Copy Reading

and
Headline Writing
Sarah Jean B. Bayocot
Lecturer
Copy reading – is correcting a copy
before the final printing
 Duties of a COPYREADER

 Straighten out ungrammatical construction

 Shorten sentences and tighten paragraphs
 See that the paper’s style requirements are
strictly followed
 Check names, addresses, titles,
designations, identifications, figures, etc.
 Rewrite the story completely if it is poorly
written
 Duties of a COPYREADER

 Delete all opinions, speculations and

attributions without sources
 Recheck figures and totals
 Cross out adjectives
 Watch out for libelous statements
 Watch out for biased presentation
 Write headlines
 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.
For four-letter acronym and below, all letters should
be capitalized.
examples:
WHO for World Health Organization
UN for United Nations
MILF for Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
For more than four letter acronym, only its first letter is capitalized .
 Asean for Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Unicef for United Nations International Children’s Emergency
Fund
 For syllabic acronym, the first letter of
each syllable of the words should be
capitalized.

 DepEd for Department of Education

 COPYREADING
SYMBOLS

president of the philippines - set in caps

Hope of the Land - set in lower case

Manila Times - boldface

Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak - italics

Thank you - emphasize period

Because of you, he said - insert quotation marks

Paco Manila - insert comma

 COPYREADING SYMBOLS

Pacquiaos latest fight - insert apostrophe

a
barangy - insert letter

recieve - transpose letter

Jose Lina Jr., Governor - transpose word

8 groups - write in words

one hundred trees - write in figures

Dr. Cruz - spell out

COPYREADING SYMBOLS

Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo - indent

Almost 100 students - run in

attended the
training

parti cipants - close up

GMA to visit orphanage - center subhead

Manilas - delete

Wilfredo Krus - stay as in original

 COPYREADING SYMBOLS

More - unfinished story

30 # - end of the story

- move to right

- move to left
 WRITING HEADLINES

 Write headlines in capsule form

 Verb should be in present tense or
infinitive verb to be
 No article
 Don’t end each line with prepositions
 Use comma instead of conjunction
 Follow the S-V-O pattern
– Example: GMA shuffles cabinet
 WRITING HEADLINES

 Positive heads are better than negative

heads
 The active verb is better than the passive
verb
 Write numbers in figure or spell out
depending upon your needs for unit counts
 Use a comma instead of AND
 Use single quotation marks
 FUNCTIONS OF
HEADLINES
 To tell in capsule form what the story is
all about
 To grade the news as to importance
 To make the page look attractive
 Note: While the lead summarizes the
story, the headline summarizes the lead.
Don’t repeat the verb used in the lead to
your headline.
 EXAMPLES OF HEADLINES
AND VERB SUBSTITUTES
 Faculty club strengthened (beefed up)
 Enrolment decreases (dips)
 Science examination announced (quiz, bared)
 Santos urges cooperation (bats for, calls for)
 School prexy praises studes (lauds, extols)
 Marians dominate press tilt (rule, lord over)
 Drive against poverty going on (vs, on)
 EXAMPLES OF QUOTATION
HEADLINES
Aquino to rivals: Concede
‘I will not concede’ – Aquino
I will not concede, says opposition
 PRINTER’S DIRECTION

Printer’s Direction:
Headline
No. of pts., no. of columns, family type,
structure, style
Text
No. of pts., no. of columns, family type
 MECHANICS OF HEADLINE WRITING

The next job of a 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: 2-24TNRB W/KICKER

Number 2 means the head will run across two columns of the
page. Number 24 stands for the font size to be used. TNRB
refers to the font type Times New Roman Bold and KICKER
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

Gen San braces for top slot

 UNIT COUNT

A,B,C,D,E,G,H,K,N,O,P,R,S,U,V,Z – 1 ½ unit
J,I,L,T,F – 1 unit
M W – 2 unit
a,b,c,d,e,g,h,k,n,o,p,q,r,s,u,v,w,x,y,z – 1 unit
j,i,l,t,f – ½ unit
m,w – 1 ½ unit
! , : . ; - ½ unit
- ? % - 1 unit
Space – 1 unit
Ooppss!