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The Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing
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Section 3.2

Headings and Subheadings

Use frequent descriptive subject headings and subheadings to reveal the structure of your document. Headings identify the subjects that are treated in sections of your document. Headings are part of a writer's forecasting strategy. They help the reader navigate through your document.

Note how the subject heading in the following example signals a shift to the reader.


In North America, yellow fever has not been reported since 1905, when an outbreak in New Orleans, La., resulted in some 5000 cases and 1000 deaths.24 But in recent years, much of the southeastern United States has been reinfested with A aegypti mosquitoes, and a yellow fever outbreak could occur.25

Improving Yellow Fever Surveillance

In Africa, efforts to improve surveillance for yellow fever were initiated in 1993 in response to the resurgence of this disease. These efforts have been carried out in the context of ongoing national communicable disease programs, using . . . 

--S. Robertson, et al., "Yellow Fever: A Decade of Reemergence," Journal of the American Medical Association


Be sure that your headings are specific enough to be useful:

Rather than Use
Problem Component contamination
Method Microanalysis of surface contamination
Conclusion Contaminants found

Reference Link Text
## Headings and Subheadings ##
Reference Link Text

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