What is the correct title for Translation questions?

Question

You can get questions like this one, whose title is

Help translating a phrase from English to Latin

Or, you can get questions like this one, whose title is

Translating “I too can write in Latin”

Or, you can get questions like this one, whose title is

“Furthermore, I believe our salary should be abolished”

Is there a preferred title for such questions?

In my opinion, the first one is unhelpful (and yet, it has a lot of upvotes), for the sole reason that there are not many alternative options to ask such question, and it forces a visit. The third one is not ideal either, because it is not clear it is asking for translation. I would advocate for the second one.

Answer 1

The third one works because it's a play on a well-known quote (i.e. Cato's ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam).

I personally would prefer the second style over the first. In the second, you know right away what the question is about, and finding it when searching is easy.

Meanwhile, with little information in the first title, people going back to search for that question may find it difficult to differentiate between it and others like it. More information is needed.

Now, that does not mean what is to be translated must needs be in the title; however, some descriptor ought to be put forth plainly so that others can know and find it with ease.

Answer 2

I don't think we should have a "house style" for titling translation questions. Therefore I don't want to propose any general formula for titles.

Titles should describe the particular question as well as possible. Your first example title is too broad, and I would be happy if someone came up with a better one and edited it. Editing posts to improve them is always welcome, but in the case of significant edits to posts by recently active users I recommend confirming in comments or chat that the OP (original poster) is fine with the edits.

The second two examples are fine. Using a word like "Translating" to start the title is often good. It is often a good idea to try to extract some key idea or example and put it in the title; the title does not have to be the whole story. Especially for longer translations you need to describe the question, not write the whole passage for a title.

If you want to discuss retitling a particular question, bringing it up in our chat room is a good idea if it's too complicated for comments under the question in question. The best title is often found on a case-by-case basis.