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12.4 Are articles ( a / an, the ) necessary?

Although a title is not generally a complete sentence, it does have to be grammati-
cally correct. This means that it must have articles where necessary, even though
this will increase the length of the title.

S1. *Survey of importance of improving design of internal systems
S2. A survey of the importance of improving the design of internal systems

S1 is not correct English. A general rule of English is that a countable noun that is
in the singular must be preceded by an article. In S1, survey is a singular countable
noun, so it must be preceded by either a or the . In S2, a is the correct choice because
we are not referring to a survey that the reader already knows about. An example of
where the would be necessary is in S3, which is part of a literature review:

S3. Two surveys on x have been reported in the literature: the survey conducted by Williams
is more comprehensive than the survey carried out by Evans,

In S3, the author is referring to specific surveys, so the is obligatory.
Going back to S1, another general grammatical feature of English is that if you have
the following sequence of words: noun1 + of + noun2 , then noun1 is preceded by
the . This is because noun1 is used to specify noun2. This means that we need the
before importance and before design .

The last noun in S1 is countable but it is plural ( systems ) and unspecified (we know

that the systems are internal , but we do not know which internal systems they are).
In such cases, no article is required.

No the is required for uncountable nouns (i.e. lack, feedback and equipment in S4–S6).

S4. Lack of protective immunity against reinfection with hepatitis C virus
S5. Feedback and optimal sensitivity
S6. Vibration analysis for electronic equipment
There are some cases where the use or non-use of the changes the meaning of the
title.

S7. The factors that determine depression
S8. Factors that determine depression

S7 gives the idea that the author has made a comprehensive survey of depression and
has identifi ed all those factors that lead to depression. This makes the paper sound

like the final word on depression, i.e. this is the definitive article on depression.