WRITING HEADLINES

MARIENEL A. PASTORES
MOTIVATION:

“If you’re broken-hearted today, God has

good news that says:
‘Weeping may endure for the night
but joy comes in the morning.’”
-Matt Hagee
Outline:

Writing Headline
Structure of Headline
Do’s and Don’ts in writing Traditional Headlines
Punctuating Headlines
Unit Counting In Headlines
Preparing a Headline Schedule
Writing Headlines
Writing Headlines

What is a HEADLINE?
-An assemblage of words written in bigger, bolder letters than the usual
page text at the beginning of the news.
-while the lead summarizes the story, the headline summarizes the lead
Functions of headline:

• To tell what the story is all about

• To grade the news as to importance
• To make the page look attractive
STRUCTURE OF
HEADLINES
Flush left
Flush Left

- Most common
- Your headline starts from the left side of your page margin
- Writing your headline from the left will make it look like a headline
instead of a title
Flush left

Example:

Government plans to build a new zoo (flush-left)

Government plans to build a new zoo
(flush center)
Dropline or Step Form
Dropline or Step Form

• The first line is flushed left while the second is indented.

• It may consist of 2 or 3, and sometimes 4 lines.
Inverted Pyramid
Inverted Pyramid

• Each of the 3 or 4 lines in this head is successively shorter than the

line above it.
Hanging Indention
Hanging Indention

• The first line is flushed left and this is followed by two indented
parallel lines.
Crossline or Barline
Crossline or Barline

• The simplest form.

• Single line centered over the body of the text of the story
Boxed Headline

• For emphasis of art’s sake, some headlines are boxed:

A. Full Boxed
B. Half Boxed
C. Quarter Boxed
Boxed Headline
Jump Story Headline
Jump Story Headline

• A jump story (a story continued on another page) has a headline of its

own. This may be the same as the original headline or it may just be a
word, a phrase, or a group of words followed by a series of dots.
DO’s and DON’Ts in
WRITING
TRADITIONAL
HEADLINES
DO’s

• Make your headline answer as many W's as possible.

Example:
4 million J&J Covid vaccines shipped out, Americans expected to
receive shots within 2 days
• Positive heads are preferable to negative ones
Example:
Polio and measles ‘to be erased by 2023
Food poisoning reaches epidemic level
DO’s

• Omit articles as a, an, and all forms of the verb to be (is, are, be, unless
needed to make the meaning clearer
Example:
Today’s submariners are ‘lucky’
says veteran of the USS grant
Today’s submariners ‘lucky’
says USS Grant veteran
DO’s

• Use active voice

Example:
Passive: Navy flight training bolstered by new T-45
Active: New T-45s bolster Navy flight training

• Use the strongest word in the first line as much as possible

DO’s

• Use the present tense for past stories and infinitive form for future stories
Example:
Parliament confirms new stray dog policy
Lion escapes zoo

Parliament to decide new policy tomorrow

President to visit France for further talks
DO’s

• Write numbers in figures or spell them out depending upon your needs
for your units count.
Example:
7 days before Christmas- shoppers go mad
9 dead in glue catastrophe

• Be consistent with the structure

DON’Ts
Avoid the following kinds of headlines:
• Fat Head- the spaces between the letters or word are so crowded that
there are no more spaces between them or that the spaces are so small
that several word read as one.
BSP LAUNCHESDRIVE

• Thin Head- the spaces between the letters or words or the space after
words in a line are so wide that the effect is ugly.
B S P LA UN CHES D R I V E
DON’T’s

• Label Head- an incomplete headline, like the label of a product.

CHRISTMAS PARTY
• Wooden Head- a very weak headline that is devoid of meaning,
sometimes due to the absence of a subject or the lack of verb.
TO HOLD EXCURSION
DON’T’s

• Mandatory Head- it gives a command because it begins with a verb.

HOLD DIALOG WITH THE PRINCIPLE
• Screaming Head- it is a big and bold headline of a short and
unimportant story. A sensational head is another kind of screaming
headline.
BOMB THE BATS
Don’ts

2. Don’t tell the same thing even though you use a different word. Each
succeeding deck should contribute information.
3. Don’t comment directly or indirectly. Avoid editorializing even in
headlines.
4. Unless the subject is implied or has been mentioned in the first deck,
avoid beginning a headline with a verb.
 Don’ts

5. Don’t end a line with a preposition. Neither should you separate a preposition
from its object.

Wrong: Students vote for

SSG officials (‘for’ is a hanging preposition)
Right: Principal bats for
moral values (‘bats for’ is a two word verb)
Don’ts

• Don’t break off abbreviations, name, and hyphenated words.

Example:
Thorough investigation conducted by DE-
NR

Fantastic Christmas eve hosted by Ange-

lina Jolie
Don’ts

• Avoid heads that carry a double meaning.

Kids make nutritious snacks

• Don’t coin your own abbreviation and use what is common to the
reader.
Example: DepED, PNRC
Don’ts

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

Mon., Jan. 23
PUNCTUATING
HEADLINES
PUNCTUATING HEADLINES
• Punctuation of headlines should be observed.
• Headlines should not end in period
• Use a comma in place of a conjunction
Self-reliance, disciple 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
PUNCTUATING HEADLINES

• In headlines, use the single quotation mark and not the double
quotation mark
Cultural development:
‘Linggo ng Wika’ theme

• Dash may be used for smaller decks, but not for headlines in larger
types.
UNIT COUNTING
IN HEADLINES
LETTERPRESS PRINTING
UNIT COUNTING IN HEADLINES

• Writing headlines is not as simple and 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 the thin head, fat head or a bleeding headline.
UNIT COUNTING IN HEADLINES

The corresponding unit counts are 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 
• Space- counted as 1 unit
UNIT COUNTING IN HEADLINES
Example: v- 1
Chief Executive E- 1 ½ e- 1
C- 1 ½ x- 1 Total: 14
h- 1 e- 1 Note: Unit counting is
i- ½ c- 1 not applicable to
Computer Printing; the
e- 1 u- 1 computer does the work
f- ½ t- 1/2
i- 1/2
 Preparing
Headline Schedule
Preparing Headline Schedule

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.
Headline Vocabulary
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.
Activity:

UNIT COUNTING
• Note: it’s easiest to begin by counting all units as 1, including spaces.
Then:
lower case f, i, j, l, t = 1/2 unit.
lower case m and w = 1 1/2 units.
spaces = 1 unit.
• All upper case letters are 1 1/2 units, except:
upper case m and w = 2 units.
Activity:

1-3. 7-10.
Bishop, wife find ___ Choose 1 structure of headline
strength to face ___ and create your own headline using
it.
personal tragedy ___
4-6.
Registered nurse proposal ___
draws differing reactions ___
Reference

https://bestlifeonline.com/funniest-newspaper-headlines-of-all-time/
https://www.slideshare.net/kazekage15/campus-journalism-copyreading
-and-headline-writing
https://www.slideshare.net/RandyDacuro/structures-of-headlines
https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/8-grammar-rules-writing-newspape
r-headlines/
https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~rcollins/313editing/onlineclass/hedcoun
tex.htm