{"id":1680,"date":"2014-01-31T08:52:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T08:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/omit-colons-and-full-stops-after-headings-in-research-papers\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:56:11","slug":"omit-colons-and-full-stops-after-headings-in-research-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/omit-colons-and-full-stops-after-headings-in-research-papers","title":{"rendered":"Omit colons and full stops after headings in research papers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Headings or headlines are a special kind of text and are not as rigidly governed by conventions of punctuation. In particular, whenever a heading is on a separate line (the text that follows the heading starts on the next line below the heading), it is pointless to end it with a colon or a full stop. The Publications Office of the European Union [1] puts the matter succinctly: &#8220;Do not use colons at the end of headings or to introduce a table or graph set in text matter.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Such punctuation does not help readers; in fact, it has been shown to affect comprehension. A study that specifically addressed this point found that headlines that ended in a full stop lowered comprehension [2]. As Darren Rowse puts it [3], &#8220;Full stops, like their name suggests, are something that halts the eye of your reader. . . . [whereas] titles are all about leading your reader into your post.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">However, minor headings are sometimes followed by full stops or colons, but only when they are &#8220;run on&#8221; (text continues on the same line immediately after the heading). Even then, the punctuation can be dispensed with if the headings are set in bold or italics. This, however, is a matter of style: if your target journal uses colons or full stops after such headings, you should do the same.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">[1] Publications Office, European Union. [no date]. House rules for the preparation of the text.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">&lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/publications.europa.eu\/\">http:\/\/publications.europa.eu\/<\/a> code\/en\/en-4100100en.htm&gt;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">[2] Harrison K. [no date]. Bringing a headline to a full stop. &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cuttingedgepr.com\/\">www.cuttingedgepr.com\/<\/a> article\/coreprskills_headline_to_full_stop.asp&gt;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">[3] Rowse D. 2006. Full stops (periods) in titles. &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.problogger.net\/\">www.problogger.net\/<\/a> archives\/2006\/09\/26\/full-stops-periods-in-titles&gt; \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Another comma-related question that eludes many authors has been discussed in this post:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/research-paper-comma-after-etc-at-the-end-of-a-sentence\">Research paper: Comma after &#8220;etc.&#8221; at the end of a sentence<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Headings or headlines are a special kind of text and are not as rigidly governed by conventions of punctuation. In particular, whenever a heading is on a separate line (the text that follows the heading starts on the next line below the heading), it is pointless to end it with a colon or a full [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[848],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","tag-punctuation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Omit colons and full stops after headings in research papers | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Headings or headlines are a special kind of text and are not as rigidly governed by conventions of punctuation. 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