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How to Title Your Research Paper – nursingschoolessays

The title of your research paper is your shop front. So if it doesn’t appeal to your reader they won’t read further. So, ensure you don’t make any of these common mistakes. Below are tips to help you avoid making mistakes.

Tips to Help you Title Your Paper

1. Describe the main result of the paper in the title

Different from headlines in magazines and newspapers, the title of a research paper isn’t as much a teaser. Your reader wants to know what exactly you added to the field. It isn’t enough to just give them hint about the general topic area. For this, it is important to know your main message. In fact, this is crucial for the whole paper writing process.

2. Do not put too much detail on the title

This happens either when people want to cram in too much information, or when they are unclear about their main message. Sometimes authors also try to convey several key messages instead of focusing on the main one.

3. The title should be short

Long titles take longer to read and comprehend. A study found that papers get more views and citations if the title contains fewer than 95 characters.

4. The title should be specific

If you provide a title that isn’t very specific, your reader won’t know if your article provides what they are looking for. Here, it counts to maintain a balance between being general enough for your target audience (see mistake 9) and specific enough to convey your key result (see mistake 1). Being specific in your title is also important for indexing purposes. So, make sure to provide the most important keyword(s) of your paper in the title.

5. Title should not contain question marks, hyphens and colons

By phrasing your title as a question, you merely present your research question instead of your key message. If people include a colon or hyphen in their title they often present too much detail (mistake 2) or they chose a title too broad and general (mistake 4). If you need more convincing, the study I cited earlier also found that papers receive fewer citations if they contain question marks, hyphens or colons.

6. The title should be noun-heavy

You only have seconds to tell potential readers what your study is about. So, it’s important to make it easy for them. If your title is full of nouns, it will take your reader longer to read and comprehend than if it contains a verb. Chances are your reader will just give up without even considering opening your paper. However, not all journals permit using active verbs (“Eating spinach strengthens the teeth” – I made this up). Therefore, be sure to check the journal guidelines (see also mistake 10).

7. Avoid filler words

The goal is to make your title as short as possible (see mistake 2). Don’t waste the space with phrases such as “an observation of” or “a study of” or filler words such as “on…” (as in “On the energy efficiency of solar cells…”). Tell the reader instead what you observed or what your study found (see mistake 1). Be specific about your result (see mistake 4).

8. Do not use acronyms in the title

A general rule is to always spell out acronyms. If your reader doesn’t know what an acronym means they are more likely to discard your paper. Nobody wants to do extra research. That said, it’s worth knowing your target audience. Perhaps there are some abbreviations or acronyms that you can expect the readership of the journal to know?

9.  The level of jargon should match the target audience

This is linked to the previous point. Always consider the audience of the journal you intend to publish in. If it is read by biologists, geologists, chemists and physicists all the same, you need to make sure they can all understand your title. Just be careful to not make your title too general, it should still reflect your specific result.

10.  The title should adhere to the journal guidelines

Students and clients to do before they start writing is to check the journal guidelines. Most journals have either strict rules or recommendations on how long a title should be and what they should or shouldn’t contain. For example, Nature doesn’t permit any acronyms, or active verbs.

We hope that these tips will help you in crafting good titles. If you require an assistance in crafting paper titles, visit essaylords.us.

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