Dramatic newspaper headlines symbolize yellow journalism during the Spanish American War. For newspapers like the New York World and New York Journal, the headline was the most important aspect of the story---the bigger and more sensational, the better. Newspaper owner William Randolf Hearst understood the importance of headlines and used large, dramatic, and someimes misleading phrases to sell millions of newspapers.
| How To Write a Headline The primary tool to grab and hold the reader |
Some of the most important words a journalist writes are
in a headline.
1 Headlines contain essential words that convey the
subject of a story 2 and what the story is about.
Please note those are two different things. The subject is
general and the what's it about is specific.
What is a headline?
- A headline is an abstract sentence
- Usually it is only five to ten words
- It is a complete thought
- It has a subject and a verb, and often an object
The goal is to grab the reader
- Ask yourself this question as you compose a
headline:
know what the article is about?
that question in the negative. Sure, they may have a couple of words that
- It's not hard to find examples of headlines that answer
point to a subject, but they don't answer what's it about?
what is in the story. Accuracy counts above all else.Most important rule
- The words in a headline must represent accurately
headline.What to do?
- Understand the story completely before writing its
should be in the lead or introduction
- Base the headline on the story's main idea, which
the story.
- Don't use in the headline facts that are not in
.. Don't repeat the exact wording of the story in the headline.
Word choices
- Avoid ambiguity, insinuations and double meanings.
- Be specific, accurate, clear and concise.
- Don't repeat key words in the same headline.
- Avoid unclear or little known names, phrases and abbreviations.
- Don't use pronouns alone and unidentified.
- Alliteration should be intentional and not change the general tone of the story.
- Avoid headline speak such as hit, flay, rap, hike, nix, nab, slate. Be more precise.
- No headline may start with a verb.
- Headlines are complete sentences or imply complete sentences.
- A linking verb can be implied rather than spelled out.
- If a story is about past or present events, write present tense verbs.
- If a story is about future events, use the infinitive verb (to leave, to work).
- To be verbs, such as is, are, was and were should be omitted.
- Use punctuation sparingly.
- Don't eat up space with the conjunction and. Instead, use a comma.
Principal and parents meet on school rules for next year
Principal, parents agree on new school rules
- Don't use the articles a, an and the. They waste space unnecessarily.
A new fire engine helps make the houses safer
New fire engine helps make houses safer
- As with any news story, a strong headline is vital for a web story.
- Headlines often are found in lists of links, where they are a reader's first introduction to a story. If they do not sell a reader on the story immediately, the reader is unlikely to click the link to navigate to the story.
- SEO is search engine optimization. Search engines favor coherent headlines. Your headlines can be essential to search engine optimization, which draws traffic to your website.
BAD HEADLINES
Governor Swears in Legislature
March Planned For Next August
Blind Bishop Appointed To See
Lingerie Shipment Hijacked--Thief Gives Police The Slip
L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide
Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through
Latin Course To Be Canceled--No Interest Among Students, Et Al.
Diaper Market Bottoms Out
Croupiers On Strike--Management: "No Big Deal"
Stadium Air Conditioning Fails--Fans Protest
Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped
Henshaw Offers Rare Opportunity to Goose Hunters
Women's Movement Called More Broad-Based
Antique Stripper to Display Wares at Store
Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
Never Withhold Herpes Infection From Loved One
Cancer Society Honors Marlboro Man
Nicaragua Sets Goal to Wipe Out Literacy
Autos Killing 110 a Day--Let's Resolve to Do Better
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last A While
Your turn: Write a headline for each of the following four stories. Send along, please.
story 1:
A 33-year-old Farmington man has been charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records, both felonies.
State Police tell News10NBC James Rickey III fraudulently collected more than $10,000 in unemployment benefits while he was gainfully employed.
Rickey was arraigned and remanded to the Ontario County Jail in lieu of bail. He is due back in court on October 18.
Story 2:
You feel worse by the hour. Your joints ache; your head feels heavy; you can't stop coughing. You're freezing, even as your temperature keeps climbing, and your stomach is upset. Even your eyes hurt.
Face it: You have the flu. Now what do you do?
Most flu patients should not go to an emergency room, said Dr. David Zich, internal medicine and emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. They will likely be sent home, as there is very little that can be done for them. A fever as high as 103 degrees Fahrenheit is common for the flu, he said.
Patients with normal flu symptoms should get a lot of rest and take painkillers to help with muscle aches, Zich said.
And while you might not believe it today (or tomorrow, or the next day), "In five to seven days, you're going to be feeling yourself again," he promised.
Story 3:
mournful and anxious. Her brother had just died of leukemia, and she wanted something to remember him by.
She'd gone to other tattoo shops in the St. Louis area and when she tried to explain her story -- why she was getting her first tattoo at age 37, what it meant to her -- it felt like no one listened. They told her to flip through a book and pick a drawing she liked; it just didn't feel right.
"This was a very personal piece for me. I needed that work of art," Cirami said.
She had heard about Booth's shop, Madame Voodoo's House of Ink in Warrenton, Missouri, and decided to stop by. She told Booth that her brother died at age 45, and she wanted to honor him in some way.
Cirami left Booth's shop with a pinstripe tattoo adorned with the initials of her children and a picture of a heart glass her brother gave her before he passed away. It was exactly what she wanted.
"She had that sensitivity to that reason why most people get tattoos. It is a very secret and spiritual experience," Cirami said.
It's the kind of experience on which Booth built her business -- a family-friendly tattoo shop she opened five years ago, hoping it would feel welcoming to everybody.
Story 4:
British police arrested a man accused of trying to get into London's Buckingham Palace illegally on Monday, authorities said.
The 44-year-old man was stopped at the main gate facing the Victoria Memorial, and a search revealed he was carrying a knife, according to Metropolitan Police.
He did not gain access to the palace grounds, police said.
The man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon, and remained in custody Monday afternoon, police said. His name was not released; no injuries were reported.
Buckingham Palace, the best known of Queen Elizabeth II's palaces, is the administrative center for the royal household as well as the queen's London residence.
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