James Posts Guide to Clear Headlines
So I realize headline writers are under time pressure, and that it takes quite a bit of skill to craft a good headline. The sheer density of information is by its nature difficult to process. Still, consider this one:
"Clear Channel Buyout Talks Fuel Concern of Management Conflicts"
This isn't ambiguous or misleading, it's just difficult to process quickly. The problem is that you have three words in a row (talks fuel concern) that can be used as either nouns or verbs. When I first saw the headline, I thought, "What does Clear Channel have to do with fuel?" So I guess my advice is, when you're writing headlines, keep in mind the noun/verb problem.
"Clear Channel Buyout Talks Fuel Concern of Management Conflicts"
This isn't ambiguous or misleading, it's just difficult to process quickly. The problem is that you have three words in a row (talks fuel concern) that can be used as either nouns or verbs. When I first saw the headline, I thought, "What does Clear Channel have to do with fuel?" So I guess my advice is, when you're writing headlines, keep in mind the noun/verb problem.
posted by James | 4:03 AM
2 Comments:
How would you rephrase that?
It would be relatively easy to get rid of the "fuel" problem. "Clear Channel Buyout Talks Raise Concern of Management Conflicts." It could probably be even better, though... "Conflicts of Interest Seen in Clear Channel Buyout" or something like that.
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