Boosting Your Qualitative Research Title (Part 2)
Hello Qualitative Mind,
Believe it or not the most read Quali Q blog post dates back to January 14th, 2020 and is about writing a qualitative research title (Boosting Your Qualitative Research Title). To me, that’s a bit surprising because I feel I’ve written about topics and methods that are much more “needed” {and complex} yet we seem to circle back to the research title.
With that piece of blog analytics in mind, I introduce to you Boosting Your Qualitative Research Title (Part 2): What can we learn from email marketing?
In January 2020, I discussed how you can boost your qualitative research title by appropriately reflecting the qualitative paradigm, knowing your audience, and honoring your participants’ stories, strengths and particularities. Many researchers accomplish these strategies by using colons (the punctuation mark consisting of two dots placed one above the other vertically), and introducing the theoretical framework, study population and qualitative design after the two vertical dots {:} that bring attention to what is coming next.
I love using colons (you can probably tell if you browse the Quali Q blog titles). However, I don’t think this friendly punctuation mark is novel in the world of research titles. So, what is novel/more unique?
Email marketing experts (those who teach people like me how to communicate with their audience over email) say that using ellipsis (dot-dot-dot) in subject lines makes readers curious and more likely to open an email. Truth be told, I don’t think ellipsis {…} would go very well in titles of academic journals. It brings the idea of vagueness that we, academic writers, don’t want to create among our readers. Thus, I wouldn’t use ellipsis in qualitative research titles unless it’s part of a participant’s quote that I want to highlight.
How about using a question mark? TA-DA…that would work (and marketing experts say it’s a good strategy too). I’m a co-author in a manuscript under review that introduced a question after a colon, and the title was brilliant! By asking your reader/reviewer a question, you might instigate curiosity, add an element of suspense, and challenge a well-accepted point of view. I prepared for you a list of examples that I like (I can’t share our brilliant title quite yet but I promise I will as soon as it’s out there).
“Culture: Can You Take It Anywhere?”
I’m a fan of the late Michael Agar and his question, in my opinion, was meant to instigate readers to re-think culture and how it’s been overused. It also plays with the idiom “(one) can’t take (someone) anywhere.” Isn’t this a great idea?! I encourage you to think about what idioms or famous lines (from songs, poems, quotes) could be used in your qualitative research titles. {The brilliant title I’m being secretive about has a line from a well-known children’s song – Thanks to Cocomelon for that!}
Here are a couple more examples I like because the authors used idioms we would easily grasp:
“So close yet so far: rurality as a determinant of women’s health.”
“Accessing maternity care in rural Canada: there’s more to the story than distance to a doctor.”
“Eating well with Canada’s food guide? Authoritative knowledge about food and health among newcomer mothers. ”
The old version of Canada’s Food Guide was entitled “Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide,” and the authors creatively and boldly challenged that idea in their manuscript title. Most people in nutrition and food science (the audience of Appetite) are aware of the criticism towards national food guides, and would probably be curious about the findings presented in the article.
This “Boosting Your Qualitative Research Title, Part 2” was super fun to write! On April 21st, 2021 I was live inside the now archived Quali Q for Qualitative Minds Group on Facebook to add another example to my list of robust qualitative research titles. It challenged another well-established (and rather patriarchal) concept most women have accepted and internalized. Are you curious? You can watch the recording on our YouTube channel here.
Talk soon,
Maira