What are the choices behind the titles? A Systemic Functional Grammar analysis of titles from articles of Rural Sciences and Communication

Abstract

Selecting a text to read through its title is a current habit. In the scientific context, Swales and Feak (1998) explained that interesting titles attract readers and function as a way of convincing them to go forward. Previous studies usually present a quantitative approach. This research aims at identifying similarities and differences between titles of articles from Rural Sciences and Communication and providing an interpretation guided by Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Grammar. To do so, 246 titles were retrieved from the European Journal of Agronomy and the International Journal of Communication. Subsequently, an analysis of 30% of titles was conducted, considering the number of words, verbs, punctuation (HARTLEY, 2005), and field. The analysis suggests that titles are short, direct, and informative; choices for punctuation point to simple sentences, and the format short:long. The verbs were classified mainly as material processes, which may inform that concrete changes led to the article's findings.