Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Shortening a title without changing its meaning

+1
−0

Essentially, I want to change:

Managing a lot of people is a very difficult problem

to:

Lot of people, difficult problem

I understand that when you shorten a title, it will become more vague, but sometimes, I feel like when you shorten it too much the meaning becomes too uncertain or difficult to guess, is there a consensus on how to do this properly or perhaps a widespread practice on how to do this properly, that I am not aware of?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44248. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

2 answers

+0
−0

Management Difficulties Scale with Headcount

Titles follow the same rule as billboard advertisements: no more than 7 words; no matter what their size. Scientifically speaking, billboard comprehension rates drop off a cliff after 7 words.

Apply the same rule to your titles.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

+0
−0

It's fine to shorten but only when the reader can fill in the blank.

So far, you have:

Managing a lot of people is a very difficult problem
to
Lot of people, difficult problem

In this example, you have 3 concepts:

  1. It's about managing people
  2. There are a lot of people
  3. It's hard

The most important of these is the first, that your article is about management. Yet it's the one you dropped in your title revision. "Lot of people, difficult problem" can be about anything. Even if you know from context it's about a workplace (and not about, say, overpopulation), it could be about noise levels or fitting in enough desks/cubicles or the fact that you don't have enough bathrooms. All those can be legit articles about work.

I would drop the third concept, that it's hard. Because that is implied by the fact that you are dedicating an entire article to it.

This leaves you with:

Managing a lot of people

It's a boring title, but it's got all 3 concepts in it (the 3rd is implied). And it's half the length of the old one.

I'll leave it to you to make the title more interesting, and more focused (since you're presumably not covering everything about managing multiple people), because the job of Writing.SE isn't to rewrite for you. Instead, it's to help you work through it.

What are the concepts you are trying to convey? Which are the most vital? Which can be dropped because they're implied? Which can be dropped because they're unnecessary in the title?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »