COPY READING and

HEADLINE WRITING

Dr. Pelagia Detabbali,P-1

Facilitator
Editing a copy is not just a simple task of correcting
errors in grammar and facts. Unchecked data, which
often injected in the copies submitted by neophyte
writers, if unnoticed, could put both story and the paper
in the bad light.

Modern page designing can now be done through

the special kind of computer software. It has a spell
check and thesaurus capability, making the work of the
copy editor easier.
Functions of Copy Editor
1. Check facts.

2. Correct errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation,

usage, organization and others.
3. Improve news values.
4. Write effective lead.
5. Cut or delete irrelevant materials.
6. Delete “editorializing materials” in a news.
7. Guard against libelous statements.
8. Write headlines and decide its typography.
9. Make copy simple and clear.

10. Make copy conform to the newspaper style sheets.

11. Give instruction to the typesetter regarding font type

and font size to be used and the number of columns
and ems.

12. Indicate corrections by using the copyreading marks.

Copyreading Procedures
1. Double or triple space-typewrite all copy on standard 8
½ by 11-inch paper. The spaces between the lines are
for writing corrections.

2. In the upper left-hand corner of the paper, about one-

half inch from the top, write your name and a guideline
or slug to indicate the nature of the story. For example
“kidnap” for news about kidnapping, “typhoon” for a
typhoon story and “GMA” for news about Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo. The slug is used for identification
and for record purposes.
3. Start typing the story about three or four inches from
the top of the page, leaving one-inch margin at the left
and right sides. The wide margin at the top is for
instruction to typesetter and for headline.
4. Indent five or ten spaces at the start of each paragraph.

5. End each page with a paragraph. Do not cut paragraph

and continue on the next page.

6. Write “more” at the bottom of the page of unfinished story

and continue on the next sheet. Do not use the back
page of the paper.

7. On the second page, instead of numbering as page 2,

label it “first add” or “add one” followed by the slug.
Example, “first add kidnap” or “add one kidnap”.
8. End the story with number 30 or (#).

9. After typing the story, though the use of soft-leaded

pencil and copy reading marks, correct errors and
improve it.
10. If the copy could hardly be read because of so
many corrections, retype it if time permits to
facilitate editing and typesetting.
 Copyreading Marks
philippines My Brother 7 Mrs.

Capitalize letter Change to small letter Spell out

Twenty – four Friday beautifullady

Change to figures abbreviate Separate words

Life is a wonderful gift from god and die. Life is a wonderful No Human nature dictates

Indent as a new paragraph No paragraph

Start a new paragraph
cchangess Reorient our our values new
the teacher
Delete beginning and ^
ending letters Delete word and bridge over Insert word
 life new Repenttaance Sal vation

Transpose letters or words Delete letter or letters Close up

within
You can never be great Stream in the desert Punto de Vista
unless you are good
Indent material Set in bold face Set in italic type

Mirror of life stet Huwan dela Serna

broad day light
Center material Stay as is Spell as written
It was decided by The road to greatness Elementary algebra the book he
by the group more is using ,
Run in copy Unfinished story Insert comma
 There is more to There is more to
General Santos City than
General Santos City than meets the eye, for amidst its
meets the eye, for amidst its economic grandeur lies
economic grandeur lies its
cultural treasures. its cultural treasures.
Move text to the down Move text up

The whole paragraph is There is more to General

full of errors, not only in
grammar but also in
information.
Santos City than meets the
eye, for amidst its economic
grandeur lies its cultural
treasures.

Delete many lines or paragraphs Move text to the right

There is more to bf There is more to General
Santos City than meets the
General Santos Heyo kem daw. eye, for amidst its economic
City than meets grandeur lies
the eye, for its cultural treasures.
lf
amidst its
economic Good day
grandeur lies its
cultural treasures.

Align text at the right

Move text to the In bold or light face
margin
left Set
 There is more to General
Santos City than meets
the eye, for amidst its
end. 30
economic grandeur lies
its cultural treasures. end. #

Align text at the left margin End marks

To insert punctuation

period
. exclamatory point opening quote parentheses
colon comma closing quote hyphen

semicolon question mark ? apostrophe dash

Headline Writing
News has no titles but headlines. Headlines are
windows of the newspapers as they serve as the quick
source of information for busy readers. Summarizing
complex story and arranging them in a limited space on the
page entails the creative skills of the copy editor.

Objective of the Newspaper Headlines

1. To attract the readers
2. To tell the readers what the news is all about
3. To persuade the readers to read as many individual
stories as possible
4. To add variety and attractiveness to the page
5. to create distinction or personality of the newspaper
Qualities of a Good Headline
1. It attracts the reader’s 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. Active verb in the
present or future tense is used because aside from
being a short word, it is also the tense of immediacy
and it is more vivid.

4. It is adjusted to a predetermined typographical style of

paper.
Steps in Headline Writing
1. Read the whole story to understand its message.

2. Underline key words as its lead, for headline writing.

3. Using the key words from the lead, write a short

telegraphic sentence summary of the news.

4. Use the shortest word possible. Substitute simple

effective synonyms to fit the headline within the allotted
space.
5. Divide it according to unit of thoughts into the number of
required lines or decks.
6. Use colorful noun and vigorous and active verb.
7. Start with noun followed by a verb.
Kinds of Headline
1. Flush left – two more lines of headline are aligned at the left
edge of the column
Example:
Malacañang considers
Abat adventure over

2. Flush right – two or more lines of headline are aligned at

the right edge of the column
Example:
Malacañang considers
Abat adventure over
3. Dropline – two or three lines of headline, usually of the
same length and arranged diagonally
Example:
Dole Philippines donates
arm chairs to Sarangani

4. Hanging indention – usually three or more lines of

headline, the first line set flush to both margins
and the succeeding lines are indented or
beginning several spaces in from the left
margin, thus hanging as if from the first
Example:
Military ready to step in
if anti-gov’t protest
turn violent
5. Crossline or barline– a single line of headline, running
over two or more columns
Example:
Grenade blast kills 2 kids

6. Inverted pyramid – two or three lines of headline with the

first line flushed to both margin and
succeeding lines getting shorter and
centered
Example:
Deped sets new guidelines
for teacher-applicants
7. Flushline or full line – consist of two or more lines of the
same length
Example:
Garci names solons
who also called him
8. Streamer– striking boldface head extending across the top
of the page

9. Umbrella – a streamer that is placed at the very top of the

page above the nameplate of the newspaper.
10. Binder – a streamer at the top of an inside page

11. Boxed head– the headline is boxed either for

prominence or to avoid tombstoning
 a. full box ICT to generate 1M jobs

b. half box ICT to generate 1M jobs

c. quarter box ICT to generate 1M jobs

12. Jump head (run-over head) – headline of a news story,

which is cut and continued on the inside page; it
is followed by the words from page _ or the like

13. Subhead – a short title of a portion of news story to break

the monotony of gray text; set in boldface and
occupies more than half the column width
14. Tagline, kicker or teaser – a short single line placed
above the main head, may be of smaller type,
underlined and set flush left or centered

15. Hammer – if the tagline or kicker is bigger than the

headline
Guidelines for Writing Headlines
1. The head should tell the gist of the story simply and
accurately.
2. It should contain a verb, but not start with one.
3. Be in the active voice.

4. Be in the present, historical present or the future tense.

5. Avoid the use of articles to begin headline.

6. Use no abbreviation except those generally known ones.

7. 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.
8. Be specific. Avoid generalities.
Wrong: Student wins contest

Right: Metrian scribe wins nat’l essay writing tilt

9. Avoid label head.
Wrong: Auctioned
Right: Imelda jewelry auctioned
10. Do not editorialize your headline.
Wrong: Metrian shows great performance in DSPC
Right: Metrian wins 6 out of 7 in DSPC writing contest
11. Do not use the same word twice in the headline or kicker.
Example: Gun haul
GenSan cops seize 24 guns
from suspected bandits
12. Never use the word “may”. It denotes the uncertain element
of the story.
13. To use direct quotation as head, use any of the following
forms instead of the traditional quotation marks:

a. Using the dash instead of the quotation mark.

Example: Truth commission repugnant - Mirriam
b. Using the colon
Example: Sto. Tomas: Brain drain just a prescription
c. Using narrative form
Example: Garci is back, says wife
14. Do not be in the negative.
Wrong: Metrian festival won’t be held
Right: Metrian festival cancelled
15. The first letter of the word and proper nouns are generally
capitalized.
16. Avoid awkward verbal breaks.
Wrong: Gensan SPED bebaters
join nat’l tilt in Manila
Right: Gensan SPED debaters
join Nat’l tilt in Manila
17. Mention only the name of person, who is prominent.
Wrong: Jacoba wins Microsoft global award
Right: Filipino wins Microsoft global award
18. Use M for million and B for billion.
Example: Philhealth lost P520M to fraudulent claim,
says chief
19. Use comma instead of and.
Example: GMA, Bush skip rape issue in Busan meet
20. Separate double headline by a semicolon.
Example: Bomb explodes at GenSan Market; 13
killed, 53 hurt
21. Do not end the headline with a period.
22. Use the infinitive for future events.
Example: GMA to visit Saudi on way to NY
23. Avoid splitting compound word
Wrong: GMA to award taxi
driver for honesty
 Right: GMA to award taxi driver for honesty
24. Avoid splitting words that naturally go together
Wrong: Metrian celebrate Buwan
ng Wika with beauty tilt
Right: Metrians hold Buwan ng Wika
with beauty contest
25. Do not mix up typefaces in making headlines to avoid
clutter. Do not use four to eight kinds of fonts of headlines
on a page. The maximum font type that can you can use
on a page is two unrelated fonts except for features
stories.
Guidelines in Determining Headline Size
The size of the headline usually gives the idea of how
significant a story is. Here is a list of short guidelines in
determining headline size:
1. A short four-inch story needs only one column. A one
column headline needs one or three decks of word
depending on text length. Try using two decks, 24 points.

2. Stories of four to six inches may run in one or two

columns. Get headline types of 24 to 30 points in a single
or double decks of words.

3. Stories from six to 12 inches deep will take a multicolumn

headline of 36 points or bigger typeface depending on the
width of the headline of the headline typeface.
Rules in Acronym
Acronym is derived from the combination of the first
letters or syllables of the words or name of an organization.
Here are the rules to follow.
1. For four-letter acronym and below, all letters should be
capitalized like in WHO for World Health Organization, UN
for United Nations, MILF for Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
2. For more than four-letter acronym, only its first letter is
capitalized like in Asean for Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and Unicef for United Nations International
Children’s Emergency Fund.
 3. For syllabic acronym, the first letter of each syllable of the
words should be capitalized like in DepEd for the
Department of Education, GenSan for General Santos
City and SoCSKSarGen for South Cotabato-Sultan
Kudarat-Sarangani-General Santos.

Mechanics for Headline Writing

The next job of the copy editor after developing the
headline is to see to it that it fits on the allotted space on the
page. He now gives the necessary technical instruction to the
layout man on what font type and size to be used and how it
should be presented on the page.
Example:
2-20TNRB W/KICKER
 Number 2 means the head will run across two
columns of the page. Number 20 stands for the font size to
be used. TNRB refers to the font type Times New Roman
Bold and KICKER means a preliminary head. The line below
refers to the number of line or deck the headline will have.
The final headline will look like this:

Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran

GenSan braces for top slot
Unit Count in Headline
All small letters (except j,l,I,f,t,m and w) =1 unit
Small letters j,l,I,f,t,m =1/2 unit
Small letters m and w =1 ½ unit
All capital letter (except j,l,I,f,t,m and w) =1 ½ unit
Capital letter I =1/2 unit
Capital letters M and W = 2 unit
All punctuation marks (except the dash, question mark,
dollar, peso, and per cent sign) =1/2 unit
Dash, question mark, dollar, peso and percent sign =1 unit
All number figures from 0 to 9 (except 1) = 1 unit
Number 1 = ½ unit
All spaces =1 unit

Example:
1 1/21 1 1 1 11 11 ½ 1 1 ½ 11½½½ 1 111 ½ 1 1
Grenade blast kills 2 kids = 23 ½
Qualities of an Effective Headline Writer
1. He has an accurate perception of the story. The
headline writer must be able to see the story clearly and
strip it down to its essentials.
2. He has must have a vocabulary that is both broad and
deep. He must possess not only a vocabulary of many
words but a precise knowledge of word meanings, keen
sense of their connotations. A thorough knowledge of
colloquial terms and even slang if necessary.
3. He has a sharp sense of sentence structure. Sentences
take many structures. The headline writer should have a
keen sense not only with his choice of words but also in
the choice of structures.
 4. He has a keen eye for ambiguity. He must always
remember his readers in composing headline. What is
unclear to him will also be unclear to his readers.

Headline Vocabulary
1. Accord – agreement
2. Allay – calm
3. Allot – apportion, set aside
4. Anew – again
5. Assail – attack
6. Ax – dismiss
7. Bare – reveal, expose
8. Bat – defend
9. Bid – request
10. Blast - criticized
11. Cite – enumerate, mention
12. Confab – conference
13. Cop – police
14. Cow - frighten
15. Crown – win
16. Curb – control,stop
17. Cut – decrease
18. Dip – decrease, decline
19. Draw fire – to be criticized
20. Dry run - rehearsal
21. Due – deadline, scheduled
22. Ex – former
23. To eye – consider
24. feud – quarrel, dispute
25. foil – thwart, reject
26.Gab – conference
27.Gird – brace, prepare
28. go – try
29. grill – question, interrogate
30. hail – welcome
31. hike – increase
32. Hit – attack
33. Inquiry – investigation
34. ink – to sign a contract
35. junk – to throw way, decline
36. kin – family
37. kit - package
38. letup – temporary easing up
39. link – connect
40. lull – calm
41. meet – conference, to convene
42. megman – movie director
43. memo – memorandum
44. mull – plan, to think of
45. mum – silent
46. Nab – arrest
47. nix – reject
48.Okay – approve accept
49. peg – to fix at a certain amount
or level
50. pit – oppose
51. post – position, to assign
52. power – electricity
53. probe – to investigate
54. prod – prick
55. quit – resign
56. quiz – question
57. ratify – approve
58. raze – destroy
59. revamp – to change, reshuffle
60. rift – disagreement
61. row – dispute, disagreement
62. rule – decide, decision
63. sans – without
64. scan – examine
65. scribe – newspaperman
66. shakeup – reshuffle
67. skip – avoid
68. slay – kill, assasinate
69. solon – lawmaker
70. try - attempt