Trends in Editor Questions Blog:

Trends in Editor Questions Blog

June 2019

Question 1

Student Question: Hi, I am unable to find the guidelines on choosing a title for dissertation. I need to know the acceptable number of matches before you can write on the subject. I found that if the synonym replaces the original word, the matches can either go up by thousands or down by the same amount. I have an idea of my title, but the title wording needs to be modified and I am not sure how to, especially when trying to stay within 12 words. I need to know how many matches will be acceptable.

Editor Response: Per APA, your title should be 12 words or fewer—as you have noted below. The following is some additional information about the title you may find useful:

1. The title should be a concise statement of the main topic; it should identify the variables or theoretical issues under investigation and the relationship between them. 
2. A title should be fully explanatory when standing alone.
3. The title is used as a statement of content for abstracting and referencing. Therefore, make sure to include terms that would help a fellow researcher locate your study in electronic databases. For ideas, you might check the keywords or tags appended to articles in your reference list.
4. Titles should be no more than 12 words.
5. Titles should not include words or phrases such as method, results, study of, investigation of.
6. Avoid any words that could mislead the reader.
7. Avoid interrogative phrasing.
8. Do not use final punctuation.
9. Capitalize any word of four or more letters, and capitalize all parts of a verb (if it’s part of the infinitive, has, or the like).
10. Avoid colons.

Because the title should specifically state the focus of your study, your question may have more to do with your study topic than the actual title of your paper. If this is the case, you will want to discuss refining your topic with your committee members. If you haven’t done so already, I would also suggest making an appointment with a librarian, who will have the most experience with existing topics and research recently published. Please see the sources available on the library’s website for more information: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library

Question 2

Student Question: I need some guidance as to what templates and guides to use for the PhD dissertation proposal. I just had my prospectus approved and am starting to work on my proposal and want to use the right templates and guides.

Editor Response: You can find all the templates here. Let me know if you have questions about it. The doctoral capstone preproposal starter kit is here, the proposal starter kit is here, and an introduction to writing the PhD is here. The Dissertation Guidebook is here.

Finally, I highly recommend that you explore the Form & Style website. The homepage is here.There is a wealth of help on APA, Walden style, tables and figures, abstracts, and research and writing help, with webinars, SMRT Guides, kits, and templates.

Question 3

Student Question: I have a specific question about writing years in APA.

Here is a scenario: 

The treatment time for my study was from 2012 to 2016. So, do I write this information as 2012 - 2016, 2012 - 16; 2012-2016 or 2012-16?

Editor Response: You can either write “from 2012 to 2016” or “2012–2016.” If you use the latter form, be sure to use an en dash, not a hyphen. To create an en dash, type the word (or number), hit space, type two hyphens, space, the ending word (or number), space. The two hyphens will convert to an en dash, which is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash. You then need to remove the spaces around the en dash so it looks like this: 2012–2016.

Question 4

Student Question: My full dissertation is in committee review.  

For my Chapter 4, I have eight lines of text on the page preceding a figure.  The figure uses all the space of a page, so I put the figure on a page by itself.  

One of my committee members mentioned I have too much empty space on the page preceding the figure.  

What can I do to solve the too much empty space issue?

Editor Response: You did the right thing. The extra white space is okay if a figure or table takes up a whole page or even most of it. (The guideline is: “Set no text on a page if a table or figure is 75% or more of the page.”) Because figures and tables should not be inserted within paragraphs but only between them, some white space will often result because you do not want to split a table or figure between pages unless it is too large for one page. The white space is not a problem. Fitting a figure or table all onto one page takes precedence.

Question 5

Student Question: My dissertation chair told me to ask if key terms in my dissertation were supposed to be italicized. 

I didn't italicize these in Chapters 1-3, so I don't see why they should be here in Chapter 4, but I wanted to ask.

Editor Response: Key terms used for your literature search should be italicized. Terms in your definitions section should be italicized. Other key terms should be italicized the first time they appear in the narrative but not thereafter.