Section 3.3.1

Title and Title Page

Begin every technical document except a memorandum with a clear and specific title. Prospectivereaders may judge whether your document will be worth their time just be reading the title. Thesubject line of a memo serves as the title.

Long formal documents have a separate title page. For shorter documents, a title page may berequired, optional, or unnecessary, depending on the specific context and conventions in your field.

A title page should include the title, the author or authors, their affiliation (if appropriate), and thedate. It may also include additional information, such as a specific grant or project number.

See

for sample titles and Research Reports for an example of aformal title page.

• Use descriptive titles. The title of your document should be detailed enough to give a specific idea of what is covered. This level of specificity is not always easy to achieve. Probably the most common problem with titles is vagueness, as in the following example.

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Weak

Solar Absorption by Clouds

[Although this title identifies the categories treated, it could say more about how these categoriesare being treated.]

Improved

Direct Observation of Excess Solar Absorption by Clouds

[This expansion of the title makes clear what aspect of solar absorption is being treated in thepaper.]

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• Two-part titles are sometimes useful for complex topics. If you are having trouble getting everything into your title, consider a two-part title.

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Soot Morphology: An Application of Image Analysis in High-ResolutionTransmission Electron Microscopy

[This two-part title states the category of interest, followed by the specific approach of thereport.]

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• Avoid noun strings in titles. A common problem with titles is a list of nouns that are hard to sort out. Adding a preposition or two can help resolve this ambiguity.

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Weak

Dietary Nitrate and Nitrite Human Cancer Roles

[The title is ambiguous because it is hard to tell how all the nouns and adjectives are modifying "roles."]

Improved

The Roles of Dietary Nitrate and Nitritein Human Cancer

[The addition of two prepositions helps to rearrange the title in a much clearer sequence.]

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• On title pages of reports, include the title, author, date, and organization. In reports, the first page is devoted to the title and related information, usually in the following order:
Report title (generally centered at the top of the page)

Author's name (generally centered underneath the title)

Author's organization

Date of publication

Receiving agency or organization (if submitted to a sponsor or funding agency)

## Title and Title Page ##


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