I am yet to meet one student whose title did not go through countless transformations! It leaves me wondering what is in a title. Mine has changed thrice. During the proposal defense, I was recalled to the room for my results to find a suggested title and I liked it! Sounded very smart and scholarly. Last my supervisor communicated about my thesis, comment number one was, ‘We will finalize the thesis title once everything has been concluded.’ And I am thinking, ‘In which part of my brain is this final title embedded so that I can retrieve and present on that final day?’ The beauty with my academic home and from my experience so far, I do not walk alone. My supervisors walk with me. So, I am not overly worried. However, I try as often as possible to keep refining it. I have seen many comments on online Ph.D. support groups on titles that change even after the viva voce!
So, what is in a title? How did you manage to come up with an acceptable title? Did you escape a Wahala moment so that a title just implanted itself in your mind? I have learned several things about a title that I am using to keep refining mine.
A proper title will defend itself. It will speak for itself. However, what I have seen in academic circles, especially in journal articles, are titles racing towards complexity. Some titles need to be read ten times before they can be understood. Granted, some disciplines endear themselves to complex issues, concepts, and jargon, so cannot use any other language. Nevertheless, most do not require those long-winded jargon-filled titles. I realize that I only require a simple title that does not mislead the reader to believe what my thesis is not about. The reader should immediately pick the focus of my study and my area of interest by just reading the title.
A good title is descriptive and specific, avoiding generalities. A good title should be consistent with the rest of my thesis. A good title is precise, where every single word counts. No wonder I am limited concerning the number of words my title should have. I resist the urge to demonstrate poetic language in my title because the reader may end up following the language instead of the content therein. I know I am guilty of this, especially within the text. Sometimes I get carried away and include a little bit of Shakespeare before I come to my senses and begin the laborious process of cleaning up.
There are certain components that should feature in my title. Generally, examples of components include the dependent and independent variables, population, methodology, geographic location, purpose, etc. Each component should tell the reader something about my research. However, I learn that I need not have all in my study. Our studies are different and should be handled differently. For example, Ibrahim Salimu had a very simple but powerful title that does not contain all the aforementioned components: The Historical Development of Minna Town in Nigeria, 1976 to 2015. A beautifully written thesis and wonderful to consume too. Only 11 words summarize this creative piece. The title is only concerned with the purpose, which is the historical development of the town. It is devoid of variables often found in quantitative studies.
The title should not be too broad or too narrow. A title that is too broad might overwhelm me, while a narrow one means I have not expended myself as expected. It might even be dismissed as a below-average title.
There are also other considerations such as whether my study is inductive (qualitative) or deductive (quantitative). You can tell them apart since inductive titles show the author’s attempt to uncover a phenomenon, as demonstrated in the example of Minna town above. On the other hand, if the title falls in the deductive realm, it will contain words that quantify such as relationship, comparison, evaluation, influence, etc.
Lastly, I have promised myself that I will not allow a badly written, ungrammatical title to see the light of day. The grammar, the punctuation, the diction all matter. I am aware of my university’s citation style which I have faithfully followed. Some citation styles allow capitalization of each word except verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. Others only capitalize the initial word and proper nouns. I also learn that I should avoid unnecessary words, abbreviations, and as much as possible, formulate my own style.
To summarize, Hairston and Keene (2003) suggest that a good title should predict the thesis’ content, interest the reader, reflect the tone of writing, and contain important keywords that can easily be located during a keyword search.
Looking at my title, I can see I still have plenty of unfinished business even as I get nearer to the finish line. My title, as is currently constituted, is quite a mouthful. It needs serious surgery as I realize the more succinct, tight, and concise it is, the better for me, my supervisors, and the final defense panel.
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