COPYREADING AND

HEADLINE WRITING:
More than Just Marks and Words

“You cannot correct unless you know that there is something wrong.”

RUEL C. FERNANDEZ
Resource Speaker
 Eagle’s Eyes Ready

40 Filipino pieacekeepers are battling heavily armed

Syrian rebels who are trying to overran UN encampment on the
Golan Heights, Defense Secretary VOLTAIRE GAzmin says
yesterday.
They have high morale Gazmin told reporters, referring to the
group of Filipino peacekeepers defending Area Position 68 of
the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) on
the Golan Heights
gazmin said the rebels attacked Area Position 68, about 4
kilometers from Area 69, after noon but was repulsed by the
Filipinos

Palace spokeswoman Abigail Valte said on the government-

run Radyo ng Bayan that even without having to take the
challenge thrown by Netizens for the President and Cabinet
members to try using the MRT themselves, government
officials were cognizant of the problems hounding the MRT.
The fire fight was going on bet ween the Filipino
peacekeepers and the rebels as of 5 p.m. in Manila

gazmine said the filipinos had reported no casualties.

He praised the elite troops’ courage and “high morale”.

A military officiasl who asked not to be identify said the

filipino troops manning Area Positions 68 and 69 belonged to
the Philippine
Army’s elite Scout Rangers and Special Forces

Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug. 31 2014

Shades of Green Looms Dark in the Paper
 Jose M. Almario was elected Pubic Information Officer…

 Your penis wonderful. I enjoyed using it last night.

 He eats, shoots, and leaves.

 Political orgasm
What is COPYREADING AND HEADLINE WRITING?

 It is the way of improving a story and making an

appropriate headline for the article.

 The ROLE of Copy Fixers

Good copy fixers keep the spirit and

substance of the story. He/She basically brightens
and polishes the article. He makes the story better by
organizing it better than when it was submitted.
 Tasks of a Copy Editor
1. Read thoroughly the news or reports.
2. Think of ways to best improve the
news.
3. Check and correct errors in news
context, grammar, punctuations,
spelling, usage, and others.
4. Present the best lead for the news.
Tasks of a Copy Editor
5. Remove editorials from news and check for
any libelous statements in the reports.
6. Simplify words and check for any
redundancy.
7. Organize sequence or order of paragraphs of
the news.
8. Write effective headlines.
Tasks of a Copy Editor
9. Suggest font and font sizes to the typesetter.
10. Determine columns and decks of headlines.
11. Correct the copies by using copyreading
symbols.
Writing Headlines
 Headlines are display windows of newspapers. It is
a quick source of information about the story.

 Well-written headlines
grab the reader's attention
convey clear, concise thoughts
 Poorly written headlines

mislead
and confuse a reader
Headline / head
The headline or head is
the title of a news story.
While the lead
summarizes the story, the
headline summarizes the
lead. The headline of the
biggest or Number One
story on page 1 of the
newspaper is called a
banner head.
Functions of
Headlines

• To tell in capsule
form what the
story is all about
• To grade the news
as to importance
• To make the page
look attractive
Try giving this lead a headline:

Education Secretary Armin Luistro yesterday said his agency had

not abandoned its development of “God-loving learners” as he denied
having been pressured by any group into removing the phrase “God-
loving” from the DepEd’s vision statement.

Luistro: DepEd developing God-loving learners

DepEd hones God-loving learners, says Luistro
Luistro says, Deped is honing God-loving learners
The Catholic Church has denied the
sacrament of marriage to a Quezon
City councilor because of his stance
advocating birth control.

Pro-birth control councilor

denied of marriage rites
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
 Make the head  Cat’nes places 2nd overall
answer as many W’s
as possible in reg’l confab
 Scribes win in
 Gulayan sa Paaralan,
Presscon (?) sinuportahan ng PTA
 Gulayan sa
Paaralan,
sinuportahan (?)
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
 Write numbers in figures or 9 golds up for
spell them out
grabs in Division
 Eighty percent Athletic Meet (x)
of del Pilarians
Nine golds up
approve CyberEd (x)
 80% for grabs in
of del Pilarians
Division Athletic
approve CyberEd
Meet
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
 Positive
heads are
preferable to negative  Bulacan gov’t allays
ones.
hog cholera fear
Hog cholera not in
Bulacan (x)
 ARMM polls,
ARMM polls, ipinagpaliban
hindi tuloy
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
Mentors join
 Be specific. seminar on English
proficiency (improve)
 Put a verb
 Mentors join seminar on
expressed or English proficiency
implied.
English Olympics
 The Seminar on
up in October
English proficiency (x)
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
 Omit articles ( a, an, the).  TheKids to Receive Measles,
 Do not use all caps. The Polio, Rubella shots (x)
trend is down style
( lower case except for first  Kids to receive measles,
word and proper nouns) and
polio, rubella shots
flush left

 THE
Enrolment dips
ENROLMENT
DIPS (x) by 2.5 %
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
The  Enrile wants new book
active verb is
published only after death
preferable than the
passive, but when the
 Overseasjob seekers
doer is not prominent,
warned vs Web offers
use the passive head .
 Do’s in Writing Traditional Heads
Use the present  Ukraine seeks to join
tense for past Nato to counter Russia
stories; the
infinitive for Ukraine to join Nato
future stories. to counter Russia
Don’t’s in Headline Writing

 Avoid  Journalism training (X)

label, wooden
 Join Journalism training(X)
and mandatory heads.
 SPAs perk up skills
in division journalism training

 Kind Principal bats for moral

 Avoid editorializing . values (X)

 SPA training, a success (X)

 Don’t’s in Headline Writing

 Don’tend a line with a preposition, but don’t confuse a

hanging prep. with a two-word verb.

 RP sweeps Asian titles in RP sweeps Asian titles

Petron Asian Karting Open in Petron Asian Karting Open

• Guest Speaker bats for

moral values
Don’t’s in Headline Writing

Don’t break off School Choir to per-

words, verb form in NAMCYA in
phrase, preposition Nov. (x)
and object
Choir to perform
in NAMCYA
in November
Don’t’s in Headline Writing

Don’t abbreviate  SG election slated

months/ days in October
unless figures
follow.  SG election slated on
Oct. 31
 Punctuating Headlines
 Use a comma in place of the conjunction and.
 In a two-line head, separate two independent clauses with a semi-colon
(;)

Palace apologizes for sorry state of MRT,

shuns ‘rush hour ride’ challenge

Ebola outbreak spreads to Senegal;

riots break out in Guinea
 Punctuating Headlines
 In using direct quotation as
 Luistro: DepEd developing
head, use dash, colon, and
comma instead of the God-loving learners
traditional quotation marks.
 No worries, says MILF
 SC didn’t ask for e-court on Bangsamoro Law delay
funding–Palace
 MILF says, no worries
on Bangsamoro Law delay
 Vocabulary Headline
What do the words in bold mean?

Farmers group scores Transport groups buck

gov’t on high oil price hike
unemployment
Literarycontests cap
Director Ramirez Buwan ng Wika
keynotes Reg’l
Journalism confab Scribes in libel row
 Vocabulary Headline
Replace the italicized words
with apt head lingo

 Campaign against pornographic

literature going on

Drive vs smut on
 Math winners announced
Math winners bared
 Vocabulary Headline
Replace the italicized words
with apt head lingo

 Campus writers will join

regional journalism conference

 Scribes to join
reg’l presscon
 Vocabulary Headline
Replace the italicized words
with apt head lingo

 Principal approves
Student Gov’t election

 Principal okays
Student Gov’t polls
 Vocabulary Headline
Replace the italicized words
with apt head lingo

 First year student wins first place

in poster making contest

 Freshman cops gold

in poster making tilt
 Pagsulat ng Ulo ng Balita
Ano ang mali sa ss. na ulo ng balita? Iwasto .
 Mag-aaral, kahanga-hangang nagwagi

 REG’L SCHOOLS PRESSCON

Editor ng Malaya, nanguna sa pagsulat ng balita

 Aklasan sa DAR, nalutas nagsipag-aklas, bumalik

 Aklasan sa DAR, nalutas; manggagawa, bumalik

 3-30 Arial
Mechanics Black-Inverted
of Headline Pyramid
Writing
body
A Technical text: Arial
Instruction or TheNarrow
Printer’s Directions
Meaning:

The first number means that the headline will run across three columns of the
page.
The second number stands for the font size to be used.
AB (Arial Black) indicates the font type.
Inverted Pyramid is the headline pattern to be used.
The two lines below means that make a two-line headline.

Putin ready to invade Ukraine;

Kiev warns a war
 Counting the Headline
1.All small letters except jilft and mw are counted as 1.

2. Small letters jilft are counted as ½.

3. Small letters m and w are counted as 1½.

4. All capital letters except MW are counted as 1½.

5. Capital letters M and W are counted as 2.

6. Capital letters J, I, L, F, T are counted as 1.

8. All punctuation marks except the –?, $ and % are
counted as ½.

9. Dash, question mark, dollar and percent sign are counted as 1.

10. All figures, except 1, and spaces are counted as 1.

11. Number 1 is counted as ½.

 Putin ready to invade Ukraine;
Kiev warns a war (43 units)

Pnoy urges Senate to hasten

PDAF scam probe
(44 ½ units)
 Headline Patterns
 Crosslineor barline – a single line of headline running over two
or more columns

Indonesian turns forest into ‘school of life’

Ombudsman, kulang sa abogado

 Dropline – two or three lines of headline, usually of the same

length and are arranged diagonally

Dole Philippines donates

armchairs to Sarangani
 Headline Patterns
 Flush Left – two or more headlines are aligned at the left edge of the
column

Malacañang muling nagpaalala

sa OFWs sa pagdadala ng droga

PH cagers take Croatia

to overtime before losing
Headline Patterns
 Hanging Indention – usually three or more lines of headline, the first set flushed to
both margins and the succeeding lines are indented several spaces from the left
margin, thus hanging as if from the first

Military ready to step in

if anti-gov’t protest
turn violent

 Inverted Pyramid – two or more lines of headline with the first line flushed to both
margin and the succeeding lines getting shorter and centered

Pinoys escape massacre

in another UN camp
 Headline Patterns
 Flush Right – two or more lines of headline are aligned at the right edge
of the column

Ordinansa sa riding in tandem,

ipatutupad na sa Manila

 Flushline or full line – consists of two or more lines of the same

length

FDA: Don’t buy

these eye drops
 Other Kinds of Headline
 1. Streamer – striking bold-faced head extending across
the top of the page

 2. Umbrella – a streamer that is placed at the very top of the page

above the nameplate of the newspaper

 3. Binder – a streamer at the top of an inside page

 4. Boxed head – the headline is boxed either for prominence of to

avoid tombstoning
Other Kinds of Headline
 5. Jump head (run-over head) – headline of a news story, which is
cut and continued on the inside page; it is followed by the word from
page – or the like

 6. Subhead – a short title of a portion of news story to break the

monotony of gray text; set in boldface and occupies more than half
the column width

 7. Tagline, kicker or teaser – a short single line placed above

the main head, may be of smaller type, underlined and set flush
left or centered

 8. Hammer – if the tagline or kicker is bigger than the headline

Umbrella
headline

Banner head,
Streamer
 4-line,
1-column
head 2-line,
4-column
head

3-column
crossline
Heads
are
flushed
left
like
this
The writer whose work cannot be improved
by a constructive editor does not exist.