Accuracy in titles involves, not merely avoidance of exaggerated and misleading statement, but complete harmony in tone and spirit between title and article.  When the story is familiar and colloquial in style, the title should reflect that informality.  When the article makes a serious appeal, the title should be dignified.  A good title, in a word, is true to the spirit as well as to the letter.

Conciseness in titles is imposed on the writer by the physical limitations of type and page.  Because the width of the column and of the page is fixed, and because type is not made of rubber, a headline must be built to fit the place it is to fill.  Although in framing titles for articles it is not always necessary to conform to the strict requirements as to letters and spaces that limit the building of news headlines, it is nevertheless important to keep within bounds.  A study of a large number of titles will show that they seldom contain more than three or four important words with the necessary connectives and particles.  Short words, moreover, are preferred to long ones.  By analyzing the titles in the publication to which he plans to send his article, a writer can frame his title to meet its typographical requirements.

The reader’s limited power of rapid comprehension is another reason for brevity.  A short title consisting of a small group of words yields its meaning at a glance.  Unless the reader catches the idea in the title quickly, he is likely to pass on to something else.  Here again short words have an advantage over long ones.

Concreteness in titles makes for rapid comprehension and interest.  Clean-cut mental images are called up by specific words; vague ones usually result from general, abstract terms.  Clear mental pictures are more interesting than vague impressions.

SUB-TITLES.  Sub-titles are often used to supplement and amplify the titles.  They are the counterparts of the “decks” and “banks” in news headlines.  Their purpose is to give additional information, to arouse greater interest, and to assist in carrying the reader over, as it were, to the beginning of the article.

Since sub-titles follow immediately after the title, any repetition of important words is usually avoided.  It is desirable to maintain the same tone in both title and sub-title.  Occasionally the two together make a continuous statement.  The length of the sub-title is generally about twice that of the title; that is, the average sub-title consists of from ten to twelve words, including articles and connectives.  The articles, “a,” “an,” and “the,” are not as consistently excluded from sub-titles as they are from newspaper headlines.

SOME TYPES OF TITLES.  Attempts to classify all kinds of headlines and titles involve difficulties similar to those already encountered in the effort to classify all types of beginnings.  Nevertheless, a separation of titles into fairly distinct, if not mutually exclusive, groups may prove helpful to inexperienced writers.  The following are the nine most distinctive types of titles:  (1) label; (2) “how” and “why” statement; (3) striking statement, including figure of speech, paradox, and expression of great magnitude; (4) quotation and paraphrase of quotation; (5) question; (6) direct address, particularly in imperative form; (7) alliteration; (8) rhyme; (9) balance.