by George Brosi

Sub-titles, or sub-headings, in research papers accomplish two very important goals. They help the reader by making it easy to see what is being covered and where the paper is going. More importantly, they help the writer to be sure that the ideas of the paper are being thoroughly and logically developed.

Employing Sub-titles

Papers which conform to the standards of the Modern Languages Associations (MLA) employ sub-titles which are simply double-spaced like all the other lines in the paper. They are centered. They employ both upper and lower case letters; the first letters of all words--except articles and prepositions--in the sub-title are capitalized.

A sub-title is inappropriate following the title of the paper. All research papers begin with an introduction anyway, and there is no way in an MLA paper to distinguish between a title and a sub-title.

Ordinarily, a sub-title should be followed by at least two paragraphs. A paper which has a sub-title for every paragraph gives the appearance of being shallow. As a general rule, sub-titles are followed by two to four paragraphs appropriate to that sub-title. It is nice to have one sub-title on every page, but not necessary. However, there should seldom be two pages in a row without a subtitle.

Choosing Good Sub-titles

A paper whose sub-titles are parallel will be much more impressive than a paper whose sub-titles are not. Thus, for example, all sub-titles should be questions or all should be nouns or all should be complete sentences.

The sub-titles will basically be the roman numerals of an outline, and the supportive paragraphs should cover the letters and numerals of the outline. Each paragraph in the paper should belong in a section introduced by the sub-title except for the introductory paragraph. Be sure to double-check the structure of the paper and be sure the sections are in an appropriate order and that each paragraph belongs in its section and each section is complete.

Conclusion

The last paragraph in a research paper is the conclusion paragraph. It concludes the paper and belongs in a separate section, entitled, "Conclusion."