一、明确目录格式。
英语论文目录格式尽管因学校要求有所不同，但大同小异。总体说来，目录格式以分层次均衡排列为佳，否则会造成比重失调，下级标题项数要么不均衡，要么欠完整。例如一篇题为“Difference Between Chineseand Western Dietary Culture”的论文目录：
1. Introduction .............1
2. Different Dietary History .......2
2. 1 History of American cooking .....3
2. 1. 1 Food in American culuture .............3
2. 2 History of Chinese cooking .....4
2. 2. 1 Food in Chinese culutre .....4
3. Different Dietary Concept .......5
3. 1Sumptuous and luxurious feasts vs. simple and plain meals........6
3. 2Collctivism vs. individualism .............7
4. Different Table Etiquette .......8
4. 1 Attendance time ...........9
4. 2 Table taboos ............10
4. 3 Tableware .............11
5. Conclusion .....12
Bibliography......13
此目录中尽管一级标题和二级标题格式正确，但三级标题不当，即在2. Different Dietary History下的2. 1 Historyof American cooking和2. 2 History of Chinese cooking分别只有一项三级标题：2. 1. 1 Food in American culture和2. 2. 1 Foodin Chinese culture.按照《MLA科研论文写作规范》，目录中标题数字和字母标号应一致，若无项数2就不应使用项数1,若无项数b就不应使用项数a.上例中的三级标题2. 1. 1和2. 2. 1恰恰与之相悖。当目录下级标题出现一个时，应采用合并，将其整合归属于其上级标题。这样，不妨将该目录的2. 1. 1和2. 2. 1直接删去。经此删改后，会使目录各级标题均衡得当。
再如一篇题为“Language Features of AdvertisingEnglish”的论文目录：
1. Introduction .............1
1. 1 Rationale of the study .......1
1. 2 Definition of advertising ......1
2. Lexical Features ...........1
2. 1 Classification of advertising and its audience .............2
2. 2 Similarities at the lexical level ...........3
2. 3 Differences at the lexical level ...........6
3. Syntactical Features .........8
3. 1 Similarities ............9
3. 2 Differences ............10
4. Discourse Features ..........11
5. Conclusion .....12
Bibliography......13
该目录一级标题中的2. Lexical Features和3. Syntac-tical Features都有二级标题阐述其异同，但其中的4.Discourse Features下的二级标题空缺，致使目录中二级标题不完整。就此问题，《英语写作手册》一书中指出： 论述甲的项目多于论述乙的项目（ 如：I. A,B,C,D;II. A,B） ,这是比较与对照文章的一个常犯的错误。笔者认为，该目录中的这种二级标题完全空缺也可归属该类常犯错误。为使该目录完整，可再在其4. Discourse Features下增补4. 1 Similarities和4. 2 Differences两个二级标题即可。
二、理清层次关系。
在撰写目录的同时，还应注重理清层次关系，即：遵循同级标题表达同一层次相互并列内容的原则进行排列各级标题，不然就会出现层次混淆、脉络不清等问题。例如一篇题为“Cultural Similarities and Differ-ences of Connotations Between Chinese and English Ani-mal Vocabulary”的论文目录：
1. Introduction .............1
2. The Significance of Comparison and Contrast of Animal WordsBetween English and Chinese .1
3. The Similarities and Differences of Animal Words BetweenEnglishand Chinese ........2
3. 1 The similarities of animal words between Enlgish andChinese ......2
3. 1. 1 The same word in two languages expressing thesame meaning .....3
3. 1. 2 The same cultural connotation of different animalwords .......4
3. 2 The differences of animal words between English andChinese ......4
3. 2. 1 National cultural characters of animal words ............5
3. 2. 2 Culutral differences of animal words betweenEnglishand Chinese ...........7
3. 2. 2. 1 Good sense in English but bad in Chinese .............7
3. 2. 2. 2 Good sense in Chinese but bad in English .............8
3. 3 Losses of cultural connotations in different languages.........9
3. 3. 1 The word rich in English cultural denotative meaningbut poor in Chinese .......9
3. 3. 2 The word rich in Chinese cultural denotativemeaningbut poor in English .......10
4. The Importance of Knowlege About Cultuarl Similarities andDifferences ..........10
5. Conclusion .....11
Bibliography......12
本目录的问题在于层次多处混淆。一是3. TheSimilarities and Differences of Animal Words Between English andChinese这个一级标题与该论文题名大体相似，这与题名应大于一级标题的观点不相符。同样，3. 2. 2 Culu-tral differences of animal words between English and Chinese这个三级标题与3. 2 The differences of animal words between Eng-lish and Chinese这个二级标题大体相同，也不规范。二是2. The Significance of Comparison and Contrast of AnimalWords Between English and Chinese和4. The Importance ofKnowledge About Cultuarl Similarities and Differences这两个一级标题意思相近，内容重叠，且无下级标题。三是3. 3Losses of cultural connotations in different languages这个二级标题与另外两个同级标题3. 1 The similarities of animal wordsbetween English and Chinese和3. 2
