Rules for writing English headlines
Headlines in newspapers, in particular, use different grammar rules to everyday English. This is because they are designed to be Short and to attract attention. The following 8 rules are often used to achieve this.
i. Use present simple tense for past events
The present tense is quick and current, and helps emphasise the action happening rather than its completion.
a. Parliament confirms new stray dog polic
b. Lion escapes zoo
ii. Leave out auxiliary verbs
With perfect, progressive and passive structures, auxiliary verbs are not necessary. This makes some headlines appear to be in the past tense, when actually the headlines use past participles, or particles, not the past simple. Similarly, changing events are represented by the present participle
on its own.
a. New policy decided by Parliament (New policy has been decided by Parliament)
b. Lion escapes zoo - ten killed (ten people have been killed / were killed)
c. Four stranded in sudden flood (four people have been stranded / were stranded)
d. Temperatures rising as climate changes (temperatures are rising)
iii. Use infinitives for future events
- Parliament to decide new policy tomorrow
- President to visit France for further talks Using the infinitive, a future time is not always necessary to
- demonstrate the future tense in headlines.
iv. Leave out articles (a, an, the)
- Man releases rabid dog in park (A man released a rabid dog in a park)
v. Leave out "to be"
Residents unhappy about new road (residents are unhappy) Family of murder victim satisfied with court decision (family of murder victim is satisfied.)
vi. Leave out "to say"
- Mr Jones, "They're not taking my house!"
- Bush on Iraqi invasion, "This aggression will not stand."
Reported speech is usually represented by a comma with the subject introduced with 'on...'. This includes leaving out other verbs such as comment, tell, argue, announce, shout.
vii. Replace conjunctions with punctuation
- Police arrest serial killer - close case on abductions
- Fire in bakery: hundreds dead
As with reporting speech, commas, colons, semi-colons, hyphens and so on can replace all conjunctions, or some joining verbs, to join clauses. Commas may also be used to join nouns (more common in American English).
- Man kills 5, self
viii. Use figures for numbers
- 9 dead in glue catastrophe
- 7 days to Eid - shoppers go mad
Red more: Cyber Communication & Journalism (Lec-01)
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