CHAPTER XI

Chapter 118,112 wordsPublic domain

THE WRITING OF HEADLINES

=The Function of the Headline.= Headlines as developed by the American press during the last half-century have come to be, next to the news itself, the most important part of our newspapers. From mere labels to indicate the kind of reading matter to be found in the columns under them, headlines in this country have developed into bulletins giving the substance of the articles to which they are attached. By presenting conspicuously in large type the important facts of the story which it precedes, the headline serves a double purpose: it makes possible rapid reading of the news thus outlined in the head, and it becomes an advertisement of the news to attract the purchaser.

=Heads Promote Rapid Reading.= As concise summaries of the facts of the news, headlines fill an important place in contemporary American life, for, by reading only the headlines, the busy man or woman can get in brief outline the news of the whole world. The size of the type and the arrangement of the parts of the headline aid in a marked degree this rapid reading. Well-written heads that give clearly and accurately the information of greatest significance in the stories under them are an integral part of the newspaper, the function of which, as has been said, is to give the readers in a clear and interesting form the news of the day.

=How Heads Advertise News.= By their form and position, likewise, the headlines act as advertisements for what the paper contains. Like all good advertisements, headlines should create interest and lead to the sale of the paper. By arousing the reader’s curiosity and at the same time partially satisfying it, the head, when skillfully written, attracts the reader’s attention and influences him to read the story.

A newspaper that aims to have large street sales will naturally take advantage of the advertising element in the heads, by making them as attractive as possible. In fact, the efforts of some newspapers of this class to make the most powerful appeal possible, have led to extreme forms of headlines with great black type and with varicolored effects. In general, morning papers and evening papers with regular subscribers are less inclined to employ large heads for advertising their news than are those evening papers with several street editions that seek to have large sales. Large heads extending across several columns and printed in green, red, or black ink set forth the latest phases of the news in a manner well calculated to catch the eye as the paper is displayed on the news stand or in the hands of the newsboy. As in advertising in general there is always a temptation to make alluring statements at the expense of truth, so in headline advertisement there is a tendency to exaggerate and magnify in order to catch the unwary reader.

=Large Heads and “Yellow Journalism.”= Since the more sensational papers have taken advantage of this advertising element and have yielded at times to the temptation to exaggerate or even to misrepresent, as is not unheard of in advertising generally, large display effects in headlines have come to be associated in the popular mind with so-called “yellow journalism.” The connection between the two is by no means inevitable, however, for large headlines need not be any more sensational or inaccurate than smaller ones, and may legitimately be used to attract attention to the real features of the news. Conservative papers that do not depend to any considerable extent on street sales tend to keep up the smaller headlines long used in American newspapers, which, while giving the substance of the news in outline, do not attempt to advertise prominently the contents.

=Clearness and Conciseness.= Regarded as a bulletin of the most important facts in the news, the headline should present these facts in a clear and concise manner. To be clear the form should be one that can be taken in by the eye at a glance. The relation of the divisions, or “decks,” of the head should be evident, so that the reader may get a clear idea of the bearing of one statement on another. The statements should be concrete and specific. The limitations of space make it necessary for the headline to be concise so that the maximum number of important facts may be included.

=Action in Headlines.= As news is largely concerned with activities, headlines should express the action related in the news story. In defining oratory Demosthenes said that the three essential elements are: first, “action”; second, “action”; and third, “action.” The same characteristics may well be ascribed to the most effective headlines. Life and vividness of expression give interest to heads as they do to the news story. Freshness and originality of phrasing are also successful provided the uncommon form is clear. Short, crisp, specific words constituting definite statements that can be readily grasped in rapid reading, generally make the best headlines.

=Headlines are Impartial.= Headlines, like the news stories of which they are summaries, should be impartial. It is possible to “color” headlines so that they give a false impression of the news in the stories to which they are attached. The reader tends to carry over into the news story the impression which he gets from the headline, and a “colored” head, therefore, tends to “color” even an impartial, accurate news story. Headlines likewise should not comment on the news; comments on the news should be made in the editorial columns.

=Divisions of Headlines.= The headline is composed of one or more divisions called “lines,” “decks,” or “banks.” These divisions are separated by dashes and are frequently different in form and in size of type. In the following head, each deck has a distinct form and size of type.

cross-line |WEEKLY LOSS $2,500,000| ——— ———————

Headlines are constructed on the basis of the four forms that appear in the above example, which may be called respectively, (1) the drop-line; (2) the pyramid; (3) the cross-line; and (4) the hanging indention. Graphically these forms may be represented thus:

(1)

| Drop-line | |—————————————————————————————— | | ——————————————————————————————|

(2)

| Pyramid | |————————————————————————————————————————| | —————————————————————————————————— | | ———————————————————————————— |

(3)

| Cross-line | |————————————————————————————————————————|

(4)

| Hanging indention | |————————————————————————————————————————| | ——————————————————————————————————| | ——————————————————————————————————| | ——————————————————————————————————|

=Drop-Line Heads.= The drop-line head may consist of two, three, or four parts arranged as in the following three heads:

(1)

|MOVING PICTURE MEN | | START WAR ON TRUST|

(2)

(3)

=Cross-Line Heads.= The cross-line head consists of but one line which may or may not fill the whole space between the column rules. In the following examples, the first head fills the line, and the second only part of the line.

(1)

|POSTAL BANK BILL PASSES|

(2)

| SEES PERIL IN TARIFF |

=Pyramid Banks.= The pyramid head may consist of two, three, or four parts, graduated in length to produce the inverted pyramid effect. The following “bank” illustrates the pyramid of three parts:

=Hanging Indention.= The hanging indention head consists of several parts, the first of which begins at the column rule on the left, while all the others are indented the width of one or two letters.

The drop-line, cross-line, or pyramid may be used in any deck, whereas the hanging indention head is used only for a deck other than the first.

=Combinations of Forms.= Various combinations of these four forms may be used to give the variety required for all kinds of stories. For large heads a combination of a two part drop-line, a three part pyramid, a cross-line or another drop-line, and a second pyramid, constitutes a frequent form, as is seen in the following example:

A large three part drop-line head may be followed by a hanging indention line and by a cross-line, as in the following case:

For smaller heads there are several sizes of two part drop-heads, or of cross-lines combined with pyramids or hanging indentions of two or three parts; for example:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Practically every symmetrical arrangement of the four forms of heads can be found in various newspapers, but the principles underlying the writing of any of the combinations are the same.

=Type Limits of Heads.= The typographical limitations are the most important considerations governing the writing of headlines. These limitations are determined by the size of type and the form of each deck of the head. The possible variation in the parts of the first deck is not more than a letter or two from the normal form. So small is the variation possible within the column width that the size of the letters used has to be considered. Thus the letters “M” and “W” are one and one-half times the size of all the other letters except “I,” which is only one-half as large as the others. In the counting of unit letters in a headline, the writer must consider “M” and “W” as one and one-half units each, and the letter “I” and the figure “1” as half a unit each. Each space between words is counted as one unit. Since the form and symmetry of a head are marred or entirely destroyed by having too few or too many units in any part, great skill is necessary in the choice and the arrangement of words to secure as nearly as possible the exact number of units required for a perfect head.

The effect produced by having too many units is shown in the following heads for which 18 units is the normal number in each half of the two-line drop head.

(1)

|GOVERNOR NAMES FIRST| |OF MUNICIPAL REFORMS|

(2)

|TWO FIRES IN ONE HOUSE| |INSIDE OF THREE HOURS|

When the number of units is less than that required for the best effect, the headline is not so unsatisfactory as when too many units are crowded into it, because the short line is more legible than the long one. In each of the following heads the first half contains only 15 units instead of 18, and as a result there is too much space at the end of each of these halves. Both, however, are much more easily read than the crowded ones given above.

(1)

|STATE SECRETARY | | ON TRIP TO COAST|

(2)

|WEISS REASSURES | | BUSINESS WORLD|

That much better results are produced by having each half contain more nearly the required number of units is shown by comparing the next two heads with those preceding.

(1)

|STORY OF DYING MAN | | REOPENS GRAFT CASE|

(2)

|MAY LOSE EXTRA PAY | | FOR NIGHT CAR RUNS|

In headline writing a number of points must be borne in mind. It should be remembered, however, that these are not hard and fast rules but general principles based on newspaper practice.

=Why the Head is Based on the “Lead.”= As in the normal type of news story all the important facts are given in the lead, the headline, as the bulletin of these facts, is based largely, if not entirely, on the material in the lead. One reason for giving all the essential details in the lead, as has already been pointed out, is that the story may be cut down before or after it is in type. This possibility that the story may be cut down is an additional reason why the headline should be based on the first part of the story, for if the headline contains only the substance of the lead, it need not be rewritten when any part of the story is cut off.

=The Tone of the Head.= To adapt the character of the headline to the tone of the story is important for the best effect of both. The head should prepare the reader for what is to follow. A humorous or witty headline is well adapted for a story written in a light vein but usually is out of keeping with a plain news story. A suggestion of pathos even may be given in the headline when the story warrants it. Efforts to be funny or tearful, however, ought always to be carefully considered and should not be made unless the circumstances justify them.

=Avoiding Repetition.= It has come to be a generally recognized point that there should be a minimum amount of repetition of words throughout the head. The same word should not be used more than once either in the same deck or in different decks unless the lack of synonyms makes it absolutely necessary, or unless emphasis is gained by so doing. This, of course, applies in only a limited degree to the necessary connective words, such as conjunctions and prepositions, and parts of the verb “to be.” The writer of heads should have at his command a number of synonymous words and expressions, so that, when he must refer to the same person, object, or action a second or third time, he may be able to vary the expression.

=The Interrelation of the Decks.= If the grammatical subject remains the same in statements made in two or more decks, it need not be repeated, as it will be understood with the verbs in the following deck or decks. In the head given below, the subject of the verb “stricken” in the first deck, serves as the subject of the verbs “found” in the second deck, “is” in the third, and “will be taken” in the fourth.

Since the subject, when suppressed in any deck, is understood to be the same as that in the deck just preceding, care must be taken to have the verb agree with it grammatically. There is a not unnatural tendency, for example, to use in one deck a singular verb with a collective noun like “common council,” or “faculty” (of a college), and then, changing the idea to the members of these bodies, to use in the next deck a plural verb with the subject suppressed. Thus, in the following head, “tariff board” should not be made the subject of “reports” and “declare.”

Failure to remember that a verb without a subject is assumed to have the same subject as the statement in the deck immediately preceding, not that in any other of the preceding decks, also leads to confusion. The following head, for example, is poor because it is not clear that “president” is the subject of “gives,” since “governor” is the subject of the statement in the preceding deck; nor is it evident that “troops” of the first deck is the subject of “to camp” in the fourth.

The subject is sometimes incorrectly suppressed in one deck when there is no subject in the preceding deck that can be understood for that verb; for example, in the following head there is no word in the first deck that can be taken for the subject of “was” in the second.

Often it is necessary to repeat in other decks with additional details or in more definite form the statement made in the first deck; for example:

When such repetition is necessary for greater clearness, there is no objection to it, but to make several decks merely repetition in other words of the first is a not uncommon fault that should be avoided. If, for example, the foregoing head had been expanded into four decks by mere repetition, the result might have been the following head, in which but one fact is presented.

Most newspapers prefer to have the statement in each deck grammatically independent of that in the preceding deck; that is, they avoid extending a statement through two decks. How such a continuous statement is sometimes made, however, is shown in the following head from the New York _Sun_:

One peculiar form of headline, some of the best examples of which are found in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_, depends for its effect upon this continuation of a statement through several decks. Only one word is used for the first deck of large heads of this type, and only one or two in the first deck of smaller heads, as is seen in the following examples:

(1)

(2)

=Style in Heads.= Rhyme and alliteration may be used to advantage on rare occasions, but generally this similarity of sound produces a jingling result that is not pleasing. Originality and novelty can be given by choice and combination of words much more effectively than by the artificial means of similar sounds.

To make headlines as concise as possible the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are omitted, and auxiliary verbs not absolutely necessary are suppressed. When articles and auxiliaries are convenient to fill out the line to the required number of units, they may be retained, but should not be used at the beginning of a deck.

To give freshness and vividness to the head, the verb is usually put in the present tense even though the action is in the past; for example, “Roosevelt Speaks in Cleveland.” Future action is expressed by the infinitive or by the regular future form with “will”; for example, “Roosevelt to Speak in Cleveland,” or “Roosevelt Will Speak in Cleveland.”

The active voice of the verb is preferred to the passive because the active is more vivid and more concise. “Cornell Wins Intercollegiate Regatta,” is better than “Intercollegiate Regatta Won by Cornell.” When, however, the passive is required to give the more significant part of the statement prominence in the first part of the top deck it should be used in preference to the active. In the following head the important point is that the post office has been robbed, rather than the fact that it was robbed by tramps.

|POST OFFICE ROBBED | | BY BAND OF TRAMPS|

This head would be less effective with the active verb, since the robbery of the post office would then go into the second part of the deck, thus:

|BAND OF TRAMPS ROB | | POST OFFICE SAFE|

News value rather than rules must determine in any case whether the active or passive voice is desirable.

The use of abbreviations, likewise, cannot be fixed by rule. In general, only commonly used abbreviations, like “Dr.,” “Prof.,” “Mrs.,” “Mr.,” “St.,” “Co.,” are to be found in headlines. In particular cases, however, others are employed because they are convenient and clear. In Boston, for example, “Tech” as an abbreviation for “Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” is common, and the Boston _Herald_, therefore, used it to advantage in the head:

|200 TECH MEN SEE | | YULE LOG BLAZE|

During a long campaign for “immediate municipal ownership” in Chicago, the newspapers of that city used almost daily the abbreviation “I.M.O.” So “L” for “elevated railroad” is perfectly clear to readers in New York, Boston, and Chicago. The names of states are not usually abbreviated, although “U.S.” is frequent. Abbreviations like “auto,” “taxi,” and “phone” are so general that they are used without question in headlines.

Colloquial contractions like “can’t,” “we’re,” etc., although not common, may give the life and naturalness often well suited to a story, as for example in the following head:

In the first deck short words are preferred, because in rapid reading they are more easily grasped than long ones, and because two or three words in each part of the line make a better looking, more symmetrical head. To meet the need for short equivalents for long words that are generally accepted terms, new words have been coined and new functions given to old ones. For the long noun “investigation” and the verb “to investigate,” the words “probe” and “quiz” are favorites with the headline writer, and are often used to excess. Long words like “criticize,” “censure,” “rebuke” give way to shorter ones like “hit,” “rap,” and “score.” The concise but inelegant “nab” is a headline substitute for “arrest.” The verb “peril,” rarely used elsewhere, appears in heads as an equivalent for “imperil” or “endanger,” as in “Shipwreck Perils Many.” The verb “wed” is a convenient short form for “marry.” Words condemned by good usage, such as “to suicide” and “to kill self,” have found a place in the headlines of some newspapers because of their clearness and brevity.

Slang, likewise, on account of its conciseness, novelty, and colloquial character, is not infrequently found in heads, although some newspapers have a rule against its use. If the slang word or phrase is put in quotation marks, it is considered by some newspapers as less objectionable. All that may be said for or against slang in newspapers as a whole, applies with equal force to its use in heads. If the question of good taste is involved in the use of a slang word, the safe course is to avoid it.

Some newspapers have a rule that numerical figures should be put into headlines only when they are absolutely necessary, an injunction that implies a very limited use of them, whereas the general practice clearly is to employ figures when they are the most effective means of conveying the important facts. The advantage of figures is seen in the following heads taken from representative newspapers:

(1)

|TO SELL 81 PICTURES | | VALUED AT $2,000,000|

(2)

|5,000 WOMEN MARCH | | IN SUFFRAGE PARADE|

(3)

(4)

Figures for numbers under ten appear less frequently in headlines, particularly at the beginning of a deck, but again the practice in regard to this usage is not uniform. Newspapers, like the New York _Evening Post_, that have but one line in the top deck of their large headlines, not infrequently use figures below ten at the beginning or anywhere in the first deck. With the greater space of the drop-line head it is easier to avoid small figures.

The division of words in headlines so that one syllable is in one part of the deck and one in another part, is to be avoided. Similarly, hyphenated words, or two words constituting a name or term each word of which is not clear alone, should not be divided between parts of the top deck. The following four heads illustrate these undesirable divisions:

(1)

|TROOPS SOON TO EM- | | BARK FOR PANAMA|

(2)

|CAMP PICKS ALL- | | AMERICAN TEAM|

(3)

|CUT IN SCHEDULE | | “K” IS PROBABLE|

(4)

|CURLERS PLAN BON | | SPIEL IN MARCH|

The use of unemphatic words, like “of,” “to,” “for,” “and,” “but,” “if,” “a,” “the,” at the end of parts of the top deck is not desirable, as in this position they are given prominence and emphasis out of all proportion to their importance. Typographical limitations and the exigencies of rapid headline writing, however, result not infrequently in their appearance in these positions. Whenever it is possible, they should be avoided at the end of parts of the top deck.

=Punctuation.= Punctuation in headlines and subheads follows the accepted rules. When marks are not absolutely necessary for clearness, they should be omitted. In the first deck, and in cross-line heads, independent sentences not connected by conjunctions are separated by semicolons; for example:

In other decks dashes are usually used to separate independent unconnected statements. Care should be taken to avoid a dash at the end of one of the parts of a deck. The use of the dash is shown in the following example:

Headline punctuation in various forms is illustrated in the heads given below:

(1)

|GIVE UP WAR SPOILS? | | “NO”, SHOUT CHINESE|

(2)

|“THEATRE ON FIRE!” | | CRY ON BROADWAY|

(3)

(4)

|“GIVE BAD POLITICS | | FRESH AIR”—WILSON|

(5)

|NED TODD, GAMBLER, DIES|

(6)

|WILL GIVE “PINAFORE” | | WITH ALL-STAR CAST|

(7)

|ALL CITIZENS, BEWARE! | | “HOLD-UP” MEN ARE OUT|

(8)

(9)

=Methods of Building Headlines.= The editor or copy-reader who is constantly writing heads comes to think unconsciously in headline units; that is, his daily practice makes it possible for him to frame readily statements of the essential facts that will fulfill the requirements of each deck of the head. Nevertheless, he always counts the units to be sure that the number is correct. For the beginner the process of building up the several decks of a typical headline is analyzed at some length in the following pages, in order to demonstrate the methods pursued.

The story selected for showing the process of headline writing has been taken from the Chicago _Record-Herald_, which gave it a headline constructed on the following plan:

The story for which the headline is to be written follows:

The city council finance committee last night unanimously agreed to a proposition made by Mayor Harrison to have a committee of experts decide each year how much money shall be spent in each ward for street cleaning and garbage and refuse collection.

The mayor said the plan could not be adopted this year, as the committee was engaged in making up the budget for 1912 and there would not be time.

The suggestion of the mayor came during the annual “squabble” of the committee over the ward appropriations. As usual every member was contending for an increase.

“I’ll tell you, gentlemen,” suddenly broke in Mayor Harrison, “this helter skelter method of making up ward appropriations should be discontinued. It is a system that is out of date and one that works an injustice on many sections of the city. I would suggest that we have a commission or a committee of experts begin next year, about three months before the committee begins making up the budget, and work out a scientific plan for the proper distribution of the street cleaning and garbage removal funds.”

“I’m with you there,” declared Aldermen Cermak and Egan in unison, and every alderman around the table enthusiastically endorsed the proposition.

The work of making the ward appropriations was continued after the mayor’s suggestions and raises were granted along the line.

In editing this story of the meeting of the city council finance committee, the copy-reader would get these four main points:

(1) Mayor Harrison’s proposal to the finance committee in regard to the allotment of ward funds was approved.

(2) His plan is to have experts decide the division on a scientific basis.

(3) The new method cannot be put into operation until next year on account of lack of time.

(4) The fight, or “squabble,” among the aldermen on this matter has been an annual one.

As the subject of the story is the “ward funds,” the headline may be constructed around these words. The words “ward fund” contain 9½ units, and the plural “ward funds,” 10½ units, which, on the basis of 18 units to be filled in each half of the first deck, will leave 7½ or 8½ units to be filled, according as the singular or plural form of “fund” is used. If a verb is desired for the first half deck, the “dividing” or “allotting” of the fund expresses the idea involved; and, since the action is in the future, “to divide” or “to allot” (8 units each), or “will divide” or “will allot” (10 units each), are possibilities. The combination of these elements gives “To Allot Ward Fund” (18½ units) and “To Divide Ward Fund” (18½ units), either of which may be used for the first half of the top deck. This deck may be completed in the second half by introducing the second point; namely, that the allotment is to be made “On a Scientific Basis” (19 units), which can be reduced to 17 units by omitting the article “a.” The result will then be as follows:

|TO DIVIDE WARD FUND | 18½ unit letters | ON SCIENTIFIC BASIS| 17 unit letters

Or the second point may be used in the form of the allotment’s being made “with the aid of experts” (22½ units), which may be reduced to 18½ units by omitting the article “the.” The resulting combination will be:

|TO ALLOT WARD FUND | 18½ unit letters | WITH AID OF EXPERTS| 18½ unit letters

If it is desired to emphasize the fact that the mayor has solved the ward fund problem, or has ended the “grab,” or settled the “squabble,” or dispute, or fight, these phrases may be arranged in the following forms:

(1)

|WARD FUND PROBLEM | 18 units | IS SOLVED BY MAYOR| 18 units

(2)

|WARD FUND SQUABBLE | 18½ units | IS SETTLED BY MAYOR| 19 units

(3)

|FIGHT FOR WARD FUND | 19 units | IS ENDED BY MAYOR| 17 units

(4)

|GRAB FOR WARD FUND | 18½ units | IS STOPPED BY MAYOR| 19 units

Still greater prominence can be given to the mayor by putting the word at the beginning of the first half of the first deck, but by so doing the real subject, that is, the ward fund division or wrangle, must go over into the second half. In this arrangement the forms would be:

(1)

|MAYOR HAS SETTLED | 17 units | WARD FUND WRANGLE| 18 units

(2)

|MAYOR PUTS AN END | 17½ units | TO WARD FUND SCRAP| 18½ units

(3)

|MAYOR’S PLAN SOLVES| 19 units | WARD FUND PROBLEM| 18 units

If more emphasis is desired for the point that experts are to settle or decide the ward fund division or fight, these statements may be combined as follows, but again the real subject, by going into the second half of the deck, is less conspicuous:

(1)

|EXPERTS WILL DECIDE | 18½ units | WARD FUND DIVISION| 17 units

(2)

|EXPERTS WILL SETTLE | 19 units | FIGHT FOR WARD FUND| 19 units

These various forms for the top deck show some of the possibilities of variety of emphasis and tone in the headline. As the first half of the top deck is more conspicuous than the second, the most significant part of the statement should, if possible, be placed in the first half. Consequently those forms in which the idea of the allotting or dividing of the ward funds is placed first, would generally be preferred. The words “squabble,” “scrap,” and “grab,” although colloquial and inelegant, might be admissible to characterize effectively the situation growing out of the efforts of each alderman to get the most for his own ward, if the circumstances of the dispute were undignified.

The other decks of the headline for this story may be constructed to follow any one of these top decks, but, for convenience, only two of the top decks will be used for illustration. If the one chosen is “To Divide Ward Fund On Scientific Basis,” it may be developed by the other points already given (page 296); that is, (1) The mayor’s proposal was approved by the finance committee; (2) The division is to be made by experts; (3) The method cannot be put into operation until next year for lack of time; and (4) the fight on the matter has been an annual one. The second deck of ten words should explain the “scientific basis” of division and give the action of the finance committee by which this plan was determined upon, both of which points may be stated in the following forms:

The third deck, which, because of the size of type, is next in prominence to the top deck, should contain the mayor’s part in the solution, and within the limits of 23 unit letters, this may be expressed in the following forms:

(1)

PROPOSAL MADE BY MAYOR| 23 units

(2)

MAYOR PROPOSES SOLUTION| 23 units

(3)

PLAN IS OFFERED BY MAYOR| 24 units

(4)

MAYOR ENDS THE SQUABBLE| 23½ units

(5)

MAYOR PROPOSES THE PLAN| 23½ units

If the third or fifth forms are used, they should not be combined with the second form, “Plan To Let Experts, etc.,” suggested for the second deck, because of the repetition of the word “plan.”

For the fourth deck the idea that the dispute is an annual one, and, if not already used, the point that the plan is going into effect next year, may both be expressed within the limits, which are the same as those for the second deck, as follows:

In complete form with one of each of these possibilities chosen to avoid repetition, the head will read:

If the first deck chosen is one of the forms in which the part played by the mayor in the solution of the problem is emphasized, the other three decks could be so composed as to include the other points, without repetition, as follows:

=Subheads.= Besides writing headlines for stories, the copy-reader inserts subheads at intervals to break up the solid masses of type which are unrelieved except by paragraph division. These subheads make possible more rapid reading.

The subhead, which is set up either in bold face capitals or in bold face capitals and lower case, is like a cross-line head that does not fill the entire column width. The subhead should be an announcement in three or four words of the most significant point in the section of the story which it precedes. The same limitation as to the number of units exists as in any cross-line head. In a story of some length subheads are placed at intervals of about 200 words, and in shorter stories at intervals of from 100 to 150 words. The insertion of these subheads at comparatively regular intervals makes for symmetry of effect. Significant matter in the story, or an important change of topic, warrants a subhead, regardless of the regularity of the interval. It is generally considered preferable not to place a subhead immediately after a sentence ending with a colon and introducing a quotation, because the subhead interrupts the quotation and appears to be part of it. This difficulty can usually be avoided by placing the subhead just before the introductory sentence, thus:

=Jump-Heads.= When a story is continued from one page to another, a head called a jump-head, or “run-over” head, is placed above the continuation. This jump-head may be either the top deck of the head at the beginning set in the same type or in smaller type, or it may be a new head. Examples of jump-heads follow:

(1) _First Page Head_

(2) _Jump-Head on Third Page_

(1) _Top Deck of First Page Head_

(2) _Jump-Head on Fourth Page_

|EXPRESS BEATEN | | BY PARCELS POST| | ————— | +————————————————————+ | (Continued from | | first page.) | +————————————————————+

=Big Heads.= In this discussion only one column heads have been considered, but the same general principles apply to the construction of headlines extending over any number of columns. Important news may be given a head of one, two, or three parts extending across the whole front page. Such a head is often called a “banner.”

SUGGESTIONS

1. Get the important facts of the story clearly and accurately in mind before writing the head.

2. Study carefully each kind of headline to find out its possibilities and limitations.

3. Give the story a headline proportionate in size to its importance.

4. Base the head as far as possible on the facts in the lead.

5. Have the tone of the head in keeping with that of the story.

6. Don’t make the head a comment on the news.

7. Avoid trite, hackneyed words or phrases.

8. Make the statement in each deck clear, concise, and specific.

9. Put the most significant fact into the first deck.

10. Use short, specific words in the first deck.

11. Count the unit letters and spaces in every deck.

12. Don’t try to crowd in more units than the space will permit.

13. Don’t fill out a short line with weak words.

14. Make clear the relation of the statement of each deck to that in the preceding deck.

15. Use only such abbreviations as are commonly to be found in heads.

16. Omit articles and unnecessary auxiliary verbs whenever it is possible.

17. Punctuate only when clearness requires it.

18. Use figures when they are the significant facts.

19. Avoid repetition of words other than connectives.

20. Use the present tense of the verb for past events and the infinitive or future tense for coming ones.

21. Keep the tenses uniform throughout the head.

22. Avoid libelous statements.

PRACTICE WORK

Criticize the following heads and rewrite each, retaining as far as possible the ideas and point of view of the original:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)