1%

Subject, Title, and Subtitles





The subject, title, and subtitles of your book or article are the guts of your work and its basic skeleton, respectively. Without them you cannot create structure, content, or a sense of your material. In order for your work to make sense, you must limit or draw boundaries around a portion or niche of your subject matter. If you have no boundaries or niche, then your writing becomes ineffective and does not accomplish your intent or persuasively convey your thesis or initial assertions.

For example, if I want to write an article on higher education, then I must decide how I will approach the subject, what facet of the process of higher education I will address, and to what extent I will explore or expose that facet. If I decide I want to explore the value of non-classroom experiences for instance, then I will need to assert certain ideas in the creation of my thesis or initial assertions. I will then create my structure, including my title and subtitles, based on the initial assertions defined in the thesis.

Here is how my subject, title, and subtitles may help define my structure in my example:

Subject: The Value of Non-classroom Experiences in the Process of Higher Education
Thesis: Professional educators estimate that approximately 95% of the value of higher education lies in the student's experiences outside of the classroom in the process of obtaining of a four year degree. We will explore these experiences and how they may be assessed as having a significant value in the student's education process.

Book
Title: Another "Brick in the Wall"

Book
Subtitles: The Real Value in Higher Education
Inside Subtitles: Brick in the Wall; Thank You, Pink!
[a.k.a. "chapters"] Who Needs a Wall?
Why am I Interested?
Wine, Women, and Song.
Working on the Railroad and Other Experiences.
Funnels, Fun, and Funny.
The "Morning After" Club.
Things to Never Tell Momma.
"He Still Owes Me Money!" and Other Financial Lessons.
Tear Down the Wall? Why it all Matters.



Using this thesis, subject, title, and subtitles I can construct an entire structure and outline for my new book. Yes, I have heavily borrowed references from Pink Floyd's old The Wall album in which Another Brick in the Wall was the title of the main trilogy. But, properly notated and credited I can succeed with it. Since the 1979 album, now CD, The Wall, confronts authority, education, and the system, it is a reference that will heavily convey the underlying message of the thesis: the real value is in the individual rather than the system.

As a nonfiction writer, the juxtaposition of The Wall's ignorant mantra, "We don't need no education," with the thesis serves as a creative way to catch and keep the reader's attention. Between the first two subtitles and the last subtitle are other subtitles that will later serve as chapters to more clearly define for the reader the why, where, and how of the value of external experiences in the process of higher education.

Incorporating Pink Floyd's ending, "Tear Down the Wall" into the last subtitle helps to wrap up the writer's assertions from the thesis. While its incorporation at the end also paints Pink Floyd's conclusion as an absurd notion since the writer concludes and emphasizes the value of the most mundane outside the halls of higher education, the implication of it helps to strengthen the writer's assertions.

While such creative practices take time to develop, they are not outside of the acceptable realm of nonfiction writing. If you think it is, then ask yourself why you see so much social context referencing in the titles and subtitles of magazine and newspaper articles. Simply put, it helps the nonfiction writer get the attention of the reader and it helps to make a connection with the reader. Using another work of art, music, or fiction as a juxtaposition reference in the context of nonfiction writing does not diminish the facts or seriousness of your nonfiction content. You should, however, not expect to jump straight into this style of writing as it takes time to develop a style conducive to creative borrowings.

Even a novice, however, can implement such strategic handling of social or artistic content if they use it as a basis for the titles, subtitles, and structure of their content. The key to doing so effectively is to avoid overdoing it. Too much explanation or too much implication ruins the impact of creative borrowing and diminishes your work's originality. To be an effective nonfiction writer, you must be original, even if you borrow a phrase or two or incite certain notions by referencing musical works.



Things to Remember about Your Titles and Subtitles


This subtitle references Pink Floyd's content in which Roger Waters writes, "By the way, which one is Pink?" Originally from the song Have a Cigar on the Wish You Were Here album, this line became a high form of sarcasm directed to those ignorant of Pink Floyd's material. In social context, it is a postmodern slap at the educated practice of assuming that two names together are, by definition, someone's formal name. In fact, Pink Floyd is the group's name and applies to no single person; it is also the reason that it is improper to write the two names as if they are a first and a last name. ]]>