Week 12 - Writing Headlines

I have been writing for The Signpost all semester, and it has been a blast writing those articles. One thing I never put too much thought into was the headlines of my articles. I have always added a title when I turn them in, but never has that title actually been used when the article is printed in the paper. At first it bothered me, because I put thought into the titles and the ones they chose didn't always put focus where I wanted it.
After doing these assignments over the last two weeks, I completely understand their thought process. I still don't love each of those headlines looking back, but it is definitely more understandable.
I didn't take into account the different formats and the space that each headline would be fitting into.
Some of the key points in writing headlines that stood out to me, were that the headline should reflect what is most important about the story, and watching how the lines break.
There is nothing worse than getting drawn into a story by the headline, only to have it be a bait and switch. You see this a lot on online websites, where there will be an article advertised on another site, then when you follow it, it was definitely misleading. Headlines need to draw the audience in, but it needs to be an accurate portrayal of what the story is going to be about.
The other thing I never really thought about was how the lines break. If your headline is going to be more than one line long, than you need to watch the break to ensure it still makes sense. People glance over headlines, and if the line breaks in an awkward way, you want them to still be able to get a good idea of what the story is about.