2. Composition

2.1 Titles

The purpose of a piece of scientific writing is to present information clearly and concisely so that it can be easily understood. Clarity therefore begins with the title.

In scientific and technical writing, a poetic or stylized title does not help the reader at all. For example, the following title

Hazards of smoking

does not tell the reader what exactly is the paper about. However, this title

Formation of tetrahydro-ß-carbolines in the oral cavity of smokers

tells the reader very clearly what the subject of the paper is.

Elements in a title

In technical and scientific writing the title is a precise description of the contents. It should include specific words to indicate the following:

the topic, that is, the main, general subject you are writing about
the focus, that is, a detailed narrowing down of the topic into the particular, limited area of your research
optionally, for a scientific article, the purpose of your writing. This means including a word such as the following, which tells the reader what kind of argumentation to expect:
An Analysis of...
An Assessment of...
A Comparison of...
A Description of...
A Discussion of...
An Evaluation of...
An Explanation of...
An Outline of...

Some sample titles:

Purpose	Topic	Focus
An analysis of	estrogenic activity of foodstuffs and cigarette smoke	using a yeast estrogen screening method.
An overview of	analytical chemistry of phenolic compounds	in foods.
A discussion of	genetic engineering technology	and its effects on the environment.
An evaluation of	sewage treatment	as a tool in environmental protection.

Punctuation of titles: capital letters

It is clearer to type your title in lower case rather than in capital letters.
Use capital letters for the first letter of all the main words in the title, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, longer prepositions, conjunctions.
Do not use capital letters for short structural words (except when they are the first word of the title), such as articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (of, in, to ,at), co-ordinating conjunctions (and, or, nor, but, for, as). See the sentences above as examples.

Points to check in your own writing:

Be precise and concise; strive for clarity and avoid terms with multiple meanings which might lead to misunderstanding
Use key words from the paper to inform readers of the content, but try not to choose too many technical words as this will not attract a wider audience
Titles stand alone; they are not a part of the opening sentence or paragraph

Chemistry

2. Composition

2.1 Titles

Elements in a title

Punctuation of titles: capital letters