Headline Writing RTOT

7/17/2019 Headline Writing RTOT

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Headline Writing



News has no title but headlines.

An assemblage of words written in

bigger, bolder letters than theusual page text at the beginningof the news

Headlines are windows of thenewspaper as they serve as the

quick source of information for



Functions of Headline

1. to attract the readers.. to tell the story !in a summary"

#. to add variety of type !to breakmonotony in a sea of type"

$. to identify personality or

distinction of newspaper !use offont%style of letters"

&. to index%grade the news !big

type for important news' small



Headline

1. (t attracts the reader)s eye anddirects its attention to the storybeneath it.

. (t is concisely constructed tosave space. articles and otherunnecessary words are omitted.

#. (t must be positive and active.$. (t is ad*usted to a predetermined

typographical style of paper



Headline

1. +he headline presents thenews in a A-/0, thus it is

+023A-H(

. +he headline must containthe most important, the mostintriguing, the most unusual

fact of the story.#. +he headline must be so

constructed as to catch the

reader)s attention and make



Headline

$. i4e and length of theheadline must beproportional to the length of

the story and its importance.&. +he headline is based on the

lead.

5. +he headline makes use ofspecial vocabulary which isnot suitable for ordinary

communication situations.



Headline

1. First, read the story for generalmeaning.

2. Clues to the headline are usuallyin the lead.

• 6hat happened7

• 6ho did what7

• How did it happen7. !se the shortest "ords #ossible.

xamples8

cop 9 policeman up : increase



Headline Vocabulary:

accord : agreementallay : to calmanew : againassail : to attack with argumentscite : mention' enumeratecrown : championshipdip : go down

x : formergrill : investigatehit : attackslay%kill :murdered



hike : increase

kin : familyratify : approve' con;rmnab : arrestokay%ok : approve

sked : schedulevow : pledgerule : decidefoil : thwart, re*ected

bare : reveal, exposerift : disagreementsolon :lawmaker, representative



Headline

$. Write headline that is easy toread. Ha%e a sub&ect and a%erb. Avoid starting with a verb'the headline might sound as if itwere giving orders. !:<:=pattern"

6rong8 3evise money martguidelines

orrect8 entral >ank revises money

mart guidelines



Headline

'. !se the historical #resenttense if the %erb is in theacti%e %oice.

6rong8 ?elgado topped editorial tilt

orrect8 ?elgado tops editorial tilt

(. )mit the hel#ing %erb if the

%erb is in the #assi%e %oice.)nly the #ast #artici#le isretained.

6rong8 ?rug pushers are nabbed



Headline

*. !se the in+niti%e for futuree%ents.

6rong8 @oronadal will host N- 1&

orrect8 @oronadal to host N- 1&

. -o not use a #eriod at the end ofthe headline.

. )mit articles /a, an, the0.

6rong8 A ;re hits +ondo slum area

orrect8 Bire hits +ondo slum area



Headline

1. !se a comma instead of and3in "riting headlines.

?elays, confusion bug Asiad

0acson, +rillanes no show at =NA

11. !se semicolon to se#aratesentences.

2ina 0ope4 heads -asig body'Noys swears in #& other execs

12. !se #unctuation mar4ss arin l .



Headline

1. !se single 5uotes /60 inheadlines instead of double5uotes /0.

C0umad) witnesses tag killers of

educator1$. 7l"ays gi%e the source of a

5uote. To use direct 5uotation

as head, use any of thefollo"ing forms8

a. ?ash 9ayo ang boss 4o :

;noy



Headline

1'. !se the do"n<style : only the

+rst "ord and #ro#er nounsare ca#itali=ed, unlessother"ise indicated.

Baculty honors NuDe40acson, +rillanes no show at =NA

1(. !se only "idely 4no"nabbre%iations.

?=E chief to monitor (N cases



Headline

1*. -on>t use names unless the

#erson is "ell 4no"n, usecommon nouns instead.

6rong8 antos electrocuted

orrect8 arpenter electrocuted

1. !se s#eci+c terms instead of

generalitiesxample8 +rader killed

>etter8 +rader stabbed to death



Headline

1. ?ust re#ort the facts@ do not

editoriali=e.

6rong8 Noy gives inspiring talks

2. Ae #ositi%e. -on>t usenegati%es in headlines. They"ea4en the stories.

6rong8 -+A meeting won)t be held

>etter8 -+A meeting cancelled

21. Be%er use the "ord may3. tdenotes the uncertain element



Headline

22. The +rst line of t"o<line orthree<line headline shouldnot end "ith a #re#osition,con&unction, articles or anyform of the %erb to be,unless the #re#osition goes"ith the %erb, as in the "ord

call up.

2. !se numbers only ifim#ortant. Write numbers in

+gures. A<billion and D<



Headline

2$. 7%oid E#litting

7. a %erb #hrase6rong8 ?ebaters chosen to

*oin speechfest

3ight8 ?ebaters chosento *oin speechfest

A. names that belong together6rong8 ru4 wins gold

medal3ight8 ru4 wins

gold medal



Headline

2$. 7%oid E#litting

C. ad&ecti%e and the noun itmodi+es

6rong8 # 2ensan

leaders trade accusations3ight8 # 2ensan leaders trade accusations

-. abbre%iations6rong8 Nancy sues Na

pocor3ight8 Nancy sues Napocor



Ete#s in headline "riting

Gake sure you understandwhat the story is about.

Bind the action verb and themost important noun, whichtell what is happening in the

story. um up the story with key

words' build this summary

around the verb you have



Ete#s in headline "riting

ast the summary in asentence.

horten the sentence byputting it in headline form.

=nce the ;rst draft of the

headline is written, ;ndsynonyms for key words in thelead and begin substitution as

necessary.



Rules in 7cronym1. Bour:letter acronym and below, all

letters should be capitali4ed like6H=, /N, G(0B

. Bor more than four:letter acronym,

only the ;rst letter is capitali4edlike in Asean, /nicef

#. Bor syllabic acronym, the ;rst letter

of each syllable of the wordsshould be capitali4ed like ?epd,2enan, o@ar2en

$. (f the acronym lacks enough



-C9 +his is the number of lines your

headline will have

xample8

omelec to deal directly with telcos

!1 deck"

1 more cops wanted

for Gaguindanao massacre

! decks"



E!G

• 0/2 ( +H +=3) NAG

I(t is used for the purposes ofidenti;cation and record

keeping. (t is usually written ina single word.

x. 6eather : for a weather

story ouncil : for a councilmeeting

?rowning: for a story about



Headline terms

• Columns <ertical strips of text.

+he thin white spaces betweencolumns are called gutters.

>roadsheets carry 5:Fcolumns' tabloid andmaga4ines, $:& columns



Headline terms

• Headline countount or length in units

of each line.



Count of letters, gures, marks

Width

etters, Figures,Dar4s

unit

0owercase f, i, *, l, and t

apital ( and numerical;gure 1

All punctuations exceptquestion mark anddashes

1unit

All other lowercaseletters except m and w

All other numbers

Juestion mark

paces between words

1units

0owercase m and w

All capital letters except(, G, and 6

?ashes

ymbols such as , K, L,₽

and M2units

apitals G and 6

Count of letters, gures, marks



A count system considers dierences

in the widths of letters

apital letters8

G, 6 : units( : O init

others : 1 O

units

mall letters8

m, w : 1 Ounits

* l i f t : O unit

others : 1 unit

!BT C)!BTE



!BT C)!BTE

Bigures%-unctuation

Numbers except 1, 7 P 1 unit

- K L Q R P 1 O unit

: P O unit

, other punctuation P O unit

pace between words P 1 unit



H7-B )R-R3efers to request for a given si4e

of headline.

+hree:number sequence that tells

!1"how many columns a headlineshould cover,!"what point si4e it should be, and!#"how many lines it should ;ll.

olumns9Bont i4e90inese.g., 5:$:18 six columns wide, $:point type si4e, one line".



H7-B ECH-!

hart that allows one totranslate a headline orderinto a speci;c count. (t tells

how many counts of agiven point si4e can ;t intoa given column width.

ee Headline chedulehart.



Font Ei=e 1 Column 2 Columns Columns $ Columns ' Columns ( Columns

1 #oints 15 units ## units

2$ #oints 1# units F units $ units

#oints 1.& units 1.& units # units $# units

( #oints T units 1U.& units U units #U units $F.& units

$2 #oints F.& units 1&.& units #.& units # units $ units $U units

$ #oints 1#.& units .& units U units #& units $.& units

'$ #oints 1 units 1U units $.& units #.& units #F units

( #oints 15 units 1.& units F.& units ## units

*2 #oints 1$ units 1U.& units # units U units

HeadlineSchedule Chart

Headline Writing RTOT

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