← Learning Path / Step 7
Step 8 of 10 • ~2 min read
Add a Speaking Title
Make sure someone reading only the title still gets the point.
📚 THEORY
A speaking title serves as the headline of your story. It informs people what to think about the chart before they dive into the details.
Beginners often default to neutral labels like “Sales by Month” or “Survey Results,” which describe content but not meaning. Busy readers must interpret the visual from scratch. Different people may walk away with different messages.
When you write a title as a full sentence that states a conclusion, you remove ambiguity. For example, you can use titles like “Sales recovered after the Q3 price change.” Another example is “Most complaints come from first‑time users.”
You’re not manipulating, you’re being explicit about your interpretation and inviting people to agree or challenge it.
For time‑poor stakeholders, a clear speaking title might be all they read. It’s the most valuable real estate on the slide. Crafting such titles forces you, the beginner, to crystallize your thinking:
“What is this chart truly here to say?”
It’s also a rehearsal for your spoken narrative. The title often becomes the line you say out loud when you first show the slide.
“If you can’t summarize your idea in a sentence, you don’t yet understand it.”
✏️ AISHA’S APPLICATION – STEP 8 IN PRACTICE
Instead of titling the chart “Class Sign-ups by Session,” Aisha writes:
“Sign-ups halved after moving ‘Handling Difficult Customers’ from 10 am to 4 pm.”
This is her speaking title. It aligns with her chosen message and directly supports the SCR structure:
- Situation: We moved the class time.
- Complication (headline): Sign-ups halved after the move.
- Resolution (on a later slide): Move some sessions back to 10 am.
Always test yourself with:
“If I only read this title, do I get the main point?”
💡 Try it (now): Take a look at your chart from Step 7 and distil the message to one Sentence which you can use as a Headline.