Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Wednesday, November 18 writing headlines


SCHOOL INFORMATION
The annual talent show January 14, 2016.  The audition dates are December 1st and 3rd from 3:00 – 4:00 in Room A175.  Students need to sign up in advance for auditions outside of room A179.
 
A quick update on apparel sales, I do have a small order of winter hats and crew neck sweatshirts that arrived today.  The hats are $8.00 and sweatshirts are $20.00. (Picture attached)  There are also hoodies and t-shirts of “straight outta SOTA” remaining for sale.  Students will be setting up a table at school of choice open house tomorrow evening to sell the apparel.


Headline From the Spanish American War Period





How To Write a Headline


The primary tool to grab and hold the reader


Some of the most important words a journalist writes are  
in a headline.
                     1 Headlines contain essential words that convey the
    subject of a story 2 and what the story is about.  


Please note those are two different things. The subject is
general and the what's it about is specific. 



What is a headline?
  • A headline is an abstract sentence
     
  • Usually it is only five to ten words
     
  • It is a complete thought
     
  • It has a subject and a verb, and often an object

The goal is to grab the reader
  • Ask yourself this question as you compose a
                           headline:
  • If people see my five to ten words, will they
                              know what the article is about?
  • It's not hard to find examples of headlines that answer
 that question in the negative. Sure, they may have a couple of words that 

point to a subject, but they don't answer what's it about?

Most important rule
  • The words in a headline must represent accurately
                           what is in the story. Accuracy counts above all else.
What to do?
  • Understand the story completely before writing its
                               headline. 
  • Base the headline on the story's main idea, which
                            should be in the lead or introduction 
  • Don't use in the headline facts that are not in
                                the story. 

                                                ..  Don't repeat the exact wording of the story in the headline. 
  • Avoid ambiguity, insinuations and double meanings.
  Word choices

  • Be specific, accurate, clear and concise.
     
  • Don't repeat key words in the same headline.
     
  • Avoid unclear or little known names, phrases and abbreviations.
     
  • Don't use pronouns alone and unidentified.
     
  • Alliteration should be intentional and not change the general tone of the story.
     
  • Avoid headline speak such as hit, flay, rap, hike, nix, nab, slate. Be more precise.
Verbs
  • No headline may start with a verb.
     
  • Headlines are complete sentences or imply complete sentences.
     
  • A linking verb can be implied rather than spelled out.
     
  • If a story is about past or present events, write present tense verbs.
     
  • If a story is about future events, use the infinitive verb (to leave, to work).
     
  • To be verbs, such as is, are, was and were should be omitted.
Punctuation
  • Use punctuation sparingly.
     
  • Don't eat up space with the conjunction and. Instead, use a comma.
    Principal and parents meet on school rules for next year 

    Principal, parents agree on new school rules
Grammar
  • Don't use the articles aan and the. They waste space unnecessarily.
    A new fire engine helps make the houses safer
    New fire engine helps make houses safer
Web headlines
  • As with any news story, a strong headline is vital for a web story.
     
  • Headlines often are found in lists of links, where they are a reader's first introduction to a story. If they do not sell a reader on the story immediately, the reader is unlikely to click the link to navigate to the story.
     
  • SEO is search engine optimization. Search engines favor coherent headlines. Your headlines can be essential to search engine optimization, which draws traffic to your website.

BAD HEADLINES





Governor Swears in Legislature

March Planned For Next August

Blind Bishop Appointed To See

Lingerie Shipment Hijacked--Thief Gives Police The Slip

L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide

Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through

Latin Course To Be Canceled--No Interest Among Students, Et Al.

Diaper Market Bottoms Out

Croupiers On Strike--Management: "No Big Deal"

Stadium Air Conditioning Fails--Fans Protest

Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped

Henshaw Offers Rare Opportunity to Goose Hunters

Women's Movement Called More Broad-Based

Antique Stripper to Display Wares at Store

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

Never Withhold Herpes Infection From Loved One

Cancer Society Honors Marlboro Man

Nicaragua Sets Goal to Wipe Out Literacy

Autos Killing 110 a Day--Let's Resolve to Do Better

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last A While


Your turn:  Write a headline for each of the following four stories. Send along, please.

story 1:
    A 33-year-old Farmington man has been charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records, both felonies.
State Police tell News10NBC James Rickey III fraudulently collected more than $10,000 in unemployment benefits while he was gainfully employed.
Rickey was arraigned and remanded to the Ontario County Jail in lieu of bail. He is due back in court on October 18.
Story 2:
You feel worse by the hour. Your joints ache; your head feels heavy; you can't stop coughing. You're freezing, even as your temperature keeps climbing, and your stomach is upset. Even your eyes hurt.
Face it: You have the flu. Now what do you do?
Most flu patients should not go to an emergency room, said Dr. David Zich, internal medicine and emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. They will likely be sent home, as there is very little that can be done for them. A fever as high as 103 degrees Fahrenheit is common for the flu, he said.
Patients with normal flu symptoms should get a lot of rest and take painkillers to help with muscle aches, Zich said.
And while you might not believe it today (or tomorrow, or the next day), "In five to seven days, you're going to be feeling yourself again," he promised.
Story 3:

                                              Four years ago, Beth Cirami walked into Malissa Booth'stattoo shop, 
                                             mournful and anxious. Her brother had just died of leukemia, and she                                                          wanted something to remember him by.
She'd gone to other tattoo shops in the St. Louis area and when she tried to explain her story -- why she was getting her first tattoo at age 37, what it meant to her -- it felt like no one listened. They told her to flip through a book and pick a drawing she liked; it just didn't feel right.
"This was a very personal piece for me. I needed that work of art," Cirami said.
She had heard about Booth's shop, Madame Voodoo's House of Ink in Warrenton, Missouri, and decided to stop by. She told Booth that her brother died at age 45, and she wanted to honor him in some way.
Cirami left Booth's shop with a pinstripe tattoo adorned with the initials of her children and a picture of a heart glass her brother gave her before he passed away. It was exactly what she wanted.
"She had that sensitivity to that reason why most people get tattoos. It is a very secret and spiritual experience," Cirami said.
It's the kind of experience on which Booth built her business -- a family-friendly tattoo shop she opened five years ago, hoping it would feel welcoming to everybody.
Story 4:
British police arrested a man accused of trying to get into London's Buckingham Palace illegally on Monday, authorities said.
The 44-year-old man was stopped at the main gate facing the Victoria Memorial, and a search revealed he was carrying a knife, according to Metropolitan Police.
He did not gain access to the palace grounds, police said.
The man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon, and remained in custody Monday afternoon, police said. His name was not released; no injuries were reported.
Buckingham Palace, the best known of Queen Elizabeth II's palaces, is the administrative center for the royal household as well as the queen's London residence.

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