Basic tips how to write a good title.

The structure of a research paper.

A research paper written for publication in one of International scientific journals is supposed to consist of the following sections:

1. Title

2. Abstract

3. Introduction

4. Material and Methods

5. Results

6. Discussion

7. Conclusions

8. Acknowledgements

9. References

Every paper starts with the Title, after that one can find the names of the authors, their affiliation, post and e-mail addresses and the institution where research was carried out. Then goes the Abstract, at the end of which there is a list of key words

Basic tips how to write a good title.

Browsers on the Internet looking for a paper may read hundreds of titles before they select an Abstract to read.

Every word in the title is important. The title should be easily found by a search engine or indexing system. It also must attract the right kind of readers. As a matter of fact it does not consist of a string of nouns and will be immediately comprehensible to anyone in your general field. It should be short and has a definite and concise indication of what it is written in the paper itself.

Usually titles are incomplete sentences but they can be in a question form as well. If the title is an incomplete sentence, no period is placed at the end of the sentence. If the title is a question, there must be a question mark.

All the words in the title should be capitalized, apart from articles, prepositions and conjunctions. If the title consists of two parts, they are divided by a colon. Remember, the first word after the colon is written with a capital letter no matter what part of speech it may be.

One important issue is use of the articles in the title. Although the title is more often an incomplete sentence, it should be grammatically correct. That’s why you can use either definite or indefinite articles if you need.

The prepositions that are frequently used in the title are by (how something is done), for (for the purpose of), from (the origin of), in/on (where something is located; what something regards) of (belonging to, regarding).

1. Remember: the title should consist of 6-10 words, the relevant key words included.

Think about the following questions:

• What have I found that will attract attention?

• What is new, different and interesting about my findings?

• What are the 3-5 key words that highlight what makes my research and my findings unique?

On the basis of your answers you should be able to formulate a title.

The key words in your title are likely to be nouns. So choose these nouns very carefully. Try to choose adjectives that indicate the unique features of your work.

Exercise I

1. How many words does the title consist of?

2. What parts of speech does it consist of?

3. Are there any keywords in the title?

4. What parts of speech are capitalized?

5. Are there any prepositions? What do they mean?

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