Copyreading and

Headline Writing
GREMIL ALESSANDRO ALCAZAR NAZ, MPSDC, MAMCC
A S S I S TA N T P R O F E S S O R O F J O U R N A L I S M A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y, L E G A Z P I C I T Y 4 5 0 0 A L B AY
 Lecture Outline
1. Fundamentals of copyreading
2. Language considerations
3. Style guide
4. Copyreading symbols
5. Writing headlines
6. Pointers for the contest
 Fundamentals of
Copyediting
Since newspapers are a business of snap
judgments, they are particularly susceptible to
error. That’s the reason for the “copyreader.”
The copyreader has the final opportunity to save
his newspaper from dangers small and grave—from
the embarrassment of a misspelled name to the
infamy of jail.
 Fundamentals of
Copyediting
The copyreader brings to his job his own wide
experience as a reporter, which is why he
appreciates a reporter’s difficulties.
A lesser story becomes the copyreader’s job. He
raises it to standards by supplying what it lacks,
taking out what it doesn’t need or taking it apart
sectionally or entirely, then building it again.
 Fundamentals of
Copyediting
As a routine, the copyreader checks the story for
grammar, spelling, and house style (the
newspaper’s preferred manner of doing things—
what to abbreviate and how, what to spell out,
what to capitalize, what to put in quotation marks,
what to italicize, what to set in bold type).
He checks it for propriety, for apparent errors of
fact and for libel, contempt of court and other
legalities.
 Fundamentals of
Copyediting
The copyreader checks the story for clarity,
consistency, and coherence by ensuring that it is
focused and pitched properly, that all questions
readers are likely to ask are answered and that the
story flows easily and interestingly.
The least he does for any story is edit it to fit a
certain space, for instance, and write a headline.
 Use Simple and
Familiar Language
Unmask the “utility man” as the janitor and the
“marketing representative” as the salesman. The
poor of the slums are not the bit relieved after they
have been promoted nominally to “deprived” or
“disadvantaged” or “underprivileged” or
transferred to the vague fantasy of the “depressed
areas.”
Our barber won’t dream of calling his shop “hair
salon,” unless he is switching form “cutting” to
“coiffing.”
 Use Nouns and Verbs;
Beware of Modifiers
Modifiers just repeat what nouns and verbs say.
They sometimes obscure meaning, a betrayal of
their very function.
“Absolute truth” can’t be truer nor does “grateful”
make “thanks” more sincere. Don’t say “quite
right” or “more balanced.”
Superlatives are credible applied to things
measurable by common standards: “the lowest
growth rate.”
 Use Nouns and Verbs;
Beware of Modifiers
A common escape is to take away the sense of
exclusivity from the superlatives and seek refuge in
numbers:
One of the best
One of the worst
That’s cowardly. The decisive way is to translate
your superlatives into specifics:
One of the best Thrice judged best actor
One of the worst Thrice judged worst actor
 Use Nouns and Verbs;
Beware of Modifiers
Like superlatives, absolute modifiers are also
suspect because they denote conditions that are
extreme or perfect and, therefore, rare, and they
tend to reflect an immodest sense of judgment.
AbsoluteComplete Empty Entire
Excellent Final Full Ideal
Impossible Invulnerable Perfect Total
Absolutes have to be transferred into specifics.
Ideal conditions All the money he can spend
Full support All the money he needs
Invulnerable Undefeated in a hundred fights
 Use Nouns and Verbs;
Beware of Modifiers
Abstract modifiers are safe, but only because they
are noncommittal. “Good,” “nice,” “fine,” “bad,”
and “awful”—words that refuse to say exactly
where they stand and prefer to hide in the
shadows:
Nice weather Bright and breezy day
Bad weather Rain
Awful weather Storm
 Use Picture Words
Writing is drawing with words. A writer should be
able to put in the reader’s mind a reproduction of
the picture he sees in his own.
Use specific and concrete terms. A “residence,” for
instance, is just a street number, but a “house” or a
“home” summons a familiar picture of people living
together.
With “sharp weapon,” you can imagine all sorts of
sharp things. Almost always, it actually refers to a
knife.
 Use the Active Voice
The active voice is direct, forward-moving and
economical. The reverse is passive.

The shop owner strangled the robber.

The robber was strangled by the shop owner.
 Use the Positive Form
A positive statement goes straight to the point, it
asserts, it is bold.
Did not win Lose
Did not succeed Failed
Did not pay attention to Ignored
Did not accept Rejected
However, be careful. “Does not attend” or “did not
appear” does not translate automatically into
“snubbed’; neither does “did not care” into “hated.”
 Avoid New Words
and Expressions
If a word is new, it is not well known.
If it’s not well known even among the native users
for whom it was coined in the first place, how can
you expect non-natives to know?
Even if a word is not new, it doesn’t mean it’s known
enough—it takes time for a word to gain currency.
And even if it has gained currency, that’s no
guarantee that it’s a good word. A good word is a
functional word. It must describe something as
faithfully as no other word can.
 Avoid Idioms
Idioms are expressions peculiar to a language.
They derive from native experience, and will
therefore spoil English for non-native users,
emphasize its foreignness and diminish its universal
appeal.
Why say “he has money to burn” or “he lost face”
when you can’t go wrong with the straightforward
“he is wealthy” and “he was embarrassed” (or, if
warranted, “shamed”)?
 Use Familiar
Elements in Analogies
Analogies and comparisons are tested aids to
comprehension:

The ship’s dock is so vast that it can take three basketball

games going simultaneously with enough sideline space for
spectators standing five deep.

Don’t carry foreign elements. Never use Madison

Square Garden; write Araneta Coliseum instead.
 Use of the Period
Omit the period in the abbreviation of offices and
organizations.
UN BU DepEd DOTr MSU DPWH
Use the period instead of parenthesis with numerals
or letters accompanying an enumeration.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Not
1) (2) 3.) (4.)
 Use of the Comma
Use commas to set off identification. (Gremil
Alessandro Naz, assistant professor)
Do not use commas if the identification is preceded
by “of.” (Gremil Alessandro Naz of Legazpi City)
Do not use comma between a man’s name and Jr.,
Sr., III, etc.
Omit commas in age, time, distances,
measurements, etc. (23 years 1 month 12 days)
 Use of the Colon
Use the colon to introduce a series of names,
statements, etc.

The patients had the following symptoms: headache,

nausea, fever, and vomiting.

All second-year students are required to take these

courses: news writing, communication theory, and visual
communication.
 Use of the Semicolon
Use the semicolon to separate a series of names,
addresses or identifications containing commas.

The white shirts cost ₱200; black, ₱300; pink, ₱250; and
blue, ₱275.

In the latest CHED rankings, UP is the country’s top school;

ADMU, second; DLSU, third; and UST, fourth.
 Use of the Dash
Dashes are used to set off parenthetical
expressions.

My three thesis advisees—Jose, Andres, and Emilio—did

well in their final defense.

When the teacher discovered the plagiarized papers—all

15 of them—she immediately notified the principal.
 Use of the Hyphen
Omit the hyphen titles starting with “vice.”
Use the hyphen in compound titles.
Use a hyphen in writing figures or fractions.
Use the hyphen in prefixes to proper names. (un-
Filipino)
Use the hyphen in compound adjectives. (10-year-
old boy)
Use a hyphen between two figures to indicate the
inclusion of all intervening figures. (August 15-23)
 Use of the Quotation
Marks
Do not use quotation marks in names of
newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, books,
plays, and paintings.
Use quotation marks in the titles of speeches and
discussion subjects.
Use quotation marks to set off coined words or
unusual words or expressions the first time such
words or expressions are used in the story.
 Use of the Quotation
Marks
Close quotation marks always come after period
and commas.
◦ The title of my dissertation is “Conflict Management in
Romantic Long-Distance Relationships.”
◦ He wrote the words “apple,” “banana,” and “cherry.”

Use close quotation marks after the question mark,

colon, semicolon, and dash if such punctuation
marks are a part of the quoted matter. Otherwise,
the close quotation mark precedes the punctuation
marks.
◦ She asked, “Do you love me?”
◦ Have you read the essay “Love at First Sight”?
 Use of the Apostrophe
Do not use the apostrophe to form the plural of
abbreviations or the plural of figures.

LGUs SUCs HEIs

1980s 90s 5s
 Symbols
Use “percent,” not the symbol “%” in body matter.
The symbol may be used only in tabulations and
headlines.
Use “and” not the symbol “&” except when part of
a name.
Use “each” instead of the symbol “@.”
Use “₱” instead of “PhP,” except if there are other
peso currencies in the article (e.g., Mexican peso).
 Date and Time
Do not use a comma between month and year if
there is no exact date.
October 5, 2016 October 2016
Do not use other date forms.
5 October 2016 October 5th, 2016
The correct forms are “a.m.” and “p.m.”
Write time the shortest possible way you can.
1 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 1 o’clock 1 in the
morning
 Titles
Titles are abbreviated when used before a person’s
full name or before his first name’s initial and his
surname. Titles are spelled out only when the
surname follows.
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte President Duterte
The first letters of titles that come before a name
are capitalized. Titles that come after a name are
not capitalized.
Vice Pres. Leni RobredoLeni Robredo, vice president
 Spelling
Our fundamental rule is to use the simpler, shorter
form when a word has more than one spelling.
Judgment, not judgement
Enrolment, not enrollment
However, do not use the shorter spelling if it is not
generally accepted.
Through, not thru
Cigarette, not cigaret
Do not use British spellings (e.g., colour, honour).
Copyediting Symbols
 Headlines
A title for a novel, for instance, may be fashioned to
attract readers by mystification, and a title for a
collection of writings held together by a frail thread
may offer a semblance of unity through
generalization.
For a news story, no such thing works. Not one of
the following titles, for example, is acceptable for a
fire story: “Tragedy in Ligao,” “Death at Dusk,”
“Fiery Fate.”
 Headlines
The proper headline should be something like:
“Three children die in city slum fire” or “Slum fire
kills 3 children, leaves 200 families homeless.”
Like news writing itself, it must use simple, specific
and direct language and observe an unconditional
fidelity to facts.
Where the lead speaks in complete sentences, the
headline speaks in telegraphic form, increasing the
sense of immediacy, at the same time saving the
headline writer space.
 Headlines
The headline speaks in the present tense. This
technique puts the reader on the scene and makes
him part of the news—“the historical present.”
It also offers a practical benefit to the headline
writer: a verb is normally shorter in the present
tense than in the past.
Make sure that the headline summarizes the lead.
These days, many online news sites have “click-
bait” heads. Do not imitate them.
 Headlines
MRT resumes partial operations (ABS-CBN News)
Partial MRT-3 operations resume after 3-hour
shutdown (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MRT resume partial operations, repairs still ongoing
(Rappler)
MRT-3 Guadalupe station cable cut off, provisional
service in place (GMA News)
 Headlines
Manny Pangilinan’s hospital chain plans stock
market debut (Rappler)
Metro Pacific’s hospital unit applies for initial public
offering (ABS-CBN News)
MPIC eyes record ₱83-B IPO from hospital group
(Philippine Star)
Metro Pacific hospital unit plans ₱83-B IPO
(BusinessWorld)
 Pointers for the
Contest
1. Read the entire article to get a feel of the story
2. Do first-level editing; meaning, correct the easy
ones (e.g., spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.)
3. Do second-level editing; meaning, arrange the
paragraphs into the correct order
4. Do third-level editing; meaning, edit the article
based on the correct paragraph order
5. Do fourth-level editing; meaning, read through
the article the last time and edit as necessary
 Pointers for the
Contest
6. Construct the headline and write down the
number of units
7. Write down the printers’ directions
8. Write the slug if necessary
 DepEd Memo No.
167, series of 2018
Contestants should not put any identifying mark on
the contest entry or answer sheet
Contestants shall use the 2018 AP editing marks
Contestants shall provide two headlines
Criteria: copyreading, 60%; headline writing, 40%
Final Word
“So the writer who breeds more
words than he needs, is making a
chore for the reader who reads.”
- Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

goodreads.com/quotes/tag/editing