Journalistic Languages Lecture 5

 

Headline Writing

For electronic and print media

Headline

Print Media

Headline also referred to as hed is the title of a newspaper story, printed in large letters at the top of the story.

Electronic Media

The headlines are the main points of the news which are read on radio or television.

How to write?

The challenge is to write a headline that’s compelling, catchy, and detailed while using as few words as possible. Word choice and clarity are crucial to a good headline. It must make people want to read more.

Headlines should be clear and specific, telling the reader what the story is about, and be interesting enough to draw them into reading the article.

Importance of heds

Even if your content is truly unique and innovative, a weak headline will ruin its chances of being super successful.

Headlines are the first part of your content that audiences will see.

Your headline makes your first impression with readers.

The purpose of heds is to catch the eye and then brain

A few tips

1.      Should be factually correct

2.      Should connect to ordinary readers

3.      Should match the tone of the article

4.      Avoid exaggerating or embellishing the content in the article by using an overblown headline

How to construct heds?

Identify the key terms in the article (intro) to create the headline

• Make a promise.
• Draw a picture.
• State a fact.
• Ask a question.

·         Words choice matters: Advertisers’ headlines perfectly target the emotions of their readers. But in news production, rather than appeal to emotion or exaggeration, focus on creating newspaper headlines that inform your reader and that are based on fact.

·         5-10 words at the most (Length)

·         Use present tense and active verbs, but don't start with a verb

·         The headline should begin with the subject of the article, whenever possible and not with the verb

·         Use infinitive form of verb for future actions, for instance; PTI to Create more Jobs

·         Do not use articles - a, an, the

·         Whenever possible, remove articles like “an”, “a”, “the” and connecting terms like “because” or “due to” in the headline. Do not use conjunctions like and - you can substitute a comma

President Declares Peace, Holiday

·         Should be complete sentences or imply complete sentence

·         Avoid repetition - Headlines summarize; they don't repeat the lede.

·         Don't use unidentified pronouns/acronyms

·         Capitalize first letter and proper nouns

·         Do not spell out numbers in headlines. Write digits instead

The use of punctuation

Most headline punctuation follows the standard punctuation rules, with two exceptions: periods and single quotes.

·      Use periods for abbreviations only in headlines. For example, U.S. fights Iranian government.

·      Use single quotes for any double quotes in the article. For example, Imran: ‘The war has begun’, Benazir urges witness to ‘tell the truth’.

·      You can also use a colon as a substitute for the word “said” in a headline. For example, COAS: War inevitable, victory essential.

 

·      Space: If you're writing a headline to fill a specific space in a newspaper, avoid leaving too much empty space at the end of the head. This is called "white space" and it should be minimized.

 

·      Avoid Bad Breaks

A bad break is when a hed with more than one line splits a prepositional phrase, an adjective and noun, an adverb and verb, or a proper noun. For example:

Obama hosts White

House dinner

Instead, Obama hosts dinner

at White House is correct.

In the end, do the TACT test!

Once you have completed your headline, you should run it through the TACT test to confirm it is print ready. The TACT test is Taste-Attractiveness-Clarity-Truth. Ask yourself the following questions in relation to your headline:

·      Is it in good taste? Is there anything possibly offensive in the headline? Can anything in the headline be taken the wrong way?

·      Is it attractive to the reader? Can it be improved so it is more engaging and interesting, without sacrificing accuracy?

·      Does it communicate the key points of the article? Is it clear and simple? Does it use the active voice and active verbs? Are there any odd words or double meanings that could confuse the reader?

·      Is it accurate? Are the proper words or terms from the article used in the headline? Is the headline factually correct?

Examples

Voting comes to an end in Gilgit-Baltistan, counting underway

Vote count in several cities in Gilgit-Baltistan began after polling, in what is arguably the most hotly contested election the region has ever seen, came to an end at 5pm.

Malaysia reports 1,208 new coronavirus cases, 3 new deaths

 

For online/social media

Unfortunately, social media have degraded the level of professionalism in news writing.

The best headlines make a promise to do something valuable or emotionally stimulating.

10 Ways to Grow Your Blog’ is probably better than ‘How to Grow Your Blog in 10 Steps’

How to generate $1,850,000 per year from blogging

These hedes elicit extreme emotional responses

Opt for as fewer words as possible. Six or fewer words (70 characters)

Use interesting adjectives, for example 10 coziest sofas

Links

https://spcollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=254319&p=1695321

https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Newspaper-Headline

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-secret-to-writing-great-headlines-2073697

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