Titleist

Many people have trouble with titles. They come in with the assignment (Paragraph 2, Essay 3) on the top of their page, or they use the title of an assigned article/essay/story as the title of their analysis/reaction/response (The Red Convertible, sans quotation marks), or they use a general word or phrase (Mother, My Vacation, Believe in Yourself) that is much too large for their specific insights on the subject.

Here's the thing: I love titles. I'm a huge fan. I see titles everywhere. I love how a writer can capture the essence of a piece in a single word, a small group of words, an intentionally long string of words, or a title: subtitle combination.

I pay attention to titles, and I particularly enjoy the titles This American Life assigns to both their full-hour shows and the acts they divide those shows up into. They do something that I don't think most know they can do: play on existing phrases to create titles.

Here's a taste from the last few This American Life shows:

D-U-Why?
Return to the Scene of the Scene
Our Man of Perpetual Sorrow
This I Used to Believe
Scrambled Nest Egg
Team Spirit in the Sky
Pants Pants Revelation
You're as Cold as Ice
You're Willing to Sacrifice Our Love

They are all taken from existing pieces of language. DUI. Return to the scene of the crime. Our lady of perpetual sorrow. This I Believe (another radio show). Scrambled eggs + nest egg. Team spirit + "Spirit in the Sky." Dance Dance Revolution. Two lines from Foreigner's "Cold as Ice." Most students don't know they can do such things.

I'm going revisit this idea periodically.