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You are here: Home / Thinking / Why “titles” (of articles, etc.) are so important

Why “titles” (of articles, etc.) are so important

May 21, 2017 by Adrian Wolfberg Leave a Comment

Zeke Wolfberg thumbnailTitles provide a window into the meaning of our thinking. Titles are normally formal constructs that we create for summarizing written narrative but titles are also used informally to make conclusions when we speak about a topic. I want to just focus on titles used in written narrative, whether the narrative or content uses print or digital media.

Titles are a double-edged sword.

On the positive side, they are constructive mechanisms that give the audience the gist of the most meaningful aspect of the information being told, the content. Their direction of expression is from the inside of the narrative to the audience. Good titles are normally associated with good writing content. Good titles provide clarity and focuses attention on the same meaning regardless of the audience.

On the negative side, they can be deconstructive mechanisms if the titles intentionally create ambiguity. Unlike any really good fiction, ambiguity allows the reader to navigate however he or she wants in regards to the meaning implied, which is desirable and expected. But if ambiguity is the intent, their direction of expression is intentionally from the outside perspective. The audience’s view uses the meaning one decides to select creating a diversity of meanings because of the ambiguity to capture the attention of the audience that one chooses to target. Ambiguous titles, often thought in literature or marketing applications, are pretty well harmless. But ambiguous titles used in internal business or government organizational contexts can unintentionally cause great confusion in some, or used intentionally to reinforce preexisting ideas of the intended targeted audience.

Titles, like the conclusions we make during conversations, are the banners or “bumper stickers” for social engagement. Titles help connect meanings and thoughts across social and organizational boundaries. But they are, in a sense, powerful instruments that should be handled with care and great intentionality.

This article appeared first on my LinkedIn page, where it was published 11 May 2017.

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Filed Under: Thinking Tagged With: ambiguity, clarity, titles, writing

About Adrian Wolfberg

I am currently serving as the Chairman of Defense Intelligence, Department of National Security and Strategy, U.S. Army War College, a rotational assignment from the Defense Intelligence Agency. My path getting here began in 2005 when I created and led the DIA Knowledge Lab for five years, an innovative internal consulting-like capability to help employees learn how to learn. I led Crossing Boundaries, a three-year program from 2006-2009, that helped generate over 425 employee-initiated new solutions to unsolved organizational problems, of which over 50% of these were implemented. From this experience, I enrolled in a doctoral research program and earned a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. There, I concentrated on decision-making and learning under varying conditions of information overload, uncertainty, and ambiguity. I am interested in the decision-making processes used by senior military leaders, how analytic information is created and received by senior leaders, and how to assess the degree to which an individual possesses the ability to absorb new information.

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