Titles Are the Only Part Most People Read

A piece of writing has one job before it has any other job: convince someone to begin. In nearly every context where writing is found, that job belongs entirely to the title, sometimes with a line of preview text as support. Yet titles are usually written last, in ninety seconds, by a writer who is tired.

What a title has to do

Three things at once, in a handful of words. Signal the subject clearly enough that the wrong reader can leave. Make a promise specific enough to be interesting. And be memorable enough that someone can refer to it later without looking it up.

Most titles do the first and abandon the other two. "Thoughts on Remote Work" is accurate, honest, and indistinguishable from ten thousand others.

Patterns that reliably work

• The specific claim. Say the thing the piece argues rather than the area it covers. Claims invite agreement or disagreement, and both produce readers.
• The correction. Naming a common belief and signalling that you disagree is compelling because the reader wants to know if they are wrong.
• The concrete number, honestly used. Specifics beat generalities, provided the number is real.
• The unexpected pairing. Two ideas that do not usually appear together create a question the reader wants answered.

Patterns worth retiring

Withholding the subject to manufacture curiosity annoys readers who have been burned by it. Superlatives that the piece does not support erode trust on the second encounter. And questions as titles usually promise less than statements, because a question can be answered with no and dismissed.

Write ten titles, then throw away the first five. The first five are the obvious ones, which is why everyone else already used them.

Test it out of context

The environment where your title will be seen is a list of other titles, with no design, no author photo, and no introduction. Paste yours into a plain list among five others on similar subjects and ask which one you would click. If it is not yours, the piece is not finished, however good the writing below it is.

One caution

A title that oversells is a debt paid by the reader, and it is charged immediately. The piece must deliver what the title promised within the first few paragraphs, or the promise becomes the reason they never return. Interesting and accurate is the target; interesting alone is a short-term trade.