Guidelines

Headlines

Captions

Style

Assistance

Headlines

Create headlines that present accurate, complete information quickly and attractively. Headlines are the most-read parts of any publication.

What headlines should do:

• Attract readers’ attention.
• Summarize story.
• Help readers index contents of page.
• Tell readers why a story matters.
• Depict mood of story.
• Help set tone of publication.
• Provide typographic relief.

Select a headline topic for specific information, or scroll through the text below.

Mechanics
Things to Avoid
Things Not to Do
In a Tight Squeeze
Tricks That Can Make Feature Headlines Sparkle

Mechanics

• Read story more than once before writing the headline.
• Draw headline from information near top of the story. Build around key words that must be included, but do not parrot the opening sentences.
• Capitalize first letter of first word; lowercase rest of words in headline: Men require more sleep, study reveals. If you use uppercase style instead, be consistent.
• Make headline complete. Each one should have a subject and a predicate.
• Make headline as specific as possible. Don’t write something such as Proposed cuts draw criticism unless you tell what cuts were criticized by whom.
• Avoid label headlines except in obituaries (the name) or where space is too small for a full headline. Label heads tell readers little, as in Scholarship awards; Student winners. They are almost as bad as other ho-hum headlines that tell readers little, as in Building plans approved; Our new music teachers; or Professor receives grant.
• Use active verbs, preferably in the top line.
• Verify accuracy; be certain headline doesn’t have a double meaning, such as Rape classes planned for a story on rape awareness and prevention.
• Write in present tense, even for events in the past. But avoid something such as Bill Doe retires in January if your publication is printed after January.
• Use single quotes instead of double quotes in headlines.
• Use a comma for the word and if you need to save space: Curators vote on tuition, salary increases.
• Use periods only after abbreviations. Abbreviate sparingly, and use only those most people would recognize.

Things to Avoid

• Avoid negatively stated headlines. Instead of writing Department’s picnic not held because of rain, write Department cancels picnic because of rain.
• Avoid excessive adjectives and adverbs.
  
• Avoid using slang.
• Avoid overworked words. Words to shun include eyes for looks, quiz for question, talk for conference presentation, probe for inquiry, bests for defeats, hike for increase and looks to for wants to.
• Avoid editorializing and using loaded terms to describe people whose names are used in the story. Include attribution or qualification whenever necessary, such as Worker says thugs stole stamps from her desk or Worker: Thugs stole stamps. Writing Thugs stole stamps without attribution or qualification would be editorializing.

Things Not to Do

• Don’t invite libel or contempt with headlines such as Doctor kills child.
• Don’t begin with a verb, eliminating subject: Vote against street bill. The result is a headline that commands readers to do something, instead of telling readers that a committee voted against a bill.
• Don’t use common last names such as Smith, Jones or names of employees that may not be easily recognized by all of your readers. Use titles with unrecognizable names, or recast head focusing on what the person says or does.
• Don’t use speaker’s name in the top line; what speaker said is more important. Don’t pad headline with extra words just to make it fit. Say something.
• Don’t repeat words, as in University professor gets University’s top leadership award.
• Don’t split nouns and modifiers or verb forms and prepositional phrases over two lines unless space is the main consideration. Write Faculty to vote (first line) on tenure policy (second line).
• Don’t abbreviate: months, unless followed by a date; days of week; a title without a person’s name; a person’s name; or the words department, association or company, unless in a tight squeeze.

In a Tight Squeeze

• Use numerals instead of writing out figures.
• Use percentage sign instead of writing out the word percent.
• Abbreviate United States, United Nations, a state or a university, even if you wouldn’t ordinarily.
• Split a modifier from what it modifies in a one-column headline, but do not split a prepositional phrase.
• Abbreviate association, department or company if used with rest of the name.

Tricks That Can Make Feature Headlines Sparkle

• Puns — Binding success (for a story about a printing company); Branching out all over (for a story about a tree farm)
• Alliteration — Peter Piper picks pickled peppers; Some students study steadily
• Match or fit the graphics — Engrossing anatomy with a photo of a professor clad in lab coat and surrounded by skeletons
• Balance and contrast — Putting the new cart before the old horse
• Rhymes — Billy Doe practices all day but never is given a chance to play
• Proverbs, or twists of clichés, quotations or titles — To publish or not to publish; Through the eye of a camel

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