Don’t just slap the topic on top of the story
Note to self: “Label headline” is not a headline.
Label headlines like Label headlines carry a double problem.… Read the full article
Writing and editing
Stop it with the ing-ing headlines (Examples!)
Present participle heads may be worse than labels
Barney Kilgore, the legendary editor of The Wall Street Journal, once wrote: “If I see ‘upcoming’ slip in[to] the paper again, I’ll be downcoming and someone will be outgoing.”… Read the full article
Avoid these common headline mistakes
8 approaches to avoid
What’s in a name?
A great headline can mean the difference between a story that gets read — or one that gets passed over.… Read the full article
How to write a good photo caption
Cutlines get 16% more readership than text
Too often, communicators crank out captions (aka cutlines) in the 15 minutes before happy hour on a Friday night.… Read the full article
How to use pull quotes and why
They attract attention, make messages memorable
Pull quotes — aka callouts, breakout quotes or pullout quotes — are “the print equivalent of a sound bite,” according to the authors of The Newsletter Editor’s Desk Book
Actually, I think they’re more like movie trailers.… Read the full article
Why is micro content important?
Because ‘readers’ don’t read
I’m often amazed at the amount of energy writers put into perfecting the sentence structure in the fourth paragraph of their piece when those same folks toss off a headline in the 17 seconds before happy hour on a Friday afternoon.… Read the full article
How to write news headlines
7 ways to polish your traditional heads
Here’s a quick tip for making more of your news headlines: Make sure you’re telling the story and not just telling about the story.… Read the full article
Why worry about your readability level?
Save money, make money and more with readable messages
What are the benefits of making your message measurably easier to read and understand?
Readability formulas measure how easy your message is to read based on average number of words per sentence, percentage of polysyllabic words and familiarity of words on the Dale Chall list.… Read the full article
Why is rhyming important to communication?
Fluent words more trustworthy, believable
Which of these food additives is more dangerous: Hnegripitrom or Magnalroxate?
Most people said the more difficult to pronounce Hnegripitrom was the most hazardous, according to a recent study by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz at the University of Michigan.… Read the full article
How to write transitions: cliffhangers
External transitions move readers from section to section
Talk about a transition. Here’s how author Erik Larson ends one chapter of Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America:
“‘Would the thin rods (of the first Ferris wheel) be sufficient to sustain not only the enormous weight of the structure and that of the 2,000 passengers who might chance to be in the cars, but the pressure of the wind as well?’
… Read the full article