3. Writing Effective Headlines
• Use active voice and strong present-tense verbs.
• The first word in the head should be capitalized as should all proper
nouns.
• Use the present tense for the past stories and the infinitive form for
future stories
• start a sentence with a number and, even though that number is
below 10, you do not have to spell it out.
• Use periods for abbreviations only, and use single quotes where
you would use double quotes in a story.
• The semicolon is used normally: separating two thoughts of equal
weight.
• Don't use proper names in headlines unless the name is well-
known enough to be recognized immediately. The same is true for
abbreviations.
• Avoid the use of the articles a, an and the unless they are needed
for clarity.
4. Headline Vocabulary
• Faculty club strengthened (beefed up)
• Enrolment decreases (dips)
• Science Examinations announced (quiz, bared)
• Contests highlight Animal Week (cap)
• President Aquino urges for cooperation (bats for, calls for)
• DepEd Secretary disapproves tuition fee increase (bucks, hike)
• Nationalism a necessity in education (vital cog)
• Principal praises Pepito’s humility (lauds, extols)
• Navarro keynote speaker at YMCA conference ( keynotes YMCA
confab)
• Local staff dominates press title (rules, lords over)
• Student writers prepare for journalism contest (scribes hone up
for Press tilt)
• ‘My Little Bossing’ to be shown in January ( booked for)
5.
6. What is a lead?
LeadLead
is an introduction of a news story. This
may be a single word, a phrase, a clause,
a brief sentence, an entire paragraph or a
series of paragraph.
It’s main function is to
tell the story in capsule
form and to answer
right away the
questions the reader
would ask . .
7. 6 Rules for Writing News Leads
Rule 1Rule 1
A straight news lead should be a single paragraph consisting of a single
sentence, and should summarize, at minimum, the most newsworthy
"what," "where" and "when" of the story.
Rule 2Rule 2 The lead's first verb should express the main "what" of the story and
should be placed among the lead's first seven words.
Rule 3Rule 3 The lead's first verb should express the main "what" of the story and
should be placed among the lead's first seven words.
Rule 4Rule 4 If there's a "who" involved in the story, the lead should give some
indication of who the "who" is.
Rule 5Rule 5 The lead should summarize the "why" and "how" of the story, but only if
there's room.
10. What are Feature Stories?
• Feature stories are human-interest articles that focus
on particular people, places and events.
• Feature stories are journalistic, researched,
descriptive, colorful, thoughtful, reflective, thorough
writing about original ideas.
• Feature stories cover topics in depth, going further
than mere hard news coverage by amplifying and
explaining the most interesting and important
elements of a situation or occurrence.
• Feature stories are popular content elements of
newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites,
newsletters, television broadcasts and other mass
media.
11. Topics for Feature Stories
NARRATIVNARRATIV
ESES
BACKGROUNDERSBACKGROUNDERS
DEVELOPMENTALDEVELOPMENTAL
FEATURE ARTICLESFEATURE ARTICLES
PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES
EXPERIENCEEXPERIENCE
WHAT TO DO &WHAT TO DO &
HOW TO DOHOW TO DO
ARTICLESARTICLES
ADVENTURESADVENTURES DESCRIPTIODESCRIPTIO
NN
