diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3384858..d2e7bfa 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 node_modules
 test/.env
 coverage
+package-lock.json
diff --git a/.npmignore b/.npmignore
index c1925a8..4da9807 100644
--- a/.npmignore
+++ b/.npmignore
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ node_modules
 .npmignore
 test/.env
 coverage
+package-lock.json
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index fb16459..0d567e8 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ before_install:
 after_success:
   - npm run report
 node_js:
-  - '5.7.0'
+  - '9'
+  - '5'
 git:
   depth: 3
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a8c437b..90b882c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ npm install --save winston-datadog
 Examples
 --------
 
-###Basic setup
+### Basic setup
 ```javascript
 const winston = require('winston');
 const DatadogTransport = require('winston-datadog');
@@ -26,13 +26,13 @@ const ddTransport = new DatadogTransport({
 });
 const logger = new winston.Logger({
     transports: [
-        ddTransport 
+        ddTransport
     ]
 });
 
 ```
 
-###Receiving Results from Datadog
+### Receiving Results from Datadog
 ```javascript
 ddTransport.receiveResults(logger);
 logger.on('DatadogResult', (res) => {
@@ -46,10 +46,12 @@ logger.on('DatadogResult', (res) => {
 // ddTransport.receiveResults();
 ```
 
-###Event Options
+### Event Options
 ```javascript
 var ddTransport = new Datadog({ ... });
-//set the new title to use
+//have the text be used in place of title (default: false)
+ddTransport.useTextAsTitle = true;
+//or...set the new title to use
 ddTransport.options.title = 'My Custom Title';
 //set the new tags to use
 ddTransport.options.tags = ['env:local', 'version:1', 'region:us-west-1'];
@@ -61,7 +63,7 @@ ddTransport.resetOptions();
 ```
 
 
-###Permanently Override Default Options
+### Permanently Override Default Options
 In case you have multiple instances of the transport running and/or find you need to permanently change the default `DatadogTransport.Options`
 ```javascript
 var DatadogTransport = require('winston-datadog');
@@ -75,7 +77,7 @@ console.log(ddTransport.options.title);
 ```
 
 
-###Loglevels
+### Loglevels
 
 When Winston passes logs off to the Datadog transport, winston-datadog will map the log type (info, warn, error, etc...) to the corresponding `ddTransport.options.alert_type`. A check will be done to see if the log type exists in `ddTransport.loglevels`, if found it will override the default log type sent from winston. We have to do this, for isntance, in order to map Winston->warn() to DatadogTransport->warning();
 
@@ -126,6 +128,7 @@ Each Datadog Transport instance will expose the following options via `ddTranspo
 
 Updates
 -------
+* Added new feature [useTextAsTitle](https://github.com/sparkida/winston-datadog/pull/2) / updated for NodeJS 9 - @v1.1.0 08:30 PST Nov 27th, 2017
 * Adds name to winston transports - @v1.0.2 09:03 PDT Feb 28th, 2016
 * Stable Release - @v1.0.1 21:58 PDT Feb 27th, 2016
 * Initial Release - 20:11 PDT Feb 27th, 2016
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 6c816e1..8cda0cf 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -26,12 +26,14 @@ class Transport { //jshint ignore:line
         var paths = Transport.API_ENDPOINT.split('/').filter(Boolean);
         api.name = 'Datadog';
         api.attachResults = false;
+        //set to true to force transport to use text in place of the title
+        api.useTextAsTitle = false;
         api.requestOptions = {
             port: paths[0] === 'https:' ? 443 : 80,
             hostname: paths[1],
-            path: format('/%s/v%d/events?%s', 
-                    paths[2], 
-                    Transport.API_VERSION, 
+            path: format('/%s/v%d/events?%s',
+                    paths[2],
+                    Transport.API_VERSION,
                     qs.stringify(credentials)),
             method: 'POST',
             headers: {
@@ -92,6 +94,11 @@ class Transport { //jshint ignore:line
         });
         var opts = api.options;
         opts.alert_type = loglevel;
+
+        if (api.useTextAsTitle) {
+            opts.title = text;
+        }
+
         //efficient way to check if object is empty or error
         if (data instanceof Error) {
             opts.text = text + (text.length ? ' | ' + data.stack : data.stack);
@@ -127,7 +134,7 @@ Transport.prototype.loglevels = {
     warn: 'warning'
 };
 
-/** 
+/**
  * Exposes endpoint options for Data-Dog
  * @const
  */
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 5a86c7a..7bde114 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "winston-datadog",
-  "version": "1.0.2",
+  "version": "1.1.0",
   "description": "Super light transport for logging Datadog events",
   "main": "index.js",
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/test/.env.sample b/test/.env.sample
index d02a3b1..642e39c 100644
--- a/test/.env.sample
+++ b/test/.env.sample
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-DD_API_KEY=''
-DD_APPLICATION_KEY=''
+DD_API_KEY=
+DD_APPLICATION_KEY=