Last time on Choices and Titles I listed five titles and asked you to pick you preferred option based solely on the title. I believe titles should be attractive and informative. How do these ones on the program at FGS in Boston measure up on those two factors?
“See Ya in the Funnies”
“Where do I go from Here?”
“Searching Tips and Tricks”
“Adding Muscle and Sinew to the Frame of Memory”
If the title carries little information, then burden of being meaningful falls on the 30 or 40 word description. Now thats a test of wordcraft. Construct a 30 word description of one of your lectures or lessons and see what I mean.
What do you think?
Genealogy Education 
The first two titles do not reveal anything about the topic. The third is pretty tepid. The last is some sort of mixied metaphor. muscle on a frame? why not a skeleton? Frame on a memory? what is that?
Ken,
I’m working on “Pursuing Your Elusive Female Ancestors” – that’s my working title. My 30 or 40 word description would be:
“Finding the given name and/or maiden name of female ancestors can be challenging. This talk provides guidelines for and examples of using vital, census, locality, court and other records to identify your elusive female ancestors.”
The topic is not unique, of course, but my local society has not had the subject addressed, and the members need to hear it in order to apply it to their research.
I think it is difficult to write the description even for a topic with a pretty clear subject, like mine. To write one for “Adding Muscle and Sinew to the Frame of Memory” would be a challenge. Is that one of yours? If so, can you describe it in 30-40 words?
Cheers — Randy
Desta,
You are so right. They tell you nothing. “See Ya in the Funnies” was about newspapers as a source of family history.”Where do I go from here” I cannot recall.
Randy,
You see the problem. Titles need to be informative and the 40 word description supports it. But “adding muscle and sinew” is a real corker. No clue as to topic, thus placing huge weight on those 40 words.
Your example is much better. Do not forget to discuss dower right, land recods and link to women
Ken