[Lynne]

Perhaps your page is cached and that is why you see the whole title?

I don't know what your code is, but the variables you use in the <title> must be defined before they may be used. So, you need to define them before the header template is evaled which is in the global.php page (I am pretty sure). So, pick a plugin to use that gets evaled *before* the header template is evaled and define those variables in that plugin.