The Selection .

Try adding a more descriptive word to the basic title. Successful titles using the above words include The Giving Tree, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, The Mystery of the Blue Train , and The Orphan Train .

Read your title out loud. Does it roll off the tongue? Is it exciting? Does it sound boring? Would you check out this title? The answers to these questions can help you revise the title.

For example, the use of the word desire in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms is far more interesting than Love Under the Elms . [10] X Research source

Examples of this type of title include: The Grapes of Wrath; Absalom, Absalom; Gaudy Night and, The Fault in Our Stars .

Examples of this type of title include To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, and Catcher in the Rye.

Step 9 Write down your inspirations when they come.

Community Q&A

Write the whole essay, go to your thesis and find a way to narrow it down to two to four words. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0
Try this template to generate a good title. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2

↑ https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-write-university/how-approach-any-assignment/writing-english-essay/drafting-english
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/themes/
↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/identifying_audiences.html
↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6398294/
↑ https://blog.efpsa.org/2012/09/01/how-to-write-a-good-title-for-journal-articles/
↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185911
↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/title
↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/at-work-on-first-draft/7-tips-to-nail-the-perfect-title

About This Article

To help you come up with a title for an essay, write a draft of your paper first so you know what its main themes are. Then, write down key points in your essay that you could include in the title. Before making a decision, take your audience into account, such as by trying to include keywords in a title if your article is for an online audience. Additionally, decide whether you want to state the conclusion of your piece up front with a declarative title or introduce the subject as a question with an interrogative title. For tips on how to come up with a title for a story or other work of fiction, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Title Generator

Free AI Title Generator

Generate a list of catchy titles and headlines with our AI-powered title maker. Increase your reach with blog posts, email campaigns, social media and more.

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By using AI title generator, you agree to Open AI’s terms and conditions . Wix assumes no responsibility for results, verify you have the right to use the generated results before publishing.

How to use our free headline generator in 6 steps

Great headlines are an essential tool for engaging your audience. They improve click-through rate, broaden your audience and increase your potential to monetize your content. Try our free online title maker for access to original headlines that are proven to drive clicks.

Enter your keywords

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What makes a good title?

Good news. Your days of agonizing over how to write a headline that converts are over. Check out our guide for choosing the best titles from our AI title generator.

Optimize the length

50-70 characters is usually the sweet spot for a catchy title. It offers enough information to hook the reader without overwhelming them or getting cut off.

Add numbers & dates

Titles with numbers in them have a higher click-through rate. Include the year to show your content is current or the number of tips you’re sharing.

Test your title

Use the acronym SHINE (Specificity, Helpfulness, Immediacy, Newsworthiness, Entertainment value) to test the strength of your headlines.

Elevate your words

Use ‘power words’ that trigger an emotional response from the reader so they want to dive in. For example, words like ‘best’ and ‘sizzling’ are great options.

Title ideas for your content creation

Our title generator will help you get ideas and create catchy titles for your "how to" articles and guides, presentations, website, product descriptions and more.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best title examples from our AI heading generator to get you started. Try it out for yourself and ensure every piece of content you create has a title that draws attention and drives engagement. With the right title, you’ll hook audiences to keep reading, watching or listening right from the start.

10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Having Kids

5 Y2K Fashion Trends We’re Obsessed With in 2024

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20 Thrifting Hacks That Will Change Your Life

The People Closest to Madonna Share Big Secrets

What the 1% Doesn’t Want You To Know

Why Mozart Is Still Relevant in 2024

15 Startling Facts About America

The Myths and Facts Behind the Royal Family

How to Know if You're Ready To Run a 5k

My Unlikely Soccer Success Story

Top 10 Easy Recipes of 2024

5 Best Gardening Apps in 2024

Why You Need To Buy This Goat Milk Soap

Are these All-Inclusive Resorts Worth the Price?

20 Birthday Party Ideas for Kids

A Complete Guide to the Stock Market in 2024

Say "Yes" to These 5 Wedding Budgeting Tips

Why Carbs Are Here To Stay

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Title Generator FAQ

What is title generator.

Title Generator is a free Wix Tool that helps you increase engagement with your content by generating catchy titles, headlines, subject lines and more.

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Our title name generator uses AI technology that transforms the words you input into a list of creative, catchy and effective headlines for you to use however you’d like.

How do you create a unique title?

Finding a unique title can be hard. That’s where our free headline creator can help. Just input your topic or some keywords into the Title Generator and you’ll instantly get a list of catchy titles.

How do you choose a good title?

When creating a title, there are a few things you should consider. First, you’ll want to make sure you are earning your audience’s trust. Confirm that your title accurately reflects your content and consider adding the year to inform scrollers that your information is current. Next, check that your title is within the character limit for whatever search engines people might be using. Around 60 characters is usually a good sweet spot. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure your title is attention-grabbing. People are exposed to a lot of content daily, so you have to work to get them to click.

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How to write a good research paper title

“Unread science is lost science .”

Credit: Mykyta Dolmatov/Getty

“Unread science is lost science.”

28 July 2020

Mykyta Dolmatov/Getty

With the influx of publications brought on by the pandemic, it’s become more challenging than ever for researchers to attract attention to their work.

Understanding which elements of a title will attract readers – or turn them away – has been proven to increase a paper’s citations and Altmetric score .

“In the era of information overload, most students and researchers do not have time to browse the entire text of a paper,” says Patrick Pu , a librarian at the National University of Singapore.

“The title of a paper, together with its abstract, become very important to capture and sustain the attention of readers.”

1. A good title avoids technical language

Since the primary audience of a paper is likely to be researchers working in the same field, using technical language in the title seems to make sense.

But this alienates the wider lay audience, which can bring valuable attention to your work . It can also alienate inexperienced researchers, or those who have recently entered the field.

“A good title does not use unnecessary jargon,” says Elisa De Ranieri , editor-in-chief at the Nature Communications journal (published by Springer Nature, which also publishes Nature Index.) “It communicates the main results in the study in a way that is clear and accessible, ideally to non-specialists or researchers new to the field.”

How-to: When crafting a title, says De Ranieri, write down the main result of the manuscript in a short paragraph. Shorten the text to make it more concise, while still remaining descriptive. Repeat this process until you have a title of fewer than 15 words.

2. A good title is easily searchable

Most readers today are accessing e-journals, which are indexed in scholarly databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar.

“Although these databases usually index the full text of papers, retrieval weightage for ‘Title’ is usually higher than other fields, such as ‘Results’,” Pu explains.

At the National University of Singapore, Pu and his colleagues run information literacy programmes for editors and authors. They give advice for publishing best practice, such as how to identify the most commonly used keywords in literature searches in a given field.

“A professor once told us how he discovered that industry experts were using a different term or keyword to describe his research area,” says Pu.

“He had written a seminal paper that did not include this ‘industry keyword’. He believes his paper, which was highly cited by academics, would have a higher citation count if he had included this keyword in the title. As librarians, we try to highlight this example to our students so that they will consider all possible keywords to use in their searches and paper titles.”

How-to: Authors should speak to an academic librarian at their institution to gain an understanding of keyword and search trends in their field of research. This should inform how the paper title is written.

3. A good title is substantiated by data

Authors should be cautious to not make any claims in the title that can’t be backed up by evidence.

“For instance, if you make a discovery with potential therapeutic relevance, the title should specify whether it was tested or studied in animals or humans/human samples,” says Irene Jarchum , senior editor at the journal Nature Biotechnology (also published by Springer Nature, which publishes the Nature Index.)

Jarchum adds that titles can be contentious because different authors have different views on the use of specific words, such as acronyms, or more fundamentally, what the main message of the title should be.

Some authors may over-interpret the significance of their preliminary findings, and want to reflect this in the title.

How-to: If you know your paper will be contentious within the scientific community, have the data ready to defend your decisions .

4. A good title sparks curiosity

A one-liner that sparks a reader’s interest can be very effective.

“A title has to pique the interest of the person searching for literature in a split-second – enough that they click on the title to read the abstract. Unread science is lost science,” says Christine Mayer , editor-in-chief of the journal Advanced Therapeutics .

Paper titles such as, "White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic" ( 2019 Science ), and “Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking” ( 2019 Science Advances ) are good examples of this principle. Both papers have high Altmetric Attention scores, indicating that they have been widely read and discussed online.

How-to: Take note of the characteristics of paper titles that spark your own interest. Keep a record of these and apply the same principles to your own paper titles.

DJT had a good first day: Trump's Truth Social media stock price saw rapid rise

Buoyed by legions of avid supporters, Donald Trump made a bubbly debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange Tuesday.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group soared like helium from the opening bell and maintained most of those gains until late in the trading day when a selloff brought Trump's namesake social media company closer to earth with a closing market value of nearly $8 billion, on par with ride-hailing company Lyft and online marketplace Etsy.

It was also an epic trading day for Trump , the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and Trump Media's largest shareholder. Shares rose as high as $79.38 before flagging at the end of trade to close at $57.99, close to their low of the day.

His 60% stake in Truth Social’s parent company, which now trades under the ticker DJT, is worth about $4.5 billion on paper. And, if the stock price stays above $17.50 per share for an extended period, tens of millions of additional shares would be issued, most of them to Trump.

High-flying DJT stock hits turbulence: More volatility ahead for Trump's Truth Social

Enthusiasm in the MAGA ranks was undercut by the more sober assessment of stock market observers. They say Trump Media’s valuation is divorced from the business realities it faces.

Its flagship product Truth Social, Trump’s bullhorn of choice, is a minor player in a social media landscape dominated by megacorporations like Facebook owner Meta. Trump Media, on the other hand, has racked up tens of millions of dollars in losses and generated sparse sales. And it has struggled to attract advertisers and users since its launch in 2021.

It owes its success to Trump, who is one of Truth Social's most prolific users and has among the most followers on the platform with nearly 6.8 million. Trump has 34 million followers on Facebook, 24 million on Instagram and more than 87 million on X.

"It's hard to come up with any reasonable metrics that would get you to this valuation," Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University in Virginia, told USA TODAY.

The one-day pop was typical of so-called meme stocks in recent years, like video-game retailer GameStop.Trump supporters banded together on social media to lift the stock even before it completed the merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC , that was already listed on the Nasdaq.

The difference here may be that the former president's fans may continue to lift − rather than dump − the stock.

Trading was exceptionally heavy, according to University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter. The number of shares available to trade – called the public float – is about 28 million. But more than 52 million shares traded Tuesday. In fact, trading was so intense that Nasdaq temporarily halted it following the opening bell. Typically, trading in most stocks is less than 1% a day.

“Clearly a lot of the buyers and holders are people who are buying it for ideological reasons and plan on holding it for a while,” Ritter said.

That’s not so different from the online traders, mom-and-pop investors, small brokers and others who organized on social media platform Reddit to drive up the price of GameStop and face down hedge funds that were betting against the company and shorting the stock.

“In that regard, GameStop investors were doing it for ideological reasons, too,” Ritter said. “But after the stock price went up, they then sold and the stock price collapsed.”

Nobody knows when the Trump Media bubble will burst, he said. Just because you are a Trump supporter doesn’t mean you will hold it forever, Ritter said.

“In the short run, anything can happen,” he said. “But in the long run, I am highly confident there is going to be a huge percentage decline.”

How much is Truth Social worth?

Those Trump Media shares have handed Trump a crucial lifeline in posting bond as he appeals the civil fraud judgment against him.

A New York appeals court gave Trump 10 more days to post his bond and slashed the amount to $175 million. Trump has been struggling under the weight of not just the $454 million civil fraud judgment, but also an $83.3 million defamation trial loss to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.

Trump's gains are all on paper for the time being. He would need Trump Media’s seven-person board to lift a restriction that prevents Trump and other insiders from selling shares or using them as collateral for a bond for the next six months.

The board, which is stacked with allies including his son, Donald Trump Jr., and three former members of his administration, could also hold a secondary offering that would allow Trump to cash out some of his stake in coming months.

What is Trump’s net worth?

Truth Social going public means a massive boost to Trump’s net worth, at least on paper.

His shares in Trump Media and the reduction in the bond that Trump must post in a New York civil fraud lawsuit increased his net worth by more than $4 billion Monday, catapulting him into the world’s wealthiest 500 people on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time.

Why is Truth Social’s ticker DJT?

Research shows that familiar names, such as a former president’s initials, can help a company’s stock performance.

One 2006 study by Princeton University psychologists found that stocks with tickers that are easier to pronounce tend to perform better in the first few days of trading. Another study from Pomona College in 2019 verified earlier research that found clever tickers tend to perform better, partly because they are more memorable to investors.

What is Digital World Acquisition?

Digital World is a SPAC, also known as a blank check company . These publicly traded shell companies exist to acquire or merge with private companies and take them public.

Truth Social’s merger with Digital World was first announced in 2021 when the number of companies going public via SPACs surged. The investment vehicles have since faced criticism for being bad deals for retail investors.

Why did Trump launch Truth Social?

Truth Social was founded after Trump was booted from major social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

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How Does Paris Stay Paris? By Pouring Billions Into Public Housing

One quarter of residents in the French capital live in government-owned housing, part of an aggressive plan to keep lower-income Parisians — and their businesses — in the city.

The Eiffel Tower and the twin steeples of the Basilica of Saint Clotilde are seen from an apartment balcony on a gray Paris afternoon.

By Thomas Fuller

Thomas Fuller, a former European Union and Paris correspondent, returned to the French capital to interview public housing tenants and officials from Paris City Hall.

The two-bedroom penthouse comes with sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower and just about every other monument across the Paris skyline. The rent, at 600 euros a month, is a steal.

Marine Vallery-Radot, 51, the apartment’s tenant, said she cried when she got the call last summer that hers was among 253 lower-income families chosen for a spot in the l’Îlot Saint-Germain, a new public-housing complex a short walk from the Musée d’Orsay, the National Assembly and Napoleon’s tomb.

“We were very lucky to get this place,” said Ms. Vallery-Radot, a single mother who lives here with her 12-year-old son, as she gazed out of bedroom windows overlooking the Latin Quarter. “This is what I see when I wake up.”

Public housing can conjure images of bleak, boxy towers on the outskirts of a city, but this logement social was built in the former offices of the French Defense Ministry, in the Seventh arrondissement, one of Paris’s most chic neighborhoods. It’s part of an ambitious and aggressive effort to keep middle- and lower-income residents and small-business owners in the heart of a city that would otherwise be unaffordable to them — and by extension, to preserve the ineffable character of a city adored by people around the globe.

This summer, when the French capital welcomes upward of 15 million visitors for the Olympic Games , it will showcase a city engineered by government policies to achieve mixité sociale — residents from a broad cross-section of society. One quarter of all Paris residents now live in public housing, up from 13 percent in the late 1990s. The mixité sociale policy, promoted most forcefully by left-wing political parties, notably the French Communist Party, targets the economic segregation seen in many world cities.

“Our guiding philosophy is that those who produce the riches of the city must have the right to live in it,” said Ian Brossat, a communist senator who served for a decade as City Hall’s head of housing. Teachers, sanitation workers, nurses, college students, bakers and butchers are among those who benefit from the program.

Making the philosophy a reality is increasingly hard — the wait list for public housing in Paris is more than six years long. “I won’t say this is easy and that we have solved the problem,” Mr. Brossat said.

Paris is being buffeted by the same market forces vexing other so-called superstar cities like London, San Francisco and New York — a sanctum for the world’s wealthiest to park their money and buy a piece of a living museum. The average price for a 1,000-square-foot apartment in the center of the capital today is 1.3 million euros (about $1.41 million), according to the Chamber of Notaries of Paris .

The Fondation Abbé Pierre, an influential charity, was unusually emphatic in its annual report, published in February, calling France’s affordability crisis a “social bomb,” with rising homelessness and 2.4 million families waiting on public-housing applications, up from 2 million in 2017. Still, the measures that Paris has taken to keep lower-income residents in the city go far beyond the initiatives in most other European cities , not to mention American ones.

Every Thursday, Jacques Baudrier, the Paris city councilor in charge of housing, scrolls through the list of properties being exchanged by sellers and buyers on the private market. With some exceptions, the city has the legal right to pre-empt the sale of a building, buy the property and convert it to public housing.

“We are in a constant battle,” said Mr. Baudrier, who wields a 625 million euro annual budget.

The fight, he said, is against forces that make buying Parisian real estate impossible for all but the well-to-do, including buyers who snap up apartments as pieds-à-terre and then leave them empty for most of the year. Paris has also sharply restricted short-term rentals, after officials became alarmed when historic neighborhoods, including the old Jewish quarter, the Marais, appeared to be shedding full-time residents as investors bought places to rent out to tourists.

At the same time, the city has built or renovated more than 82,000 apartments over the past three decades for families with children. Rents range from six to 13 euros per square meter, depending on household income, meaning that a two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot apartment might go for as little as 600 euros ($650) a month. It has also built 14,000 student apartments over the past 25 years; monthly rents at one complex currently nearing completion in the 13th arrondissement start at 250 euros a month.

For City Hall, social engineering also means protecting the petits commerces, the small shops that contribute to the city’s sense of timelessness. When visitors here meander through what seems like a series of small villages, with boulangeries, cheese shops, cobblers and mom-and-pop hardware stores, it is not entirely organic.

City Hall has a direct hand in the types of businesses that take root and survive in Paris because it is the landlord, through its real estate subsidiaries, of 19 percent of the city’s shops. Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, the city counselor who oversees the city’s commercial landholdings, said his office is constantly studying neighborhoods to maintain a balance of essential shops and limit the number of chains, which can usually pay higher rent.

“We don’t rent to McDonald’s, we don’t rent to Burger King and we don’t rent to Sephora,” said Mr. Bonnet-Oulaldj. He acknowledged that in some neighborhoods where private landlords have rented to chains the battle has been plainly lost.

The city is deliberate in what shops it chooses. In an area that had become thick with hairdressing salons, City Hall rented to a boulangerie and a cheese shop. In other neighborhoods it has chosen to rent to bicycle repair shops, in part to reinforce the city’s push to reduce the number of cars in favor of bikes. It doesn’t rent to massage parlors on the grounds that they are sometimes fronts for prostitution.

A few minutes from the Place de la Bastille is one of the beneficiaries of the city’s retail policies. Emmanuelle Fayat, a luthier who restores and services violins for orchestra musicians, sits surrounded by maple and spruce and the tools of her trade: neatly organized rasps, planes and chisels. She rents her shop for “a modest amount” from a city-owned real estate management company.

“I have no knowledge of marketing and I’ve never asked myself how to become rich,” Ms. Fayat said on a recent afternoon. “I just want to do my job. I like my profession more than money.”

About a mile away, in a neighborhood rich with cafes and restaurants, Librairie Violette and Co, a feminist and lesbian bookshop, is another beneficiary of Paris’s retail diversity program. When the bookshop’s previous location was bought by an insurance company and the original owners retired, a group of women that wanted to keep the business going struggled to find a new home and announced they were closing the store.

City officials reached out and offered a new space at below-market rates. “Banks refused to lend us money,” said Loïse Tachon, a co-manager of the shop. “They didn’t think it would be lucrative enough.”

Further north, near the Buttes-Chaumont park, the city rents a storefront to Desirée Fleurs, which specializes in flowers grown in the Paris region. Audrey Venant, the co-founder of the shop, sees the program as a necessary and protective guiding hand.

“Local businesses are very, very fragile,” she said, surrounded by narcissus, ranunculus, snapdragon, all perfumed by eucalyptus. “I see a lot of bankruptcies.”

Ms. Venant and her husband, a painter and sculptor, live in a 750-square-foot loft that is also part of the city’s public-housing program. Her monthly 1,300-euro rent is well below market rates, she said.

The French statistics agency, Insee, reports that Paris is home to more than 10,000 nurses, 1,700 bakers, 470 butchers, 945 garbage collectors and 5,300 janitors. The push for more social housing and other programs to make the city more affordable has coincided with the dominance of left-wing political parties, who came to power in 2001 after decades of right-wing rule.

But François Rochon, an urban planning consultant, said there is a functional consensus between right and left in France today on the need for public housing that mirrors some other European nations, but not the United States. “Living in social housing is not stigmatized,” said Mr. Rochon, who pointed to its roots a century ago in France, when companies built apartments for their workers.

As a measure of the left-right alignment on the issue, Benoist Apparu, a former housing minister who served in a conservative government, described social housing as “absolutely essential.”

“A city, if it’s only made up of poor people, is a disaster,” said Mr. Apparu, who now works for a property developer. “And if it’s only made up of rich people, it’s not much better.”

Paris’s housing program is part of the trade-off of the welfare state: affordable health care and education in exchange for some of the highest income-tax rates and social charges in Europe. Public housing, however, is increasingly available only for those lucky enough to get it.

There also is vestigial cynicism in Paris about public housing after a series of scandals in the 1990s, when some conservative politicians were revealed to be paying cheap rents for luxury city-owned apartments. Today, the city awards public housing through a system that strips the names of applicants and prioritizes them through a points system that factors income and family circumstances.

Mostly, resistance comes at the local level, Mr. Rochon said. Residents in central arrondissements, for example, have often pushed back against building public housing, and the neighborhoods remain bastions of the wealthy. There is also disagreement about how far the government can or should push public housing in the future. The current goal is for Paris to have 30 percent public housing for low-income residents and 10 percent for middle-income residents by 2035.

Mr. Baudrier, the Paris City Council member, said he believes that in the long term, 60 percent of housing in the city should be public and reserved for low- and middle-income families.

But building new public housing has been particularly challenging because so much of the city is already so densely packed — and often protected by landmark status.

City planners have negotiated with the public railways to buy old train yards and rights of way. They’ve also seized on opportunities like the one that arose in 2018, when the French Defense Ministry consolidated its offices in Paris and the city negotiated to buy the l’Îlot Saint-Germain for well below market rates. The ensuing construction of 253 apartments was financed by the sale of part of the building to a Qatari investment fund, which is building a luxury hotel, as well as low-interest government loans that have durations as long as 50 to 80 years, according to Emmanuelle Cosse, a former housing minister.

City Hall has also taken over condemned buildings. Fabrice Chaillou, a father of two who manages computer networks, lives in public housing on the northern edge of Paris that was built from the ruins of a dilapidated neighborhood. He pays 980 euros a month for a three-bedroom apartment that he waited 10 years to get. Among his neighbors are a janitor, teachers, a car salesman and a police officer.

The program has allowed Mr. Chaillou and his wife to raise their two children in the city. But he knows that the future of social housing will always face at least one big challenge: “The problem is that once you get in, you never want to leave.”

Thomas Fuller , a Page One Correspondent for The Times, writes and rewrites stories for the front page. More about Thomas Fuller

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Health Inc.

Public Health

For patients with disabilities, this doctor prioritizes independence — and fun

Dan Gorenstein

Leslie Walker

Kevin Carlson, with nurse Joshua Lee (right) and respiratory therapist Eric Mathewson (left), watches a WWE match on October 2, 2023 in San Jose, Calif. Gabriel Torres hide caption

Kevin Carlson, with nurse Joshua Lee (right) and respiratory therapist Eric Mathewson (left), watches a WWE match on October 2, 2023 in San Jose, Calif.

From his seat in the stands, Kevin Carlson's eyes lock on a giant of a man straddling the top rope of the ring.

Carlson, a self-described WWE wrestling junkie who has cerebral palsy, boos the reviled wrestler along with the other 15,000 fans who pack the arena in downtown San Jose, Calif.

As the 62-year-old watches the giant fly across the ring landing on top of his opponent, a respiratory therapist suctions Carlson's lungs, and a nurse checks his catheter.

Carlson is here because his health care team snagged a row of wheelchair-accessible tickets, packed up extra ventilator batteries and oxygen tanks, and shuffled staffing schedules to free up three workers to accompany Carlson for the night.

Holistic health care like this is rare among the country's 2 million adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Carlson's doctor, Clarissa Kripke , says this is what it looks like when health care "does better" by people with disabilities; it takes money, effort and, importantly, the conviction that sometimes physical health takes a second seat to joy. Kripke's goal is to provide care that extends beyond medical transactions.

Investigations

A hospital is suing to move a quadriplegic 18-year-old to a nursing home. she says no.

"Health care is about helping people to participate fully in their lives," Kripke said, "not just about curing disease."

A promise of 'less restrictive living' for people with disabilities

Twenty-five years ago this June, the Supreme Court's landmark Olmstead v. L.C. ruling slammed the door on a dark era in U.S. history: decades of states institutionalizing hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities like autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion that locking people away had denied them "the pleasure of ... less restrictive living."

Kevin Carlson enjoys the wrestling match in San Jose with a nurse and respiratory therapist. Gabriel Torres hide caption

Kevin Carlson enjoys the wrestling match in San Jose with a nurse and respiratory therapist.

Since then, the number of people in large, state-run facilities has plummeted from nearly 200,000 in the 1960s to below 20,000 today. People with Down syndrome now live close to 60 years on average, compared to just 26 years in 1950.

But according to the 30 sources Tradeoffs spoke to, the freedom to live fuller and healthier lives remains elusive for many.

One key culprit is the U.S. health care system. The evidence suggests that the patchwork of doctors, hospitals and insurers that has replaced institutions as people's go-to source for care is falling short, limiting people's independence and harming their health.

Patients too frequently meet doctors and nurses who are untrained and uncomfortable caring for them; struggle to enter inaccessible exam rooms; and encounter insurers who deny their requests for essential equipment.

A limited but troubling body of research captures this system's shortcomings, showing that these patients are less likely to get preventive care such as dental exams and mammograms , and are more likely to take avoidable trips to the emergency room.

"People with intellectual disabilities need to be treated and respected the same way that we do every other patient who shows up at the doctor," said University of Chicago public health researcher Harold Pollack. "We are a long way from that."

Kripke, a family physician and University of California, San Francisco professor, has devoted her career to blowing up the obstacles patients with disabilities face.

Over the last two decades, in collaboration with partners like the advocacy organization, The Arc San Francisco and the Health Plan of San Mateo , a county-run health insurer, Kripke has gradually reshaped care for adults with complex disabilities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The doctor has turned the traditional primary care model inside out. She's ditched the typical rushed, 15-minute visits in cramped exam rooms, and instead heads out to the small group homes where her patients live.

House calls, said Kripke, allow her to ask questions like, "How do you want to spend your day? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?"

Dr. Clarissa Kripke making a house call to the group home where Kevin Carlson lives. Kripke focuses on holistic care to give people with intellectual developmental disabilities the best quality of life possible. Leslie Walker/Tradeoffs hide caption

House calls and 'hidden work'

Kripke has developed a unique way to deliver care, particularly for those with complex medical needs.

She relies on staff in group homes — she calls them her eyes and ears — to monitor people's health and their progress on personal goals, like taking more outings or gaining life skills.

It's a level of attention that requires follow up and follow through, or what the doctor calls "hidden work" — coordinating with specialists or appealing insurance denials. Kripke estimates that for every hour of direct patient care, she spends another six on these other tasks — roughly triple what doctors caring for other types of patients spend.

Rather than billing for every test she runs or call that she makes, Kripke charges each patient's insurer or group home a flat monthly fee. She caps her patient-list at 100 people — less than 10% of the lengthy roster a typical primary care doctor manages.

Kripke's approach has paid off for Carlson. During a visit to his five-person group home in Redwood City last fall, Carlson said proudly that his weight had climbed from a dangerously-low 70 pounds to 111 since Kripke took over his care. Staff also slashed through insurer red tape to secure Carlson, a naturally gregarious guy, a speaking valve that helps him communicate while on his ventilator.

It's unclear if Kripke's model reduces spending; her program has yet to be studied. But perhaps the clearest sign it's a good deal: Group homes choose to pay her fee when, instead, their residents could get treated at local clinics for free.

Potentially, the longer Kripke keeps the most medically complex patients living in the community, rather than an institution, the bigger the payoff. Carlson's group home, for example, costs Medicaid and the state of California roughly $27,000 a month, whereas an intensive nursing facility — runs closer to $34,000 .

When problems land people like Carlson in the hospital, as his kidney stones sometimes can, Kripke keeps a close eye on her patients' care there, too, and believes that helps them get home sooner and in better shape. That, theoretically, could save taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid and Medicare money.

More training and a better pay structure could spread the model

Kripke estimates some 50 other doctors in the country are honing innovative models to deliver high-quality care to this population. She, herself, has trained thousands of caregivers, advocates and providers.

Yet, it will be difficult for approaches like hers to spread more widely without more training for frontline clinicians. The workforce lacks both specialists for people with the most complex conditions and primary care providers with the insight to respectfully treat patients with disabilities.

"It's as hard today for adults with developmental disabilities to find attentive, loving, expert care as it was in the early 2000's when I was starting out," Kripke said.

A recent national survey of physicians found just 4 in 10 felt "very confident" in their ability to provide the same quality of care to patients with a disability as those without one. Only about 15% of U.S. medical schools have joined a national initiative to bolster training.

Without more pay, many clinicians may be reluctant to invest the extra time and training to do this work. A bipartisan House bill introduced in 2023 — the so-called HEADs UP Act — would boost certain payments for providers serving this population.

Ari Ne'eman , who served on the National Council on Disability during the Obama administration, said scaling work like Kripke's requires both insurers and providers to make big shifts.

"We really need additional training," he said, "And we need to ensure that [pay is] aligned with the amount of time it takes physicians to provide competent and accessible care to people with disabilities."

New federal rules signal hope

Kripke's approach is focused on caring for adults with the most medical needs — a small slice of the broader disability community. New and forthcoming federal regulations aim to improve care and inch closer to delivering more independence for all U.S. adults with developmental disabilities.

Starting last year, group homes began facing closer scrutiny over the amount of privacy and autonomy they offer residents, for example, locking their bedroom doors or setting their own schedules.

Federal officials expect to finalize rules this spring that target discriminatory policies like relying on the inaccessible medical equipment that still litters America's hospitals or putting people with disabilities at the end of the organ transplant line.

"It is critical that people be able to get in the door and that people be able to get on the table," said Alison Barkoff, who leads the Administration for Community Living at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "The lack of accessibility has been a huge barrier to preventative health care."

People with disabilities can spend months — even years — wading through webs of approvals to get critical care, like more help at home or a new wheelchair. A regulation finalized this year to take effect in 2026 requires Medicaid and private Medicare insurance plans to make faster, more transparent decisions about whether they will cover these services.

'There's a waitlist for everything'

Better health care is one piece, advocates say, in their decades-long fight to help people with disabilities live more independently. What's also required is an expansion of a wide range of services, from housing to help preparing meals.

"There's a waitlist for everything when you have a disability," said Melissa Crisp-Cooper, who has cerebral palsy and works for The Arc San Francisco .

A lack of paid health aides who help people shower, shop and get to work have led to fewer options. "Because of low wages and a lack of respect," said Barkoff, "we are at a point where the vast majority of providers are turning down referrals and even closing services ."

Between 200,000 and 700,000 people are waiting for at least one service they need to live in the community, and some data suggest Black and Hispanic people are hardest hit.

Some family members of people with disabilities — and even doctors — frustrated by these resource constraints insist that a return to larger, institution-like settings is necessary.

"That's just not true," said Kripke.

Over her 20-year-career, she's seen enough proof that people can thrive outside of big institutions — even patients with the most complex needs, like wrestling fanatic Kevin Carlson.

"People didn't know that could be done before," said the doctor, but now that they do, the onus is on policymakers — and the health care system — to make living freer and fuller a reality for all.

This story comes from the health policy podcast Tradeoffs . Dan Gorenstein is Tradeoffs' executive editor, and Leslie Walker is a senior reporter/producer for the show, where a version of this story first appeared. Sign up for Tradeoffs' weekly newsletter to get more health policy reporting in your inbox.

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Tips to make colonoscopy bowel prep easier

When to start bowel prep

Review your prep guidelines one to two weeks before your procedure for any special instructions. You may be encouraged to make small changes in your diet starting a week before the procedure.

Often, the day before the colonoscopy is when you'll start the bowel prep solution. Dr. Ebner says this is where people may struggle.

Tips for taking bowel prep solution

"There's a couple of tricks. Often, cooling the solution and drinking it through a straw can be helpful. Others like to have a small lime or lemon wedge that they just bite into after doing some of the solution," says Dr. Ebner.

Chewing gum between sips of the solution also may help. And he says taking the solution is often spread out over two days, and that can help too.

A woman puts a stick of chewing gum in her mouth.

"Half of the volume is done the day before the procedure, the other half is done the day of the procedure. That helps make it a lot more tolerable. And, in fact, we get a better cleanout by doing that splitting," he says.

Dr. Ebner says some adnominal cramping, bloating, discomfort or nausea during the bowel preparation is normal. "For those that do have nausea, slowing down how fast you're consuming the fluid can oftentimes be really helpful," he says.

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Step #1: Use Specific Numbers and Data in Your Headline. Integrating specific numbers and data into your headline is one of the most important things you can do to make a headline more compelling. Research shows that headlines featuring numbers generate more social shares and engagement. Source: BuzzSumo.
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To do that, you need to write a good title. Here are some tricks you can use to formulate catchy headlines: Use emotional/power words. Include concrete numbers and/or stats. Use "trigger" words like what, when, why, or how. One thing you don't want to do is get into the habit of writing clickbait article titles.
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Use numbers to give concrete takeaways. Use emotional objectives to describe your reader's problem. Use unique rationale to demonstrate what the reader will get out of the article. Use what, why, how, or when. Make an audacious promise. 1. Use numbers to give concrete takeaways.
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5) Try to optimize for search and social. I say "try" because, sometimes, trying too hard to optimize for these things can make your title sound strange. Remember: You want to optimize your title for your audience above all else, but if you can optimize for both search and social, that's great.
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1. Identify the key terms in the article to create the headline. Read the article in full and make note of the details in the first paragraph of the article. The key details of the story should be in the first one to three sentences of the article, so look for the key terms in these lines.
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Today a reader is just as likely to come across an article by reading a list of search engine results as by scanning a newspaper page. Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article. 5-10 words at the most. should be accurate and specific.
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Catchy article titles result in a higher click-through rate (CTR) from the search results. This article gives you 21 tried and tested formulas for getting clicks from your blog post titles. While CTR from the search results may not be a direct ranking signal, it more than likely affects ranking indirectly, as Larry Kim shows in this article.
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Mayo Clinic Minute: Tips to make colonoscopy bowel prep easier
Chew gum between drinks of the bowel prep solution to reduce unpleasant tastes and dryness in the mouth. "Half of the volume is done the day before the procedure, the other half is done the day of the procedure. That helps make it a lot more tolerable. And, in fact, we get a better cleanout by doing that splitting," he says.