I’ve noticed that when I write a blog post, I usually title it first. Everything else I write, though, the title comes last. This is something to think about.
About Michael J. Faris
I study rhetoric and composition as a PhD student in the English Department at Penn State University.
This blog serves as a place to think through things, record thoughts, share interesting stuff, and hold conversations. Welcome!
Visit my electronic portfolio
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Michael on Cynthia Nixon: "It’s a Choice"
- Hillary on Cynthia Nixon: "It’s a Choice"
- Michael on Cynthia Nixon: "It’s a Choice"
- Hillary on Cynthia Nixon: "It’s a Choice"
- yossale on Latour (1993): We Have Never Been Modern
Recent Tweets
- RT @betajames: How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy - Magazine - The Atlantic http://t.co/fOA1libw 3 hrs ago
- "Can we stop running? I'm almost thirty." 13 hrs ago
- Oops! 14 hrs ago
- No matter what typos I make, the difference between awhile and a while is important 15 hrs ago
- Designing Women, Roseanne, Murphy Brown, and Golden Girls: the shows that raised my feminist consciousness in the early 90s 15 hrs ago
- I'm excited for tomorrow to see the Vagina Monologues. Need some good feminism in my life (especially in this town) 15 hrs ago
- Worst part of the show was definitely the misogynists in the crowd who shouted some pretty sexist shit. To be expected here I guess 15 hrs ago
- More updates...
Powered by Twitter Tools
Currently Reading
Last.fm Recent Listens
Hi Michael, it’s my first time commenting here, though I’ve been lurking for a few weeks. Nice place you’ve got here!
The title-first idea interests me–are you a “figure out the thesis and then write the paper” kind of writer? Or are you noticing this about your blogging because you aren’t?
Thanks for visiting!
I tend to have a general idea of some kind of thesis statement, write a lot, and then figure it out for sure and fix it on a later draft. It kind of depends on the paper, though. Mostly, I’m a huge fan of freewriting and writing that might not necessarily go into the final paper, so I guess I’m more of a “write and then get the thesis statement or guiding purpose” type of writer.
Titles: What They Can Do for Your Argument! Or Not.
Undergraduate students often title their work blandly (or unimaginatively), such as “Essay #1,” so I work to help them see the real work that a title can do for their whole argument. This includes boosting the prominence of the two part title with colon, a favorite in the humanities..
I would argue that long and clever titles – especially as in the humanities those with a colon – can sum up / introduce the argument and do a lot of work for getting the reader situated. Our own title — “A Compass for the Classroom: Conversing and Consuming in Cyberspace” — does this.
That’s funny, Sara. I see you’re referencing the Action Action (a post-punk-esque pop band) lyrics I quote on my other blog.
I think just as they claim, “long and clever titles don’t bring the song,” that a long and clever title doesn’t make an essay. I agree with you that it can set up the context or set up the audience for the essay. I am a fan of long and clever titles (look at my post on my presentation for Classical Drama), but often in a postmodern, hip ironic way.