Academic Writing
Features of academic writing: Research report titles
The title should be a phrase (not a complete sentence) that informs your reader about the content of the paper. It should not be too long, and it should not be so short that it is too vague and general. If you want to, you can add a subtitle after a colon. (Menasche, 1984, p. 78)
Although the title comes first in a research article, it will often be written last.
In general, a good title for a research article will (Swales & Feak, 1994, p. 378):
1. indicate the topic of the study.
2. indicate the scope of the study (neither overstating nor understating its significance).
3. be self-explanatory to readers in the chosen area.
Article titles should be “informative and precise, concise, easily classifiable and storable in databases, and reader-friendly” (Soler, 2011, p. 124)
Soler (2011) distinguishes four main title constructions:
1. Nominal group constructions
These are very common in scientific articles. This structure allows good compaction of the message but may be difficult to process and unclear.
Evidence in favour of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction.
2. Compound constructions
Compound constructions is useful to structure complex information, giving, for example, the main topic of the study and some details (e.g. the results).
Language policy, language education, language rights: Indigenous, immigrant and international perspectives.
3. Full sentence constructions
Full sentence constructions is useful in order to show the results of the research but they can be difficult to understand. They are vey common in scientific articles, but not common in Applied Linguistics, TESOL & Education.
Using the research article as a model for teaching laboratory report writing provides opportunities for development of genre awareness and adoption of new literacy practices.
4. Question constructions
Question constructions are useful to arouse the reader’s interest but it may be difficult to include all the necessary information (e.g. it is difficult to include the result).
Does grammaticalization need reanalysis?
Different disciplines, though, have different policies regarding titles. See, for example, Hyland & Zou (2022).