Week 12 - More Headlines

This week’s extended look at headlines was interesting, to say the least.  I never realized that just as much work seems to go into writing a headline as writing a story.  It seemed to be more difficult for me to draw headlines from shorter stories than the longer ones. Finding a headline that not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides enough impact that they will continue on to the story can be quite challenging.   I think that learning the language of an editor was probably the most interesting and useful aspect for me in this section.  Knowing the abbreviations and the count (2-24-2) is extremely helpful as well.  I kept referring back to it when doing the exercises. Counting letter spacing and words at first seems painstakingly dull but becomes the lifeline of the headline. Too long or too short loses the reader’s interest.  It really is amazing how much work goes into writing a headline.  I’ll not take that for granted in the future.

As we have learned, a writer’s choice of words is so vital to the headline and the related article. The following was posted to Facebook by a friend for my benefit this week: