Headline Writing

News has no title but headlines.

An assemblage of words written in
bigger, bolder letters than the
usual page text at the beginning
of the news
Headlines are windows of the
newspaper as they serve as the
quick source of information for

Functions of Headline
1. to attract the readers.
2. to tell the story (in a summary)
3. to add variety of type (to break

monotony in a sea of type)

4. to identify personality or
distinction of newspaper (use of
font/style of letters)
5. to index/grade the news (big
type for important news; small

Qualities of a Good
Headline
1. It attracts the readers eye and

directs its attention to the story

beneath it.
2. It is concisely constructed to
save space. articles and other
unnecessary words are omitted.
3. It must be positive and active.
4. It is adjusted to a predetermined
typographical style of paper

Things to Remember in
Headline
1. The headline presents the

news in a CAPSULE, thus it is

TELEGRAPHIC
2. The headline must contain
the most important, the most
intriguing, the most unusual
fact of the story.
3. The headline must be so
constructed as to catch the
readers attention and make

Things to Remember in
Headline
4. Size and length of the
headline must be
proportional to the length of
the story and its importance.
5. The headline is based on the
lead.
6. The headline makes use of
special vocabulary which is
not suitable for ordinary
communication situations.

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
1. First, read the story for general
meaning.
2. Clues to the headline are usually
in the lead.

What happened?

Who did what?

How did it happen?

3. Use the shortest words possible.
Examples:
cop policeman
up - increase

Headline Vocabulary:
accord
allay
anew
assail
cite
crown
dip
Ex
grill
hit
slay/kill

- agreement
- to calm
- again
- to attack with arguments
- mention; enumerate
- championship
- go down
- former
- investigate
- attack
-murdered

hike
kin
ratify
nab
okay/ok
sked
vow
rule
foil
bare
rift
solon

- increase
- family
- approve; confirm
- arrest
- approve
- schedule
- pledge
- decide
- thwart, rejected
- reveal, expose
- disagreement
-lawmaker, representative

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
4. Write headline that is easy to
read. Have a subject and a
verb. Avoid starting with a verb;
the headline might sound as if it
were giving orders. (S-V-O
pattern)
Wrong: Revise money mart
guidelines
Correct: Central Bank revises money
mart guidelines

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
5. Use the historical present
tense if the verb is in the
active voice.
Wrong: Delgado topped editorial tilt
Correct: Delgado tops editorial tilt
6. Omit the helping verb if the
verb is in the passive voice.
Only the past participle is
retained.
Wrong: Drug pushers are nabbed

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
7. Use the infinitive for future
events.
Wrong: Koronadal will host NSPC 2015
Correct: Koronadal to host NSPC 2015
8. Do not use a period at the end of
the headline.
9. Omit articles (a, an, the).
Wrong: A fire hits Tondo slum area
Correct: Fire hits Tondo slum area

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
10. Use a comma instead of and
in writing headlines.
Delays, confusion bug Asiad
Lacson, Trillanes no show at SONA
11. Use semicolon to separate
sentences.
Gina Lopez heads Pasig body;
Noys swears in 35 other execs
12. Use punctuation marks
sparingly.

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
13. Use single quotes () in
headlines instead of double
quotes ().
Lumad witnesses tag killers of
educator
14. Always give the source of a
quote. To use direct quotation
as head, use any of the
following forms:
a. Dash
Kayo ang boss ko
Pnoy

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
15. Use the down-style only the
first word and proper nouns
are capitalized, unless
otherwise indicated.
Faculty honors Nuez
Lacson, Trillanes no show at SONA
16. Use only widely known
abbreviations.
DOJ chief to monitor INC cases

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
17. Dont use names unless the
person is well known, use
common nouns instead.
Wrong: Santos electrocuted
Correct: Carpenter electrocuted
18. Use specific terms instead of
generalities
Example: Trader killed
Better: Trader stabbed to death

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
19. Just report the facts; do not
editorialize.
Wrong: Noy gives inspiring talks
20. Be positive. Dont use
negatives in headlines. They
weaken the stories.
Wrong: PTA meeting wont be held
Better: PTA meeting cancelled
21. Never use the word may. It
denotes the uncertain element

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
22. The first line of two-line or
three-line headline should
not end with a preposition,
conjunction, articles or any
form of the verb to be,
unless the preposition goes
with the verb, as in the word
call up.
23. Use numbers only if
important. Write numbers in
figures. B-billion and M-

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
24. Avoid Splitting
A. a verb phrase
Wrong: Debaters chosen to
join speechfest
Right: Debaters chosen
to join speechfest
B. names that belong together
Wrong: Cruz wins gold
medal
Right: Cruz wins
gold medal

Guidelines for Writing

Headline
24. Avoid Splitting
C. adjective and the noun it
modifies
Wrong: 3 Gensan
leaders trade accusations
Right: 3 Gensan leaders
trade accusations
D. abbreviations
Wrong: Nancy sues Na
pocor
Right: Nancy sues Napocor

Steps in headline writing

Make sure you understand
what the story is about.
Find the action verb and the
most important noun, which
tell what is happening in the
story.
Sum up the story with key
words; build this summary
around the verb you have

Steps in headline writing

Cast the summary in a
sentence.
Shorten the sentence by
putting it in headline form.
Once the first draft of the
headline is written, find
synonyms for key words in the
lead and begin substitution as
necessary.

Rules in Acronym
1.

2.

3.

4.

Four-letter acronym and below, all

letters should be capitalized like
WHO, UN, MILF
For more than four-letter acronym,
only the first letter is capitalized
like in Asean, Unicef
For syllabic acronym, the first letter
of each syllable of the words
should be capitalized like DepEd,
GenSan, SoCCSKSarGen
If the acronym lacks enough

DECK
This is the number of lines your
headline will have
Example:
Comelec to deal directly with telcos
(1 deck)
10 more cops wanted
for Maguindanao massacre
(2 decks)

SLUG
SLUG IS THE STORYS NAME
It is used for the purposes of
identification and record
keeping. It is usually written in
a single word.
Ex. Weather - for a weather
story
Council - for a council
meeting
Drowning- for a story about

Headline terms

Columns

Vertical strips of text.

The thin white spaces between
columns are called gutters.
Broadsheets carry 6-7
columns; tabloid and
magazines, 4-5 columns

Headline terms

Headline count
Count or length in units
of each line.

Countof
ofletters,
letters,figures,
figures,marks
marks
Count
Widt
h

unit

Letters, Figures,
Marks
Lowercase f, i, j, l, and t

Capital I and numerical

figure 1
All punctuations except
question mark and
dashes

1
unit

All other lowercase

letters except m and w

All other numbers

Question mark

Spaces between words

1
units

Lowercase m and w

2
units

All capital letters except

I, M, and W
Dashes
Symbols such as , $, %,
and &
Capitals M and W

UNIT COUNTS
A count system considers differences
in the widths of letters
Capital letters:
M, W - 2 units
I
- init
others - 1
units

Small letters:
m, w
-1
units
j l i f t - unit
others - 1 unit

UNIT COUNTS
Figures/Punctuation
Numbers except 1, ? = 1 unit
P$%@#

= 1 unit

= unit

, other punctuation

= unit

Space between words = 1 unit

HEADLINE ORDER
Refers to request for a given size
of headline.
Three-number sequence that tells
(1)how many columns a headline
should cover,
(2)what point size it should be, and
(3)how many lines it should fill.
ColumnsFont SizeLines
e.g., 6-42-1: six columns wide, 42point type size, one line).

HEADLINE SCHEDULE
Chart that allows one to
translate a headline order
into a specific count. It tells
how many counts of a
given point size can fit into
a given column width.

See Headline Schedule

Chart.

Headline
Schedule Chart
Font Size

1 Column

2 Columns

3 Columns

4 Columns

5 Columns

6 Columns

18 points

16 units

33 units

24 points

13 units

27 units

40 units

30 points

10.5 units

21.5 units

32 units

43 units

36 points

9 units

18.5 units

28 units

38 units

47.5 units

42 points

7.5 units

15.5 units

23.5 units

32 units

40 units

48 units

48 points

13.5 units

20.5 units

28 units

35 units

42.5 units

54 points

12 units

18 units

24.5 units

30.5 units

37 units

60 points

16 units

21.5 units

27.5 units

33 units

72 points

14 units

18.5 units

23 units

28 units