Some of the most important words a journalist writes are a headline.

Headlines contain essential words that convey the subject of a story and what the story is about.

Please note those are two different things. The subject is general and the what's it about is specific.

What is a headline?

• A headline is an abstract sentence
   
  
• Usually it is only five to ten words
   
  
• It is a complete thought
   
  
• It has a subject and a verb, and often an object

The goal is to grab the reader

• Ask yourself this question as you compose a headline:

  If people see my five to ten words, will they know what the article is about?

• It's not hard to find examples of headlines that answer that question in the negative. Sure, they may have a couple of words that point to a subject, but they don't answer what's it about?

Most important rule

• The words in a headline must represent accurately what is in the story. Accuracy counts above all else.

What to do?

• Understand the story completely before writing its headline.
   
  
• Base the headline on the story's main idea, which should be in the lead or introduction.
   
  
• Don't use in the headline facts that are not in the story.
   
  
• Don't repeat the exact wording of the story in the headline.
   
  
• If a story qualifies a statement, the headline should also.
   
  
• Avoid ambiguity, insinuations and double meanings.

Word choices

• Be specific, accurate, clear and concise.
   
  
• Don't repeat key words in the same headline.
   
  
• Avoid unclear or little known names, phrases and abbreviations.
   
  
• Don't use pronouns alone and unidentified.
   
  
• Alliteration should be intentional and not change the general tone of the story.
   
  
• Avoid headline speak such as hit, flay, rap, hike, nix, nab, slate. Be more precise.

Verbs

• No headline may start with a verb.
   
  
• Headlines are complete sentences or imply complete sentences.
   
  
• A linking verb can be implied rather than spelled out.
   
  
• If a story is about past or present events, write present tense verbs.
   
  
• If a story is about future events, use the infinitive verb (to leave, to work).
   
  
• To be verbs, such as is, are, was and were should be omitted.

Punctuation

• Use punctuation sparingly.
   
  
• Don't eat up space with the conjunction and. Instead, use a comma.

  Principal and parents meet on school rules for next year
  Principal, parents agree on new school rules

Grammar

• Don't use the articles a, an and the. They waste space unnecessarily.

  A new fire engine helps make the houses safer
  New fire engine helps make houses safer

Web headlines

• As with any news story, a strong headline is vital for a web story.
   
  
• Headlines often are found in lists of links, where they are a reader's first introduction to a story. If they do not sell a reader on the story immediately, the reader is unlikely to click the link to navigate to the story.
   
  
• SEO is search engine optimization. Search engines favor coherent headlines. Your headlines can be essential to search engine optimization, which draws traffic to your website.

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© 2011 Dr. Anthony Curtis, Mass Communication Dept., University of North Carolina at Pembroke    910.521.6616    e-mail    home page The names Second Life and Linden Lab, and the hand logo and logotype, are registered trademarks of Linden Research Inc.