The meaning of "effective", "informative", "attractive", "search-engine-friendly" titles. Analysis of the titles of scientific articles on geography in English
The study presents the results of the analysis of titles typical of scientific articles in English on geography and tourism. The title is the first thing that the editor, reviewers and readers see and decide whether the text is worth reading. The title laconically and succinctly formulates the main results of the research, it contains keywords that make the article e-database findable. We studied a corpus of 320 titles of research papers on tourism, geography and related disciplines published in top journals. This linguistic analysis showed what features make the titles effective, informative, clear, interesting and search-engine-friendly. The optimal length of the title is about 60 characters. The effectiveness of the title is increased when it has a full-sentence form with the use of verbs in active voice. Compound titles using a colon or a dash separating different ideas are also highly informative. We noticed the use of questions and humor in research paper titles in natural sciences as well as in humanities. To attract readers scientists often use literary allusions, metaphors, transformed idioms and famous quotations. The materials and conclusions of this study are used in teaching English to students of geography.