This document provides guidance on writing effective headlines. It outlines the expected outcomes of learning headline writing skills and defines common headline types such as banner, streamer, flush left, dropline step form, inverted pyramid, hanging indentation, crossline/barline, and boxed. The document describes features headlines should have, such as answering the five Ws and using verbs. It also lists "do's" and "don'ts" of headline writing, such as avoiding thin, fat, label, wooden, mandatory, screaming styles and not repeating words or editorializing. The goal is to help writers craft headlines that accurately and concisely summarize stories in an engaging format.

1. WRITING
HEADLINE

2. Expected outcomes:
 Appreciation of the values of the headlines
 Knowledge of the different kinds of headlines
 Ability to recognize to criticize headlines styles common in the daily press
 Skill in writing headline types and ability to use them to advantage
 Ability to punctuate headlines
 Skill in counting units of headlines
 Understanding school paper’s headline schedule
 Mastery of headline vocabulary and ability to use headline terms for the sake of
simplicity, brevity, and easy reading.

3. Every news story has a title of its own called HEADLINE.
This headline in printed type much bigger and bolder than its
body. The headline of the Number One story on page one is
BANNER. If it runs across the page may also be called a
STREAMER.

4. The important function of the headline:
To tell in capsule form what is the story is all about
To grade the news as to importance ; and
To make the page look attractive

5. STRUCTURE OF
A HEADLINE

6. FLUSH LEFT
o Both lines are flushed to the left margin. This is also true with a one line
headline. This has no exact counts for the units in each time.
Ex .
Family planning
Seminar held

7. DROPLINE OF STEP FORM
o The first line is flushed left while the second is indented. It may consist
two or three, and sometimes four lines of types of the same length,
somewhat less than column in width, so that the first line is flushed to
the left, the second centered, and the third flushed to the right.
Ex .
Local boy scouts bleed for
a cause

8. INVERTED PYRAMID
o This is self-explanatory. Each of the three four lines in this head
is successively shorter than the line above it.
Ex .
School Launches
Kalinisan
Drive

9. HANGING INDENTION
o The first line is flushed left. This is followed by the two indented
parallel lines.
Ex .
Chief editor
bats for more
developments news

10. CROSSLINE OR BARLINE
o A one line headline that runs across the column. The simplest form, it is
the single line across the allotted space. If it run across the page, it is
called a streamer.
Ex .
Local student join CLEAN drive

11. BOXED HEADLINE
o For emphasis or art’s sake, some headline areboxed;
Full box -
Half box - Campus Paper catalysts fornational
development
Quarter box – Local students, teacher bleed for a cause
today
Community involvement
science camp theme

12. JUMP STORY HEADLINE
o A jump story (a story continued on another page) has a headline of its
own. This maybe the same as the original headline or it may just be a
word, a phrase or group of words followed by a series of dots.
Ex .
Local students…
( From Page 1)

13. DO’S AND DON’TS IN
WRITING TRADITIONAL
HEADLINES

14. A . Do’s
Make your headline answer as many W’s as possible.
The headline should summarize the news story. It should contain
nothing that is not found in the story.
Positive heads are preferable to negative one.
Put a verb expressed or implied in every deck.
Omit articles like a, an, and theand all forms of the verb to be( is, are,
be),unless needed to make the meaning clear.

15. Use the strongest word in the first line as much as possible.
The active verb is better than the passive verb in headlines.
Use the present tense for past stories and the infinitive form for future stories.
Write numbers in figures or spell them out depending upon your
needs for your units count.
Use any of the following headline styles, but be consistent once you have adopted one.

16. What to avoid in writing headlines?
1. Avoid the following kinds of headlines:
FAT HEAD
- the spaces between the letters or word are so crowded that there are no more spaces between them
or that the spaces are so small that several word read as one.
BSP LUNCHES DRIVE
THIN HEAD
- the spaces between the letters or words or the space after words in a line are so
wide that the effect is ugly.
B S P L A U N C H E S D R I V E

17. LABEL HEAD
- an incomplete headline, like the label of a product.
CHRISTMAS PARTY
WOODEN HEAD
- a very weak headline that is devoid of meaning, sometimes due to the
absence of a subject or the lack of verb.
TO HOLD EXCURSION

18. MANDATORY HEAD
- it gives a command because it begins with a verb.
HOLD DIALOG WITH PRINCIPAL
SCREAMING HEAD
- it is a big and bold headline of a short and unimportant story. A sensational head is another kind
of screaming headline.

19. 2. Don’t tell the same thing even though you use a different word. Each
succeeding deck should contribute information.
3. Don’t comment directly or indirectly. Avoid editorializing even in
headlines.
4. Unless the subject is implied or has been mentioned in the first deck,
avoid beginning a headline with a verb.

20. 5. Don’t end a line with a preposition. Neither should you separate a preposition
from its object. Don’t confuse a hanging preposition with a two-word verb that ends
with a preposition.
Wrong: Students vote for
SSG officials
(“for” is a hanging preposition)
Right: Principal bats for
moral values
(“bats for” is a two-word verb)

21. 6. Don’t break off abbreviations, names, and hyphenated
words.
7. Avoid repeating principal words regardless of the number of decks.
8. Avoid heads that carry a double meaning.

22. 9. Don’t coin abbreviations of your own. Use only those that
are common to the readers like PNRC, DepEd, and DCS.
10. Don’t abbreviate days and months unless figures follow, as: Mon.,
Jan. 23

23. Thank!
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