Omission of initial article or not?

[ohmyrichard]

Dear teachers,
If I wish to have "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality" as a subheading in my paper, do I have to omit the initial article "The" or can I omit this "The"or is it that either omitting it or keeping it will do? And how about the intial article in this subheading "The Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter "? Will the subheading sound more idiomatic if "The Analysis" is changed to "An Analysis" or simply "Analysis"?
Thanks.

[Raymott]

Dear teachers,
If I wish to have "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality" as a subheading in my paper, do I have to omit the initial article "The" or can I omit this "The"or is it that either omitting it or keeping it will do? And how about the intial article in this subheading "The Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter "? Will the subheading sound more idiomatic if "The Analysis" is changed to "An Analysis" or simply "Analysis"?
Thanks.

You need the "the" in "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality".
"Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter".

They are different. You don't need the article with words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. They are descriptions of what follows.
However in the "shaping" example, the shaping... doesn't follow. Your opinions of the shaping... follows.
So you call it "Opinions of the Shaping ...." or "The Shaping ...."

[konungursvia]

Unless you remove the "of" in which case you can remove the article.

[ohmyrichard]

You need the "the" in "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality".
"Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter".

They are different. You don't need the article with words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. They are descriptions of what follows.
However in the "shaping" example, the shaping... doesn't follow. Your opinions of the shaping... follows.
So you call it "Opinions of the Shaping ...." or "The Shaping ...."

So, for subheadings, we have "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality" while we have "Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter" with the initial article "the" omitted. Right?
You said in your post that "You don't need the article with words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. They are descriptions of what follows." Can you recommend some material to me to read? For, to be frank, I still find the description aspect of words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. somewhat difficult to understand. I tried to find some articles on the omission of the initial artile in titles and subheadings, but I failed to get any.
Thanks.

[Raymott]

So, for subheadings, we have "The shaping of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s paradoxical mentality" while we have "Analysis of Three Major Characters in The Scarlet Letter" with the initial article "the" omitted. Right?
Yes

You said in your post that "You don't need the article with words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. They are descriptions of what follows." Can you recommend some material to me to read? For, to be frank, I still find the description aspect of words like Introduction; Background; Results; Analysis; Discussion, etc. somewhat difficult to understand. I tried to find some articles on the omission of the initial artile in titles and subheadings, but I failed to get any.
Thanks.

Look at some scholarly journals if you can find any. I don't mean journals describing the rules; I mean examples that use headings and subheadings.

[ohmyrichard]

Look at some scholarly journals if you can find any. I don't mean journals describing the rules; I mean examples that use headings and subheadings.

Right. I will find some English scholarly journals for reference, for Chinese scholarly journals with their table of contents poorly translated on the inside back cover in most cases would get me more embarrassed and more confused. Thanks for reminding me of this way of dealing with the issue.
Richard