1

Is this a correct title for an article, etc:

Airplane and the system of its emergency airplane-door locks

?

It seems its cannot be used in this phrase.

Which is correct/prefered for a title:

  1. Airplanes and the system of their emergency airplane-locks
  2. Airplanes and the systems of their emergency airplane-locks
  3. On Airplanes and the system of their emergency airplane-locks
  4. On an Airplane and the system of its emergency airplane-locks
  5. The system of emergency airplane-locks of an airplane
Improve this question
7
  • Assuming that this is a paper or an essay on the development of such locks and their mechanisms. I might choose: On airplanes and the system of their emergency door locks. If the paper discusses various kinds of systems explicitly, I might use systems instead.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 20:10
  • 1
    For real concision, you might want to just go with Emergency Airplane-Door Locks. (Or should it be Airplane-Door Emergency Locks? Not clear.) Is the fact it's a system relevant to the title?
    – Codeswitcher
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 23:29
  • You wrote "It seems its cannot be used in this phrase." Why do you say that?
    – user3169
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 1:40
  • @DamkerngT.: So in On airplanes and the system of their emergency door locks using singular system is correct?
    – Minimus Heximus
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 5:25
  • @user3169: I think its does not refer to a specific airplane.
    – Minimus Heximus
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 5:28

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Without twisting up the structure too much, I would say (if its airplane):

The airplane and its system of emergency airplane-door locks.

And if its airplanes:

Airplanes and their system of emergency airplane-door locks.

I am assuming the "airplane-locks* are in the airplane.
And possibly the hyphen is not necessary, unless its a proper noun.

Improve this answer
2
  • Yeah, I just wanted to affirm that this is one of those weird situations where you really can say "the airplane" to refer to airplanes in general. It will sound faintly old-fashioned, in a jaunty sort of way.
    – Codeswitcher
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 23:24
  • The examples had both singular and plural so I went with either. Main point was that singular "airplane" requires an article, compared to the OP's example in bold.
    – user3169
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 1:39
1

At a slight tangent, I'd suggest "Emergency Lock Systems" rather than "Systems of Emergency Locks". "System of emergency locks" suggests that you are defining a new system which people haven't heard of and don't normally treat as a system. "Emergency Lock System" implies that people know which system you're talking about, and you're going to provide a review of that system instead of defining it from scratch. It is like "Emergency Lock" is an adjective describing which "System" you mean.

I agree that "Its" is unhelpful. You could say "Airplanes and Airplane Emergency Lock Systems" - a library catalogue program wouldn't know what "its" was referring to. However, I still prefer a variant of your suggestion 5 - "Airplane Emergency Lock Systems". You want as short and precise a title as possible.

Lastly, do you mean "Emergency Lock Systems", as in the set of physical locks, or "Emergency Locking Systems", as in the physical locks plus the process of locking a plane?

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .