Speeches and slides need headlines - not just titles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The title is an often-neglected part of a speech. It just is a distinguishing name.  Sometimes that does not matter. We don’t get to choose whether or not to listen to a club speech or a contest speech. But where there are competing presentations, like a breakout session at a Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) or a District conference getting chosen becomes important. 

  

Titles That Talk is an article by Lesley Stephenson in the April 2021 issue of Toastmaster magazine. She claims that:

 

“Five words or less is the recommended maximum length for a speech title.”

 

Why ‘or less’? And are five words enough? I don’t think so. She got that five-word limit by looking at a curious sample - titles from Toastmasters World Championship speeches. But they’re inspirational speeches. Informative speeches deserve more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does a headline differ from a title?

 

A headline is the head for a story or slide giving the essence of what follows – what it is about. (On the internet that’s called clickbait.) Look at a tabloid newspaper on the rack at your local supermarket checkout line. You will see headlines like Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO!

 

There is a 2008 book by Dave Paradi titled The Visual Slide Revolution. I blogged about it back on March 30, 2010. In chapter 3, Dave says that once you find the key point of a slide you need to write a headline to describe it. A headline is not the same as a title. A title is a few words that might hint at the topic but doesn’t describe the meaning. A headline is a 6-to-10 word sentence (that will fit on two lines). It clearly states the key point for the audience.

 

 

 

Say something Super

 

The Sears catalog used to have three categories: Good, Better, and Best. At a web site called Best Speech Topics there is a page unfortunately instead called How to Write Good Speech Titles. But animated cereal commercials with Tony the Tiger didn’t say Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes just were good. He said that They’re Great! Try to use superlatives. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slides need headlines too.

 

 When I open PowerPoint, I get template that says:

 

“Click to add title” 

 

So that’s what I’m tempted to do. But Assertion-Evidence slides with a headline and a graphic (as shown above) are more powerful. Michael Alley described how to write them in his 2013 book The Craft of Scientific Presentations. On February 19, 2014 I blogged about them in a detailed post titled Assertion-evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

When you have finished writing your speech, take another look at the title and see if it could be improved.