Week 11

Headlines are often the hook line and sinker for articles, whether they be online or in print.  If you don’t have an enticing headline you are running the risk of readers not being too interested in the article to begin with.  It is possible to give way too much information within the headline as well, such as “Study Shows Frequent Sex Enhances Pregnancy Chances”.  The headline simply states the obvious; there is nothing to draw the reader by stating something they already know.  Headlines are far trickier than I would have thought.  When it comes to headlines it is easy to say too much as well as not enough.  I find them to be comparable to the surgical art of movie trailers.  If you expose too much of the movie you are going to either ruin the movie for possible consumers or you are going to keep potential consumers from even wanting to see it.  Or even worse, headlines that could easily have nothing to do with the story altogether like this one, “Dead Body Found in Cemetery”.  It is really not very grabbing, this could as easily be written about ANY cemetery, why is it important for that cemetery?  At the end of the day when writing headlines there is a perfect balance that is important to find for the benefit of you as the writer, and your readers.