Page 217 - English for Writing Research Papers

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12.3 Should I use prepositions in my title?
Most titles of more than about five words require prepositions. The table below

explains the typical meanings of prepositions in titles, and gives some examples
with and without prepositions.

poor / incorrect
meaning english good english
by how something is Fast computing machines Equation of state calculations
done equation of state calculations by fast computing machines
for for the purpose Depression measuring An inventory for measuring
of inventory depression
from the origin of Antonio Gramsci prison Selections from the prison
notebooks selections notebooks of Antonio Gramsci
in where something Vertical fl ux of ocean Vertical fl ux of particles in the
is located, particles ocean
what something Classical theory of Crack problems in the classical
regards elasticity crack problems theory of elasticity
of belonging to, Reality social construction The social construction of reality
regarding
Model dimension Estimating the dimension of a
estimation model
Cancer causes: cancer The causes of cancer: quantitative
avoidable risks quantitative estimates of avoidable risks of
estimates cancer

Even if you don’t understand the exact meaning of the above titles, the important
thing to note is that the use of prepositions helps the reader to understand how the
various elements in the title are related to each other. Also note that rewriting a title
so that it contains prepositions may involve adding a/an or the . Such cases are
underlined in the table.

I have given more examples of the preposition of than for the other prepositions

because the non-use of of tends to create more difficulties for the reader than any
other preposition.

Do not worry if you use the same preposition more than once in the same title. For
example of is used three times in the last title in the table above. This is perfectly
acceptable and is not considered bad style in English.