Writing Headlines

JFS

The headline is the text indicating the

nature of the article or news story below it. It’s a brief summary of what is the article about.

WHAT IS IT’S PURPOSE ? A headline's purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story.

What is a Headline?

to tell in capsule form what the story is

all about;

to grade news as to importance ;

and to make the page look attractive

Functions

Flush Left ‐ Both lines are flushed to the

left margin. This is also true with a one‐line headline. This has to no exact count for the units in each line.

Example:

Family planning Seminar held

Structure of Headlines

Dropline or Step Form ‐ The first line is

flushed left while the second line is indented. It may consist of two or three, and sometimes four lines of types of the same length, somewhat less than a column in width , so that the first line is flushed to the left, the second centered , and the third flushed to the right.

Example:

Local boy scouts bleed for a cause

Structure of Headlines

Inverted Pyramid ‐ The self‐explanatory.

Each of the three or four lines in this head is successively shorter than the line above it.

Examples:

School launches kalinisan drive

Structure of Headlines

Hanging Indention ‐ The first line is

flushed left. This is followed by two indented parallel lines.

Examples:

Chief editor bats for more development news

Structure of Headlines

Crossline or Barline ‐ A one‐line headline

that runs across the column. The simplest form, it is a single line that runs across the allotted space. If it runs across the page ‘ it is called a streamer.

Example:

Local students join Clean drive

Structure of Headlines

Boxed headline ‐ For emphasis or art’s sake,

some headlines are boxed: a.) Full box ‐

b.) Half box‐ Campus paper catalyst for national development

Structure of Headlines

Community involvement Science camp theme

c.) Quarter box ‐ Local students, teachers bleed for a cause today

Structure of Headlines

Jump Story Headline - A jump story(a

story continued on another page) has a headline of it’s own. This may be the same as the original headline or it may be a word, phrase or group of words followed by a series of dots.

Structure of Headlines

Headlines in English often use a unique

set of grammatical rules known as Headlinese.

Headlinese is an abbreviated writing style used in newspaper headlines.

Headlinese

Do’s Make your headline answer as many W’s as

possible. The headline should summarize the new story . It

should contain nothing that is not found in the story.

Positive heads are preferable to negative ones. Example : School physician allays flu fear is better and shorter than Flu epidemic not rampant in the city.

Put a verb expressed or implied in every deck.

Do’s and Dont’s in writing Traditional

Headlines

Omit articles like a, an and the and all

forms of verb to be (is, are , be), unless needed to make the meaning clear

Examples:Reclaimed banks are causes of recurrent flood (are before causes is not necessary) .

Barack Obama is new president (is is necessary to make the meaning clearer.)

Do’s and Dont’s in writing Traditional

Headlines

Use the strongest word in the first line as possible. The active verb is better than the passive verb in headlines. Examples: Local Hi‐ Y aid flood victims

But, for variations, and especially when the doer is unknown or not prominent, the passive verb may be used.

Examples: Food production drive intensified RP’s lost image abroad regained

Do’s and Dont’s in writing Traditional

Headlines

Use the present tense for past stories and infinitive

form for future stories.

Examples:President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo bats national reconciliation.Lantern parade to cap X’mas affairs

Write numbers in figures or spell it them out depending upon your needs for your unit counts.

Do’s and Dont’s in writing Traditional

Headlines

Use the following headline styles, but be consistent

once you have adopted oncea. All caps CHARACTER, NATIONALISM VITAL COGS IN EDUCATIONb. Cap and lower case Character , Nationalism Vital Cogs in Educationc. Down style Character , nationalism vital cogs in education.

Do’s and Dont’s in writing Traditional

Headlines

Avoid the following kinds of headlines: a.) Fat Head ‐ the spaces between the letters are so crowded that there are no more space between , them or that the spaces are so small that several words read as one.Examples:

BSP LAUNCHES DRIVE

What to Avoid in Writing Headlines

b.) Thin Head‐ the spaces between the letters or words or the space after the words in a line are so wide that the effect is ugly.

Example: B S P L A U N C H E S D R I V E

c.) Label Head ‐ an incomplete headline, like the label of a product. Example: CHRISTMAS PARTY

d.) Wooden hand‐ a very weak headline that is devoid of meaning, sometimes due to the absence of a subject or the lack of a verb.

Example: TO HOLD EXCURSION

e.) Mandatory Head ‐ it gives a command because it begins with a verb. Example: HOLD DIALOGUE WITH PRINCIPAL

f.) Screaming Head ‐ it is big and bold headline of a short and unimportant story . A sensational head is another kind of screaming headline.

Don’t tell the same thing even though you

use a different word. Each succeeding deck should contribute information.

Don’t comment directly or indirectly. Avoid editorializing even in headlines.

Unless the subject is implied or has been mentioned in the first deck ,avoid beginning a headline with a verb.

What to Avoid in Writing Headlines

Don’t end a line with a preposition. Neither should you

separate a preposition from it’s object. Do not confuse a hanging preposition with a two ‐word verb that ends with a preposition.

Wrong: Students vote for SSG officials (“for” is a hanging preposition)Right: Principal bats for moral values( “bats for” is a two word verb)

What to Avoid in Writing Headlines

Don’t break off abbreviations, name, and hyphenated

words. Avoid repeating principal words regardless of the

numer of decks. Aoid heads that carry a double meaning. Don’t coin abbreviations of your qwn. Use only those

that are common to the readers like PNRC, DepED, DCS.

Don’t abbreviate days and months unless figures follow as:

Mon., Jan. 23

What to Avoid in Writing Headlines

Punctuating Headlines

A few pointers as regards punctuation of headlines should be observed. As a rule,

headlines, just like titles of editorials, features, and literary articles, should

not end in a period.

Other simple rules follow:

Use a comma in place of conjunction and.

Self–reliance, discipline up at Baguio confab

Two related thoughts should be separated with a semicolon . As much as possible this should be at the end of the line if the headline is a two-line headline or a running head.

School joins Operasyon Linis; P.E. – CAT boys drain estero

The dash may be used for smaller decks, but not for headlines in large types.

The single quotation marks, not the double quotation marks are used in headlines

Cultural development: ‘Linggo ng Wika’ theme

Unit Counting in Headlines (in Letterpress

Printing)Writing headlines is not as simple and as easy as it seems. A headline should fit the allotted space by a system of unit counts given to each letter , figure or space. This

is done to avoid a thin head, a fat head ,or a bleeding headline (one that

extends out of the column page).

The corresponding unit counts are as given as follows:

½ unit- jiltf and all punctuations except the em dash (-----), and the question mark(?)

1unit – the question mark, space, all figures capital JILTF, all lower case letters except jiltf.

1 ½- the em dash, lower case m and w and all capital letters except capital M and W

and JILTF.

2 units - the capital M and W

1 ½ ½ ½ 1 , 11 ½ 11 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 C i t y S c h o o l s f e t e = 15 ½

1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 C h i e f E x e c u t i v e= 14

Note: Unit counting in headline is used only in, Letter press Printing. In Computer Printing, there is no need for counting units;

the computer does work.

Printer’s Direction or Specification for

HeadlinesWrite a one line headline ,occupying 3

columns, 42 points high bodoni bold type ,cap and lower case.

Answer:3 – 42 –bb -clc

Printer’s Direction

Preparing Headline Schedule

(For Letterpress Printing)

A headline schedule is a complete collection of headline types that are

particular newspaper uses. This collection should specify the unit counts

for all heads.

Headlines UnitCounts

Size/FamilyType

Columns

Osmeña High revives comedia

1214 ½

48 Radiant 2

Reclaimed banks causeOf recurrent floods

2117

36 Caslon 2

Dope upsurge in community,School noted

12 ½11 ½11 ½

30 Cheltenham 1

Food production driveintensified

29 24 Century 2

Science journalism caps NSTA seminar

79117

1

Headline writing must be cartloads of special skill.

The copy editor who usually writes the headlines should be able to tell in capsule form – simply, temptingly, yet understandably – the most complex story with words that fit the limit of the unit counts. To do this , he must have cartloads of special words to use for the sake of simplicity, brevity and easy reading.

However, certain newspapers terms used in headlines are not acceptable in formal writing or usage, nor do they carry their literal meaning as in the case of idioms.

Headline Vocabulary