6.3 Title Page
The first page of your research proposal is the title page and it includes a centered and double-spaced title that is about 10 to 12 words long and is located about half way down the page. Come up with a tentative or “working” title that best describes what you anticipate finding or exploring in the proposed study. Choose a title that gives the reader a sense of the central topic and research question. For example, you might have noticed an increased presence of transgender and nonconforming lead characters in popular television series and may wish to examine whether this move beyond the traditional dualisms of gender and sexuality is also evident in advertisements shown on prime-time television. Your working title could be Recent Changes to Gender Representation in Television Commercials Shown During Prime Time. If your eventual research indicates that little or nothing has changed over time, you can later modify the title to reflect this when you write up the findings in a more formal research report (see Chapter 7).
The title page is an identification source for your work and it includes your name, your student ID number, the course name for which the proposal is assigned (or the instructor’s name that the proposal will be turned in to), and the date the proposal is due. These items are usually located near the bottom of the title page, preferably on the right-hand side. If you refer to the “Home” tab in a word document, in the “Paragraph” section, you can “Align Left” and then highlight the text and click the tab key on your keyboard so that this section occupies the bottom right-hand corner of the page.
Title Page Checklist
❏ Separate title page, numbered
❏ Working title, centered, starting about half-way down the page
❏ Several blank lines
❏ Near the bottom of the page in the right-hand corner
- Author’s name
- Student Identification number
- Course name and/or instructor’s name
- Date
