Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Headlines, Good and Bad

Back when the earth was young, I used to enjoy writing headlines. It felt good when we could run a headline that was clear, catchy, and succinct. It's harder than it looks, and I respect good headline writers.

The LA times last week rolled out one of the worst headlines I've seen a long, long time:

SAT scores nationally unwaver from 2007
Los Angeles Times

"Unwaver?" Huh?

"Unwavering," yes, OK. But even the Oxford Concise chokes on "unwaver." The root of unwavering is waver, not "unwaver." Sorry LA Times copydesk, it just ain't a word.

It's a hideously clumsy headline even without "unwaver," but with it--- presto! A new entry in the category of "Worst Headlines" is born.

The Washington Post wrote a much better headline that actually punches two ideas at once:

SAT Scores Hold Steady as Minority Participation Rises
Washington Post

In fairness to the LA Times, theirs is a bit shorter. But the WP's could be boiled down to "SAT Scores Hold Steady," which is even shorter and hugely better than saying that they "unwaver."

Or, maybe I just need to get out more.

6 comments:

  1. Did you see? LA Times changed that headline!

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  2. You get out often enough...witness yesterday's blog with photos :-)

    It's not just headlines that bug me. Poor punctuation, bad grammar and the terrible short cuts teens are using these days drive me NUTS! Got an email applying for an apartment with "I need ur apartment" as the subject. HUH?

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  3. >>dr.grba said... Did you see? LA Times changed that headline!

    So they did. It used to be said that newspapers were "history's first draft." I guess that newspaper web sites are maybe "history's rough draft."

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  4. I say Huzzah! Thank you for defending appropriate grammar. My favorite pet peeves are "it's verses its" and "less verses fewer". Each trip to the grocery store costs me a few irritation points, looking at the "15 items or less" express lane.

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  5. Love your blog.

    Thanks for the fun.

    I used to email websites, including some of the Fortune 100 computer companies, RE their typos. I still let small companies know, sometimes.

    That definitely is a poor headline.

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  6. The worst grammatical gaffe is "preventative" for "preventive."

    Also, I love your blog too.

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