Personally, I absolutely detest the current dreary fad for “witty” titles (usually a generous way of describing lame puns and would-be attention grabbers) in serious writing. Especially when the part before the colon tells the reader absolutely nothing about what the damn thing’s supposed to be about, which seems to be the case with most such titles.
Just call it something sensible and informative like “The Chinese Print Media’s Responses to the Hainan Spyplane Incident”, and I will volunteer to proofread the whole thing for you before you hand it in. (And I’m a damn good proofreader.)
– Kimstu
(whose PhD thesis was titled “Mathematical Approximation by Transformation of Sine Functions in Medieval Sanskrit Astronomical Texts”. Honest. :))
Oh come, Kimstu, must we be so curmudgeonly? Academic writing is so damnably dry these days; it sometimes seems that giving your paper or thesis character is becoming a failing rather than a skill.
My PhD was just “Guitar acoustics”, but had I the same scope for wordplay that ryan has I would doubtless have seized it!
Kee-rist, Kimstu, I was snoring before I was halfway through and never got to the part of the title (Medieval Sanskrit Astronomical Texts) that would indicate I might find it interesting. But I’ve been fooled by good titles on stupifying papers.
Academic writing is so damnably dry these days; it sometimes seems that giving your paper or thesis character is becoming a failing rather than a skill.
I agree, but I think the real problem is that so much of it is ill-written, jargon-laden, and formulaic. The best solution, IMHO, is not to try to spice it up with sprinklings of clumsy humor and far-fetched literary allusions, but to write clearly and comprehensibly about a topic that you genuinely think is important and to which you can contribute something fresh.
My PhD was just “Guitar acoustics” […]
Lovely! Simple, to the point, and instantly informative; inspires me to wonder about the subject and makes me want to read your thesis!
dropzone: *Kee-rist, Kimstu, I was snoring before I was halfway through […] *
Another advantage of un-sexy titles: they allow you to weed out the part of the potential audience that isn’t really interested in the subject.
But I’ve been fooled by good titles on stupifying papers.
See, now, with my papers you never have to worry about being fooled by an intriguing title!
And I know what you are saying Kimstu but as long as the second half of the title is purely descriptive I think it’s fair. A lot of these people are wannabe authors and need to flex that creative muscle. Not to turn this into a hijack but the cute names for legislation are my real pet peeve.
I happen to have a Ph.D. on identically the same subject (lots of them in fact) and my thesis was entitled “Sexegesimalism in the City: the Babylonian concept of number bases and how it affected the price of beet sugar in the first three years of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II with especial emphasis on the socioreligious ramifications of the colours of the beets and something or other about sines and tangents”. The paperback rights alone were auctioned for $600.000 and the movie rights sold to Tarantino who says this will do for Sonny “Enos” Shroyer what Kill Bill did for David Carradine. So there’s a lot of argumentation to be made for clever titles and I’m not just saying that because of the moth who looks like Ed Asner telling me to.
I’ve synthesized Kimstu’s eloquent defense of simple descriptive titles, and lambchops earlier suggestion of using an article name to arrive at:
“Use the Feelings of Patriotism to Strengthen the Country”
The Chinese Print Media’s Response to the April 2001 Mid-Air Collision Incident
The quote is the title of a Liberation Daily article. So, whaddya think?
Still open to suggestions, and feel free to hijack the thread for general discussion of academic titles. I’d be happy to see the thread put to some public use.
Is that proofreading offer still on the table, Kimstu?
I also really love SentientMeat’s title and doubt we’ll see anything better, but in case you’re still fishing for ideas, the Chinese love kites and combat-kite play (kite wars?). (And didn’t the Chinese invent the box kite?) But “kite” is also a noun/verb referring to a dubious financial practice – “4) A negotiable paper, as a check, representing a fictitious financial transaction and used temporarily to sustain credit or raise money… v.2) to get money or credit with a kite.” To witlessness, then:
Kiting Conflict [Tensions? National Aggrievement?]: Chinese print media’s response to…
Kiting Popular Outrage: Chinese print media’s response to… (or substitute terms like “nationalistic,” “anti-American,” “hysteria,” etc. for “popular outrage”.)
rh:“Use the Feelings of Patriotism to Strengthen the Country”
The Chinese Print Media’s Response to the April 2001 Mid-Air Collision Incident […]
Is that proofreading offer still on the table, Kimstu?
Yepper! (And I won’t quibble about reasonable modifications to the title either, although if you wind up using a dreadful pun like Paul in Saudi’s I’m ripping up the contract. :)) I’m living in India at the moment and the post’s a trifle slow, so your best bet is to tell me how to access a .pdf version of it electronically.
What is your basic thesis, in a few sentences? Give us something to work with.
I have written three: undergrad, masters and Ph.D., and all titles followed this simple rule:
the title must contain a colon. key words can be put on either side of the colon and the meaning (or lack thereof) will not be substantially altered.
e.g.:
Alternanity and philosophic hermeneutics: the discourses of post-modernity.
Alternanity and post modernity: the philosophic discourses of hermeneutics.
Considering the name of the plane, its mission, “Transiting Aries” could be the basis of a working title. Or you could go by the animal/element of the Chinese astrological sign for April 2001- “Hiss of the Metal Snake”.
RyanHooper became a charter member yesterday, and is now called Zhao Daoli.
Kimstu (and anyone interested): My thesis is posted at [My Thesis](http://www.lclark.edu/~hooper)
The real question is, how will you send me your comments?
Zhao, had a quick look at your thesis. It strikes me that the birth of Chinese Nationalism section might require a bit of information about the Chinese governing philosophy before the birth of nationalism - the philosophical basis underlying Chinese imperialism. Just a short introductory paragraph would show off your knowledge and help frame the later discussion.
This might also cause changes to your earlier assertion that " ‘the Chinese people’ is ipso facto [prima facie?] a nationalist term".
Haven’t thought this through much, hope it doesn’t tell. However, I truly believe that there are serious echoes of the imperial system in modern Chinese identity, and that this might be useful here.
Not to turn this into a hijack but the cute names for legislation are my real pet peeve.