Headline writing is an art.
On the printed page, headlines, of course, are limited to the space allowed. That’s why you see headline writers use shorthand or abbreviations to condense the point of news stories into four- or five-word phrases. Some words have become such stock-in-trade for headline writers that they have become known as “headlinese.”
You’ll see an attempt to do something as a “bid,” as in the United States’ bid to acquire Greenland. Any manner of problem or controversy can be known as “woes” in headlines, as in New Orleans’ recent water woes. In headlines, you “ink” a deal and “eye” a plan, all to fit a tough character count.
On our website, headlines could theoretically have no word limit, but we know there’s a limit to what looks good on our online and mobile platforms and on other sites where our content is shared. So we try to write headlines with that in mind so the text is not be cut off before readers can decide whether they want to click the article link. There are also ways to write headlines that will draw more attention from search engines, putting our content in front of more people. That has been a whole new learning curve for old-school journalists like me.
All that said, we first strive to write headlines that are accurate and fair. Then we also aim to write something that is interesting to readers. If we get criticism about a headline, it’s usually that it didn’t tell you what the story was really about.
In our letters section, we try to capture in the headline what the reader is trying to convey. That’s not always easy because letters sometimes can be about more than one topic, and it’s often harder to distill an opinion into a few words. Some letter writers suggest their own headlines, but we can’t always use them in print, given our space constraints.
Turning to our letters inbox for the week of March 5-12, we received 58 letters. The war in Iran was the top issue on your mind. We received five letters on the war. The Ten Commandments law and the opening of the legislative session each prompted three letters.
Last week, I asked you to send your ideas on what should be the state’s budget priorities. We are looking to run a collection of the best letters about the Legislature in an upcoming edition. So drop us a line at letters@theadvocate.com and let us know what you’re watching. You could see your idea in the headlines.
