PHP Syntax Error on get_posts

Not sure if it is causing Dreamweaver to flag an error (try running it?), but on the second from last line you want to be using get_the_title(). This returns the posts’ title, whereas the_title() will echo it.

echo '<a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/44471/.the_permalink().">'.get_the_title().'</a><br />';