[[GetPagetitle? &pageId = 2]]

<?php
/* GetPagetitle snippet */
$resource = $modx->getObject('modResource', $pageId));
return $resource->get('pagetitle');

<?php
/* GetPagetitle snippet */
/* build a new xPDOQuery object, similar to getObject() */
$query = $modx->newQuery('modResource', $pageId);

/* indicate you only want to select the pagetitle column */
$query->select('pagetitle');

/* prepare the PDOStatement and execute it directly */
if ($query->prepare() && $query->stmt->execute()) {
    /* use PDOStatement->fetchColumn() to just get the first column of 
           the current row of the result set */
    return($query->stmt->fetchColumn());
}