和常见错误。在此基础上，作者从华北电力大学硕士生论文库随机抽取了电气、动力、工

商管理、计算机技术和科学、环境工程等专业硕士研究生毕业论文标题共一百例，对其英

文标题的结构及常见错误进行了定量分析，统计了各结构的使用率，并分析了其中出现的

错误及错误的比率。据统计结构表明，在英文标题写作中，本校学习者倾向于使用名词短

语结构，其次是非谓语动词结构。在常见错误中，本校学习者经常会在标题前面加上冗余

词组；其次是英文标题过长，不方便读者阅读和理解；而在结构的选择，学术论文中应尽

量避免出现句子结构和介词短语结构。最后，本文针对毕业论文英文标题的写作提出：尽

量使标题简洁明了，多选取名词短语结构；控制论文英文标题的长度，使其保持在

20

词

之内；注意使用一般现在时和被动语态；选取缩 略词要符合国际标准化组织要求。

关键词：学术英语标题

结构

常见错误

注意事项

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Chapter One Introduction

A. Research Background

Over the past several decades, with the internet making great progress, a large quantity of

information include articles has been produced to show the human-beings achievements and

success. However, an universal inevitable problem the people face is that the time available is

not sufficient for them to read through all those papers to find out whether they could meet their

needs. Therefore, a number of written forms known as abridged edition come into being in

history. Title, being one of them was bought up to existence to appear as a most useful means to

solve this problem. Several scholars have made this point clear that title is a very essential part of

a academic paper. Later it is believed to be a useful tool to deal with the ever increasing

information flow in the circle of science. Accounting to the survey of the American

advertisement specialists, the number of people who read the paper`s title is more than five times

of the people who read the whole paper. Therefore to make the academic title play

critical

The research of theme/ topic began from the mid-19th century, and this concept originated

from the research of logic described by the ancient Greek scholar. Representatives in the early

theme- researching are Mathesius(1882 - 1945) and Danes(1974) , founders of Prague School

which appeared in half of the 20th century. Mathesius described the difference between the

clause`s starting point and the theme in the research of Functional Sentence Perspective. He

believed that a sentence`s starting point is discourse from the theme, which can coincidence with

subject of the sentence, or just part of it.

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In most previous studies on titles, ―genre analysis‖ has been emphasized with attention

being given to words, syntax, and other linguistic features. Several researchers, for instance,

Graetz (1985) have theoretically investigated the structure of research article titles. Dick (Dick,

1977, 1981) noted that title has the sequence characteristics. He believes that the theme is

organizing the whole information of the segments. Most researchers at home have mainly

focused on the linguistic features in titles, such as, in Tian `s(

田俊英，

2008) study, medical

English titles has been carried out with the focus on the common structure and English

translation. Bai (

拜小剡，

2010) has conducted an investigation of the discourse analysis of

Chinese pharmaceutical paper`s English title. In Li`s (

李绍宠，

2000) research, the tense and the

rhetoric are the main concern. Su (

苏四清，

2002) put her attention on the styles of literature of

academic paper titles.

Due to the importance of titles, many foreign researchers have carried out relative study

concerning its significance, evaluation, rhetorical structure, and other aspects. For example, Day

(1995:29-32) has discussed the way to write and publish a scientific paper, and Goutsos (1997)

elaborates the mode of the discourse`s title systematically from linear and hierarchical aspects.

While in China, Liu(

刘前进，

2003) has studied the functions and features of English titles;

Zong(

宗兰英，

2009) has studied the translation of academic papers from Chinese to English; He

(

何岚兰，

2009) has given a contrastive study of English titles written in English and Chinese.

Apart

from

that,

much

work

has

been

done

by

researchers

from

home

and

abroad

on

academic journal titles from different angles. One is prescriptive study of academic journal titles,

that is, putting forward the requirements from the angle of academic criterion. Wu Jinming, Zhu

Yaoshun(2008) played a major role in this field. Another is from linguistic angle, taking titles as

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< br>

a kind

of descriptive study. Here,

Li

Guirong (2004) has

described the tense, voice, and other

specific language features on microcosmic level. And also Ling Min (2000) has proved into the

macroscopically stylistic structure of academic titles.

Although

more

and

more

scholars

began

to

aware

of

the

importance

of

investigating

the

title,

and

carried

out

great

numbers

of

experiments

on

titles

from

many

different

aspects,

and

their works also prove useful in the practice of writing titles, they have limitations on the scope

of the study. What

is

more, the researches of the structural

sorts and main

errors of

academic

paper`s

English

title

are

seldom

mentioned.

The

present

study

will

focus

on

the

analysis

of

structural sorts of academic English titles, which is also becoming reasonable and practical.

B. Significance and Objectives of the Research

According to the standards and requirements of academic paper`s title writing, the present

study will examine 100 pieces of English titles written by Chinese non-English major graduate

students.

The special objectives of this thesis are as follows:

Objective 1

To classify the main structural sorts of academic paper`s English

titles

Objective 2

To

give a detailed tables of the every structural sort`s percentage

in academic paper`s English titles

Objectives 3

To point out the main errors in samples and give a detailed tables of

every type errors

Objective 4

Objective 5

To find out the issues needing attention in title writing

To put forward some suggestions for further study

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The reason why this paper focuses on the structural sorts in title writing is that titles play an

important role in academic papers. It is the summary of the content of the whole paper, and can

serve as a useful means to help the reader immediately find out the key information and capture

the main idea of the paper. What`s more, a

very intelligent academic paper is important, making

a good title is even more important.

More

significantly,

this

investigation

is

suggestive

and

helpful

for

writing

a

good

piece

of

title.

By

classifying

the

main

sorts

of

the

English

title

and

pointing

out

the

issues

needing

attention, it is especially useful for Chinese learners of English to notice their own problems in

title writing, choose appropriate sots and decided which sort of title can be used correctly.

C. Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one serves as an introduction to this study.

Chapter

two

is

the

part

of

literature

review.

It

looks

back

on

previous

studies

of

title

writing.

Chapter three expresses

the requirements

and standards of English titles. Chapter four

gives

a

detailed discussion of the structural sorts and main errors of English titles. In chapter five, some

issues

needing

attentions

in

English

titles

are

present,

which

can

help

the

readers

to

avoid

making

mistakes

in

further

study.

Finally,

a

conclusion

is

drawn

in

the

sixth

chapter,

major

findings, and limitations of this study are stated. Moreover, some suggestions for further study

are proposed.

4

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华北电力大学

2010

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Chapter two Literature Review

A. The Notion of English Titles

Though researchers have made quite different definitions of title, they all agree to several

basic ideas. Titles are the eyes of articles. If we want to write effective and impressive academic

articles, we have to be good at writing impressive titles. A good title should be short and specific

to the document's content so that it can be used as a title for a user's bookmark, a title for the

display window, and a link from a search engine.

A good title may have a role of ―adding the

finishing touch‖ to the whole paper. Titles are the first part of the whole paper which is read by

readers. Thus to every author, it is necessary to spend his efforts to work out an excellent title. In

addition, the proper expression of authors‘ affiliation is also very important

and a suggested

limitation for the number of words in a title is 15 to 20.

B. General Functions of English Titles

With the advent of title databases, many readers will see the title separately from the rest of

the paper. Therefore, writing an excellent title is vital to encourage them to obtain the full paper,

read it, and cite it. The writer needs to get the attention of the readers with the title making them

interested in his work, for the title is the first impression of your paper. A well- written title will

surely bring a good mark to your paper in the reader`s mind, better chances to be quoted by other

colleagues. If we regard a paper as a store, then the title is its door. If the storekeeper wants to

make the people enter the store for shopping, he should have a beautiful door to attract the

people. Similarly, if the writer wants to make the person this article, he should choose a good

title. Obviously, the relationship between a title and a paper is as well as a name and a person.

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However, the analogy between these two pairs dose not reveal the function of a title entirely,

because though a name , people cannot know the characters of the person who own this name.

Yet from a simple door, it is difficult to say clearly weather the store is good or bad. But from a

title, people can know the general content of the text. A title can be vividly described as the

―Abstra

ct of an Abstract.

thesis`s special content through proper, concise and logical words.

The title is the summary and showcase of one paper. Therefore, the quality of paper`s title

directly affect the rates of the retrieval and frequency of citation. A good title is not only arose

the readers` interesting but also increase the retrieval`s rate.

1. Summarizing the Text

A

title

should

summarize

the

central

idea

of

the

paper

concisely

and

correctly.

It

must

be

consistent with the contents of the document, and be highly representative of the central idea of

the paper. By scanning the title, the reader will immediately capture the important information.

Therefore, the title should be too different and impressed to be missed by the readers when they

want to find some information in the given field.

For example,

Silence is Killing You Company

-----

《沉默正 在毁掉你的公司》

。

From this title

，

the reader can know that the writer want to express that a good and active work environment is

very important for a company.

A title should use the most succinct and definite words to condense and summarize the whole

paper. So it must have a strong general function. In a word, capitalize all the words in a title

-

except all the articles, coordinate conjunctions, and prepositions, regardless of length.

2. Attracting the Reader

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There is so much information which as vast as the open sea in this internet world, and each

one does not have sufficient time to read all of these me

ssages. ―How do I go for more readers‖

is every writer`s question. Thus an interesting title is necessary. When writing your title, think of

your audience. The title should be easy for them to understand, as well as appeal to them. For

example: If you are writing for teens, your title should appeal to that age group; and if you are

writing for adults, your title should be attractive enough for them to want to read on. It may draw

particular

attention

among

readers,

for

only

when

readers

are

interested

in

the

title

will

they

decide to read the whole paper. On the contrary, a less attractive title will cause the loss of a large

number

of

readers

of

the

paper.

Ideally

the

title

should

be

such

that,

by

reading

it,

any

professional reader can see whether the paper is worth reading at all.

In the social sciences titles, writers can use the rhetoric methods on semantics, structure and

meaning to make it more beautiful. Through the semantics rhetoric such as metaphor, allusion,

hyperbole,

metonymy,

irony

and

contrast,

and

the

structure

rhetoric

like

parallelism

and

antithesis, the artistic effect can be seen. For example, a title,

A Tale of Two Hearts

---

《两颗心的

故事》

，

telling

the

story

of

that

one

person

exchange

one

artificial

heart,

is

coming

Charles

Dickens`s

famous

work,

A

Tale

of

Two

Cities

---

《双城记》

.

When

the

readers

scan

the

information, they may be attracted by this title, and read the whole paper. The title is the most

important

aspect

of

writing.

A

good

title

is

what

decides

whether

your

work

will

be

read

or

passed by. Make it powerful enough to attract readers, yet simple and clear enough to appeal to

them.

3. Facilitating the Retrieval

With the development of the internet, the quantity of the information is increased by a light

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speed. Therefore, the people should find out a useful way to inquire about the information which

they need, and the title is proved to be up to the mustard of the retrieval demand. A good title can

help

the

readers

find

the

useful

information

in

shortest

time.

During

the

process

of

the

paper

retrieval the title is always the first piece of information the reader acquires. So a title serves as

an important index of information retrieval to meet the needs of extensive paper communication

and

information

dissemination.

For

example,

if

we

want

to

find

some

message

about

―The

Functions of Titles

‖, we can taping this title in the search engine, then there are a great number

of

papers

about

this

title

appeared

in

which

we

can

chase

down

the

information

matched

our

demand.

C. Linguistic Features of English Titles

As

the

eye,

title,

concise,

vivid

and

free,

has

played

an

important

role

in

report.

English

titles

have

been

uniquely

endowed

with

connotation

and

expression,

representing

certain

aesthetic

and

informative

functions,

which

can

enlighten

the

papers.

Starting

from

the

comprehensive study of the characteristics of English paper titles in terms of language, rhetoric

and cultural connotation, the article attempts to explore and summarize features of English titles.

An English title, as a kind of genre, has its own unique linguistic features, such as, language

formality, special words choice, and the incomplete sentence, etc.

1. Language Formality

The English titles of the thesis generally have strong academic technicality. Therefore, their

language tends to use formal style. From the perspective of the vocabulary, the form language

style could be embodied from two aspects. Firstly, the vocabulary is mostly derived from Latin

or

Greek

languages,

for

those

words

have

the

characteristics

of

serious,

strict

and

standard,

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which are more formal than general English. Secondly, the words or phrase used in a title are

often nouns, noun phrases, or gerunds, nominalization, which usually are keywords for the paper,

having

the

ability

to

sum

up

the

whole

text.

For

example,

we

may

easily

find

such

titles

as

Database Logic, Growth Mechanism and Treatment for Defect Removal, Writing and Publishing

Professional Papers,

etc.

2. Special Words Choice

Except the formality characteristic, there are some special words choices. The title`s concise

made it is necessary to use some midget words to replace the difficult ones. Therefore the verbs,

nouns and noun phrases with short glyphs, few syllables have been chosen usually, which made

the

titles

have

the

vivid

impression

and

attractiveness.

In

titles,

“

aid

”

always

replaces

“

assistance

”

; and

“

ban

”

is often used to substitute for

“

prohibit

”

and

“

forbid

”

; and

“

end

”

takes place of

“

t erminate

”

. And the writer always choose

“

data transmission systems (

数据传

输系统

)

”

and

“

hall

form

design

methodology

(

壳体式设计方法

)

”