Structure of Headlines

There are different kinds of headlines according to structure. However, for the sake of consistency,
only one kind should be adopted by a newspaper. Common among these are illustrated and briefly
explained as follows:

1. Flush left – Both lines are flushed to the left margin. This is also true with a one-line headline. This
has no exact count for the units in each line.

2. Dropline or Step Form - The first line is flushed left while the second is indented. It may consist of
two or three, and sometimes four lines of types of the same length, somewhat less than a column in
width, so that the first line is flushed to the left, the second centered, and the third flushed to the right.

3. Inverted pyramid – This is self-explanatory. Each of the three or four lines in this head is
successively shorter than the line about it.

4. Hanging indention – The first line is flushed left. This is followed by two indented parallel lines.

5. Crossline or Barline – A one-line headline that runs across the column. The simplest form, it is a
single line across the allotted space. If it runs across the page, it is called a streamer.

Local students join CLEAN drive

6. Boxed headline – For emphasis or art‟s sake, some headlines are boxed:
a. Full box
b. Half box
c. Quarter box

7. Jump story headline – A jump story (a story continued on another page) has a headline of its own.
This may be the same as the original headline or it may just be a word, a phrase or a group of words
followed by a series of dots.

Local students…
From page 1)

Dos and Don’ts in Writing Traditional Headlines

A. Do’s
1. Make your headline answer as many W‟s as possible.
2. The headline should summarize the news story. It should contain nothing that is not found in the
story.
3. Positive heads are preferable to negative ones: School physician allays flu fear is better and
shorter than Flu epidemic not rampant in city.
4. Put a verb expressed or implied in every deck.
5. Omit articles like a, an, and the and all forms of the verb to be (is, are, be etc.), unless needed to
make the meaning clear.
Reclaimed banks cause of recurrent flood
(Are before cause is not necessary)
Clinton is new US President
(Is is necessary to make the meaning cleaner.)
6. Use the strongest word in the first line as much as possible.
7. The active verb is better than the passive verb in headlines. Local Hi-Y aids flood victim is stronger
than – Flood victims aided by local Hi-Y. But, for variation, and especially when the doer is unknown
or not prominent, the passive verb may be used.
Food production drive intensified
RP‟s lost image abroad regained
8. Use the present tense for past stories and the infinitive form for future stories.
Archbishop Sin bats for national reconciliation
Lantern parade to cap X‟mas affairs
9. Write numbers in figures or spell them out depending upon your needs for your unit counts.
10. Use any of the following headline styles, but be consistent once you have adopted one.
a. All caps
CHARACTER, NATIONALISM VITAL COGS IN EDUCATION
b. Cap and lower case
Character, Nationalism Vital Cogs in Education
c. Down style
Character, nationalism vital cogs in education

B. What to Avoid in Writing Headlines

1. Avoid the following kinds of headlines:
a. Fat head – A headline in which the letters or the words are so crowded that there are no more
spaces between them or that the spaces are so small that several words read as one.
BSP LAUNCHES DRIVE
b. Thin head – the spaces between the letters of words, or the space after the words in a line are so
wide that the effect is ugly.
BSPLAUNCHESDRIVE
c. Label head – An incomplete headline, like the label of a product.
CHRISTMAS PARTY
d. Wooden head – A very weak headline that is devoid of meaning, sometimes due to the absence of
a subject or the lack of a verb.
TO HOLD EXCURSION
e. Mandatory head – It gives a command because it begins with a verb.
HOLD DIALOG WITH PRINCIPAL
f. Screaming head – It is a big and bold headline of a short and unimportant story. A sensational head
is another kind of screaming headline.
2. Don‟t tell the same thing even though you use a different word. Each succeeding deck should
contribute new 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.
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)
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.
9. Don‟t coin abbreviations of your own. Use only those that are common to the readers like PNRC,
DECS, DCS, etc.
10. Don‟t abbreviate days and months unless figures follow, as:
Mon., Jan. 23

Punctuating Headlines
A few pointers as regards punctuation of headlines should be observed. As a rule, headlines, just like
titles of editorials, features, and literary articles should not end with a period.
Other simple rules follow:
1. Use a comma in place of the conjunction and.

Self-reliance, discipline us at Baguio confab

2. Two related thoughts should be separated with a semicolon. As much as possible this should be at
the end of the line if the headline is a two-line headline or a running head.

School joins Operasyon Linis;

P.E. – CAT boys drain estero
3. The dash may be used for smaller decks, but not for headlines in large types.

4. The single quotation marks, not the double quotation marks are used in headlines.

Cultural development:
‘Linggo ng Wika’ theme
5. Follow the other rules of punctuation.

Unit Counting in Headlines

(In Letterpress Printing)

Writing headlines is not as simple and easy as it seems. A headline should fit the allotted space by a
system of unit counts given to each letter, figure or space. This is done to avoid a thin head, a fat
head, or a bleeding headline (one that extends out of the column or page).
The corresponding unit counts are given as follows:
½ unit – jiltf and all punctuations except the em dash (–), and the question
mark (?)
1 unit – the question mark, space, all figures, capital JILTF, a lower case
letters except jiltf.
1½ units – the em dash, lower-case m and w, and all capital letters except
capital M and W and JILTF.
2 units – capital M, W
1½ ½ ½ 1, 1 1½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1
C i t y S c h o o l s f e t e = 15
1½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1½ 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1
C h i e f E x e c u t i v e = 14