The Grammar of (Newspaper) Headlines
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/02/18/the-grammar-of-newspaper-headlines/
The Grammar of (Newspaper) Headlines
February 18, 2013, 12:01 am
By Allan Metcalf
Newspaper headlines are prose poetry. They have a spare grammar of their own, and they are constrained in size and content more strictly than a sonnet.
Indeed, there was a time within living memory, before computers and the Internet, when newspaper headline writing was recognized as an art (and a science) more difficult than writing a sonnet. More about that in another post. Here I just want to celebrate the basics of headline style, the rules for headlines.
1. Use present tense for past events:
COLUMBUS DISCOVERS
NEW ROUTE TO INDIA
2. Use to for future events:
SUN TO BURN OUT
IN 6 BILLION YEARS
3. Omit the, a, an:
COW JUMPS OVER MOON;
DOG WATCHES, LAUGHS
4. Use comma for and
JACK, JILL FALL FROM HILL;
CONCUSSIONS POSSIBLE
5. Never spell out numbers:
VIRGIL GUIDES DANTE
PAST 9 LEVELS OF HELL
6. Use colon for said or says:
GALILEO: ‘I CONFESS
EARTH STAYS STILL’
7. Use single quotation marks:
CAESAR TO BRUTUS: ‘ET TU?’
FALLS BY ‘UNKINDEST CUT’
8. Omit “be” in its various forms, except when emphasized:
CANDIDE, PANGLOSS HAPPY
CULTIVATING GARDEN
ROSENKRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN
HOIST WITH OWN PETARD
HAMLET ASKS ‘TO BE’ OR NOT?
PONDERS, DECIDES TO BE
10. Don’t split phrases between lines:
CHICKEN LITTLE SEES SKY
FALLING; HENNY PANICS
There are other rules, the most important being that the headline must accurately summarize the contents of the story. And there is a vocabulary of little space-saving words that appear frequently in headlines but not so often elsewhere: bar, bid, clash, hail, halt, loom, mar, opt, spark, vow and the like. But this is enough for now, except to invite you to give your own examples of headline rules in action.
LF BLOGGER: HEADS RULE
WHEN USING HEAD RULES
The Grammar of (Newspaper) Headlines
February 18, 2013, 12:01 am
By Allan Metcalf
Newspaper headlines are prose poetry. They have a spare grammar of their own, and they are constrained in size and content more strictly than a sonnet.
Indeed, there was a time within living memory, before computers and the Internet, when newspaper headline writing was recognized as an art (and a science) more difficult than writing a sonnet. More about that in another post. Here I just want to celebrate the basics of headline style, the rules for headlines.
1. Use present tense for past events:
COLUMBUS DISCOVERS
NEW ROUTE TO INDIA
2. Use to for future events:
SUN TO BURN OUT
IN 6 BILLION YEARS
3. Omit the, a, an:
COW JUMPS OVER MOON;
DOG WATCHES, LAUGHS
4. Use comma for and
JACK, JILL FALL FROM HILL;
CONCUSSIONS POSSIBLE
5. Never spell out numbers:
VIRGIL GUIDES DANTE
PAST 9 LEVELS OF HELL
6. Use colon for said or says:
GALILEO: ‘I CONFESS
EARTH STAYS STILL’
7. Use single quotation marks:
CAESAR TO BRUTUS: ‘ET TU?’
FALLS BY ‘UNKINDEST CUT’
8. Omit “be” in its various forms, except when emphasized:
CANDIDE, PANGLOSS HAPPY
CULTIVATING GARDEN
ROSENKRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN
HOIST WITH OWN PETARD
HAMLET ASKS ‘TO BE’ OR NOT?
PONDERS, DECIDES TO BE
10. Don’t split phrases between lines:
CHICKEN LITTLE SEES SKY
FALLING; HENNY PANICS
There are other rules, the most important being that the headline must accurately summarize the contents of the story. And there is a vocabulary of little space-saving words that appear frequently in headlines but not so often elsewhere: bar, bid, clash, hail, halt, loom, mar, opt, spark, vow and the like. But this is enough for now, except to invite you to give your own examples of headline rules in action.
LF BLOGGER: HEADS RULE
WHEN USING HEAD RULES