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Writing The Title For Your Thesis

The document discusses important considerations for writing an effective title for a thesis or research paper. An effective title should be clear, informative, and reflect the aim and approach of the work without mentioning results or conclusions. It should describe the topic and method in a concise yet specific way. Examples of good and poor titles are provided to illustrate titles that meet or do not meet criteria of predictability, interest, tone, and inclusion of important keywords. Tips are given such as keeping the title concise while describing the topic, method, sample, and results using important keywords but avoiding unnecessary words or jargon.

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John Osborne
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186 views2 pages

Writing The Title For Your Thesis

The document discusses important considerations for writing an effective title for a thesis or research paper. An effective title should be clear, informative, and reflect the aim and approach of the work without mentioning results or conclusions. It should describe the topic and method in a concise yet specific way. Examples of good and poor titles are provided to illustrate titles that meet or do not meet criteria of predictability, interest, tone, and inclusion of important keywords. Tips are given such as keeping the title concise while describing the topic, method, sample, and results using important keywords but avoiding unnecessary words or jargon.

Uploaded by

John Osborne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WRITING THE TITLE FOR YOUR THESIS

The title will be read by many people. Only a few will read the entire paper, therefore all words in the title
should be chosen with care. Too short a title is not helpful to the potential reader. However too long a title can
sometimes be even less meaningful. Remember a title is not an abstract. Also a title is not a sentence.
 The title should be clear and informative, and should reflect the aim and approach of the work.
 The title should be as specific as possible while still describing the full range of the work. Does the title, seen
in isolation, give a full yet concise and specific indication of the work reported?
 Do not mention results or conclusions in the title.
 Avoid: overly clever or punny titles that will not fare well with search engines or international audiences;
titles that are too short to be descriptive or too long to be read; jargon, acronyms, or trademarked terms.

Let’s look at some examples.


Imagine that you are researching meditation and nursing, and you want to find out if any studies have shown
that meditation makes nurses better communicators. You conduct a keyword search using the keywords
“nursing”, “communication”, and “meditation.” You come up with results that have the following titles:

1. Benefits of Meditation for the Nursing Profession: A Quantitative Investigation


2. Why Mindful Nurses Make the Best Communicators
3. Meditation Gurus
4. Nurses on the Move: A Quantitative Report on How Meditation Can Improve Nurse Performance

All four of these titles may describe very similar studies—they could even be titles for the same study! As you
can see, they give very different impressions.

 Title 1 describes the topic and the method of the study but is not particularly catchy.
 Title 2 partly describes the topic, but does not give any information about the method of the study—it
could simply be a theoretical or opinion piece.
 Title 3 is somewhat catchier but gives almost no information at all about the article.
 Title 4 begins with a catchy main title and is followed by a subtitle that gives information about the
content and method of the study.

Characteristics of a Good Research Title


The title of a research paper should accomplish the following 4 criteria:

1. It should predict the content of the research paper.


2. It should be interesting to the reader.
3. It should reflect the tone of the writing.
4. It should contain important keywords that will make it easier to be located during a keyword search.

Look at the 4 titles and decide which meets all the criteria. Title 4 meets all the criteria
Tips for Writing an Effective Research Paper Title
When writing a research title, you can use the four criteria listed above as a guide. Here are a few other tips
you can use:

1. Make sure your research title describes (a) the topic, (b) the method, (c) the sample, and (d) the results
of your study. You can use the following formula:
[Result]: A [method] study of [topic] among [sample]
Example: Meditation makes nurses perform better: a qualitative study of mindfulness meditation among
German nursing students

2. Avoid unnecessary words and jargons. Keep the title statement as concise as possible. You want a title
that will be comprehensible even to people who are not experts in your field.
3. Use the fewest possible words that describe the contents of the paper. 15 words might be a maximum.
4. Use a descriptive phrase to convey the purpose of your research efficiently.
5. Most importantly, use critical keywords in the title.
6. Avoid waste words like "Studies on", or "Investigations on"
7. Do not end the title with a question mark.
8. Do not include abbreviations in the title.

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