Is anyone else struggling with what title to give their thesis? I have to make my decision reasonably soon, as im due to submit in 4-5 months, and I'm still messing around with possible phrases, words etc but nothing seems right. Any pearls of wisdom out there?

My PhD has several titles, none of them probably appropriate for its official name. The titles are along the lines of (*#&$_%@#"?$&$#$&v @!_

Seriously, perhaps the best title to give it is something that gives a not overly long description of what it is. The rage for titles these days seem to be something with a colon ( the punctuation kind, like this: not the anatomical kind)

Something like

Blogs in the Library: A Regressive Analysis of Locating Books in the Shelves or


BLOGS AND FROGS: A Study of Science on the Internet

So far mine has a quite long and quite obscure title. My supervisor says this is essential so ensure that the Dean doesn't get a whiff of the political overtones! Not sure what I will do once it has gone through all the necessary preliminary hoops though as I think it needs to reflect what is actually in the tin rather than what the Dean thinks is in there, but this can only happen once I've cleared all the red tape.

I also have an obscure title. One that none of my friends can understand. I wonder if I am allowed to give it a simpler title instead?

It does, however, have a semi-colon in it, so it's not all bad!

Why do you need a discision now - I titled mine the day before I handed the bugger in

I had a rough idea because it was along the lines of all the talk titles and poster presentations I gave - but no-one ever really cared what it was called until it was in??

S

It needs to go on a form to be approved by Registry about 4 months before submission, after which it cannot be changed. i thought this was common procedure across universtities, but perhaps not? Otherwise, you're right, Id wait until the very end. i think thats what's making it so hard.

I guess it depends how bad the beurocracy is in your University - I only did the forms about 1 month before and at that I bet it could have been done with less notice - if you got some particularly understanding people

I think 4 months sounds pretty steep?

Hi all,

I think a good title is important: I think it should indicate "Exactly what's in the tin".

Obviously if you can define that in beautiful proza, then that's a bonus, yet a clear representation of the content is, in my opinion, crucial.