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How to write Headlines. Material property of the AR Dept. of Education. It may be used for non-profit, educational use only after contacting the ADE DLC at http://dlc.k12.ar.us ER. We’ve all written headlines before…. “Hey! I can see it now!” you’ve said to your brother. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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How to write
Headlines
Material property of the AR Dept. of Education. It may be used for non-profit, educational use only after contacting the ADE DLC at http://dlc.k12.ar.us ER
We’ve all written headlines before…
“Hey! I can see it now!” you’ve said to your brother. “ ‘Boy drops dead from too much chocolate’. If you don’t quit eating all those Hershey bars, it’s going to be you.”
Actually, it’s not difficult to write a headline. There’s just a few rules.
• Use downstyle. This means only the first word of the headline and any proper nouns are capitalized.
Principal presents awardto Coach Smith
Headlines are written in present tense.
• By writing a headline in present tense, it makes the story appear as if it just happened.
Miller wins $10 million prize
Not like this:Miller won $10 million prize
Headlines need a subject and a verb.
• Think of a headline as a sentence, but without many of the words.
• A headline such as Homecoming is just a label, it’s not a headline.Instead, write:Homecoming win leads to celebration (subject) (verb) (object)
Keep a prepositional phrase together in a headline.
• Instead of:Dog bites alien ontender spot
Write:Dog bites alienon tender spot
(“on” is a preposition)
Headlines don’t have hyphens.• Make sure when you write out
the headline, the computer doesn’t hyphenate any words. If it does, move the words around.
Smith discovers dino-saur remains in wall
Smith discoversdinosaur remains
A headline doesn’t need a period at the end.
• Headlines are not sentences. However, you may use other forms of punctuation in headlines when needed:
Did you ever think it would happen?
Fort Smith merges two high schools
You don’t need the name of the school or the school initials in a headline.
• The readers already know the name of your school. Instead, use the headline to tell what happened.Not so good: JHS students picket cafeteria
Better: 95% of students picket during lunch
Don’t use a, an or the except in special headlines.
• Good:Governor awards teacher with honorBad:The governor awards teacher with an honor
• It’s okay to use articles (a, an or the) in a headline such as a hammer or a wicket:
The ultimate put-downSeniors name skip day for principal
Only use your opinion in a headline for an editorial.
• News headlines shouldn’t contain any words that let the reader know what you think of the story.Don’t: We’re better than Fort Smith!Better:Team blows away Fort Smith, 42-0
In headlines, use single quote marks.
•Don’t:“Angel Baby” really a
detectiveDo:
‘Angel Baby’ really a detective
A headline should fill at least ¾ of the white space it occupies.
• If a headline is too short for the space, it looks strange.
Don’t:Boy wins meet
Do:Taylor nabs tournament
title
Headlines must cover the entire story.
• Don’t design a page with a headline over part of the story.
• A headline is like a roof of a house: It must cover the whole text.
Tornado!School closed for remainder of this
year
Use a comma in place of ‘and.’
•To save space, use a comma instead of the word ‘and.’
Don’t:Band and choir win awards
Do:Band, choir win awards
Use a semicolon to separate complete thoughts
Don’t:Legislature in session. Future of roads in
doubt
Do:Legislature in session; future of roads in
doubt
Use active verbs; omit forms of the verb to be
Don’t:Smoking is common, survey shows
Do:Survey reveals smoking is
common