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This
short tip sheet is used for headline training at The Detroit
News.
Submitted by Sue Burzynski.
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A top 10 guide
to writing good headlines
- Write in the present
tense. Use active verbs.
- Put the key words
of the story in the main head.
- Get the most important
story element in the headline. Headlines should tell readers what happened
and why the news is important to readers.
- Be interesting
and inviting. Headlines should be an advertisement for the story, but
they should never be so cute that they fail to instantly tell the news.
- Be creative. Headlines
can and should creatively convey a mood or emotion when appropriate,
but they must always tell the news in clear and direct fashion.
- Don't pirate the
lead of the story or give away the ending. Stealing the lead means repeating
it almost verbatim. You do want to make sure the headline matches the
tone of the story.
- Rarely (almost
never) use short, verb-less labels as main heads for news stories. They
fail to tell the news.
- Avoid headlinese.
Make headlines conversational.
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