Title page

The title and the title page guide the reader to the text and secondly, it should help the reader decide whether or not to read the text. As such, the title has to attract attention to the essence of the text by simultaneously indicating the general area, the specific feature(s), and the nature of the text.

Contents of the title page

  • The title
  • Author’s name (or names)
  • The date the text was submitted
  • The company or person commissioning the text in the first place

For information on Chalmers specific requirements as concerns the title page, see Design and Publish Master’s Thesis.

The title

This is one of the most important decisions you will make about your text. Therefore the title should:

  • help the reader decide whether to read the text
  • contain the key words of the thesis
  • indicate the topic, the scope (the range covered by the text) and the objective of the text
  • be specific and concise

Table 1: Example titles and their effectiveness

Example Remarks
Effects of Building a Second Tunnel Unspecific: This title tells the reader very little. Which tunnel is it? In which specific areas have effects been investigated? Does the report provide background for a decision or is it a mere evaluation? Title needs to be revised and be more specific.
Negative Environmental Effects of a Future Second Tunnel between France and England This title is more specific in identifying the topic, scope and objective of the text.
Contains useful keywords for automatic archiving so that it is easy to retrieve the text in, for example, a web-search. Keywords are also important for the abstract and many of the keywords that do not fit the title should appear in the abstract instead.
Tips

•Avoid using a complete sentence in the title

•Avoid abbreviations and acronyms unless they are widely known

•Acceptable length of titles varies across disciplines

•Titles may include subtitles or can use a colon (:) to separate two ideas in a title if it makes the title more informative or effective

 

Capitalization in titles?

There are two options for this:

  1. Capitalize the first letters of all significant words (lexical words). Do not capitalize articles, insignificant prepositions (e.g. in, on , by) nor conjunctions (e.g. and, but) e.g. Variation of Moisture Induced Movements in Norway Spruce 
  2. Only capitalize the first letter and proper nouns e.g. Variation of moisture induced movements in Norway Spruce