Chapter 9 Exercises
1. For each of the following words, list at least three synonyms that would take less space:
a. suggestion
b. organization
c. contributor
d. falsehood
2. Shorten each of the following phrases:
a. capital city
b. on the order of
c. at that time
d. due to the fact
e. a softly blowing wind
f. attain victory
g. during the time
3. The two headlines that follow have “bad breaks,” or awkward line splits. Rewrite each one to keep verbphrases together on one line and to keep modifiers and the words they modify on the same line. Don’tworry about the count, but try to keep all lines about the same length.
a. Provost will
resign today
b. Russia may
ratify new
treaty today
5. Rewrite these headlines to remove unproven accusations:
a. Child murderer goes on trial
b. Cops nab 40 hoods in gambling raid
4. Rewrite this headline to correct unattributed opinion:
Regents hit students
with stiff tuition
The Board of Regents today set tuition
for next year at $2,000, an increase of
12 percent more than the current level.
5. Correct the punctuation in these headlines:
a. Mayor opposes tax cut;
prepares new budget.
b. “President is doing a good job”,
head of veterans group says.
c. “President doing good job”:
Vets chairman
d. Tennessee beats Kentucky;
claims SEC championship
e. State assembly votes no on death
penalty bill, and ends session
6. Show correct capitalization for downstyle headlines:
a. President Signs Trade Treaty With Japan
b. Educators Consider Ways to Combat Illiteracy
7. Refer to the headline-writing rules discussed in this chapter. Then, without considering the count, explainwhy each of the following headlines is poor:
a. School board plans to
study admission policy
b. Fair manager tells plans for fair
c. Beat grandmother, three children
d. Kidnap victim trys to identify captors
e. Henderson, Smith spar in
second campaign debate
f. Inmate escaped from prison farm
g. Council passes sales
tax despite protest
8. Use the standard headline-counting method explained in this chapter to give the count for this headline:
Amityville horror real,
psychic detectives say
9. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to give the maximum number of units for eachline of these headline assignments. Remember, the first number refers to the number of columns; the secondnumber is the point size of the type; the third number is the number of lines in the headline.
a. 2-48-2
b. 1-24-3
c. 5-60-1
d. 4-36-2
10. Use the standard headline-counting method explained in this chapter to give the count for this headline:
Governor summons units
special session units
Does the headline above fit properly for a 2-48-2 headline assignment? If not, change it so each line willbe within the maximum count and no shorter than two units less than the maximum count.
11. Define or describe each of the following terms used in this chapter.
a. dead head
b. stutter headline
c. first-day headline, second-day headline
d. upstyle, downstyle
e. HTK
f. headline schedule
g. side head
h. raw wrap (Dutch turn)
i. tombstone
j. top headline
k. banner head
l. screamer headline
m. skyline banner
n. promo
o. deck or bank
p. overline
q. underline
r. kicker (eyebrow) headline
s. kerning
t. extra editions
u. hammer (reverse kicker)
v. subhead
w. jump headline
x. dingbats
y. boldface lead-ins
z. breakout or pullout quotation
12. Identify problems with the following headlines.
a. Gorillas vow to kill Khomeini
b. School chief hears offer in men’s room
c. Volcano killed by suffocation
d. Police brutality postponed
e. Court orders church to produce woman
f. British aide says all inmates to gain now that fast over
g. State provides motorists with winter conditions
h. Excess of vitamins harmful, expensive specialist warns
i. Airport commission to consider holding hearing on runway
j. Shuttle passes test; a worker is killed
k. Museums utilizing TV to attack visitors
l. Defendant’s speech ends in long sentence
m. Jury is still out on composting toilets
13. Read at least one issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, especially the regular feature “The LowerCase,” a collection of awkward headlines. Then skim the headlines in several newspapers and bring to classthe best candidates for a place in “The Lower Case.”
14. Go to a local supermarket and buy a couple of sensational newspapers and try your hand at writing betterheadlines.
15. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline for this story. Practice writingyour heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the completed version to the appropriate place at the top ofeach story. Or follow your instructor’s directions if writing headlines on a computer.
2-30-2:
PORTLAND, ORE.— A 62-year-old man, blinded in a traumatic accident
nine years ago, regained his sight after he was struck by lightning near his
home, his wife and doctor said yesterday.
Doctors confirmed that Edwin E. Robinson, a former truck driver,
could see for the first time since he became blind as the result of a spectacular
highway accident nine years ago.
“It (his sight) isn’t completely restored,” Robinson’s wife, Doris, said.
“But he can see straight in front of him, which he hasn’t been able to do
in nine years.
“You read about things like this, but you can’t really believe them,”
she said.
Robinson was knocked to the ground by lightning Wednesday when
he took shelter under a tree during an afternoon thunderstorm. After 20
minutes, he managed to climb to his feet, said Mrs. Robinson, who found
him in his bedroom later that afternoon.
“I can see you! I can see you! I can see the house! I can read!” she
quoted him as saying. She also said he was able to hear perfectly well
without his hearing aid.
Dr. William F. Taylor examined Robinson yesterday and confirmed that
he had regained both sight and hearing. Calling it “one for the books,” Dr.
Taylor said the rubber-soled shoes Robinson was wearing when he was
struck by the lightning may have saved his life.
Robinson’s ophthalmologist, Dr. Albert Moulton, of Portland, Ore.,
attributed the dramatic event to trauma.
“It was traumatic when he lost his sight, so maybe his sight was restored
by this trauma. Anything is possible,” Dr. Moulton said.
Mrs. Robinson said she was being deluged with calls from friends and
well-wishers who heard about her husband’s recovery.
16. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline for this story. Practice writingyour heads on scrap paper; then transcribe the completed version to the appropriate place at the top ofeach story. Or if writing headlines on a computer, follow your instructor’s directions.
3-24-1:
KUWAIT— Five Muslim fundamentalists offended by a “Hagar the Horrible”
cartoon burst into the offices of an English-language newspaper
Saturday and chased an editor out of the building at gunpoint.
The five were captured, one by a worker at the daily Arab Times and the
others by police after a car chase, an Interior Ministry statement said.
No one was injured. The U.S. comic strip, about a boorish but lovable
Viking and his eccentric family, showed Hagar on a hill saying: “I pray
and pray, but you never answer me.” A voice from the clouds answers:
“Sorry if you don’t get through right away, keep trying. These days everyone
wants to talk to me.” Many Muslims saw the cartoon as sacrilegious.
A magazine published by a group of fundamentalist Sunni Muslims said
the comic strip was “mocking God and communication between humans
and their God.” The Al-Mujtama magazine accused the newspaper’s non-
Muslim employees of poking fun at Kuwait’s laws and religion.
The newspaper ran an apology Thursday, 11 days after the cartoon
appeared. It said the “inclusion of the cartoon was inappropriate but
unintentional and done without malice.”
“They took the mistake and turned it into a conspiracy,” said the
paper’s American managing editor, Tadeusz Karwecki. “Everyone makes
mistakes, but you don’t go out and shoot people for them.”
17. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline for this story. Practice writingyour heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the completed version to the appropriate place at the top ofeach story. Or, if writing headlines on a computer, follow your instructor’s directions.
2-24-3:
Jacques Bailly, a 14-year-old eighth-grade student from Denver, yesterday
won the National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “elucubrate.”
Jacques got his chance when Paige Pipkin, a 12-year-old seventh
grader from El Paso, Texas, missed on “glitch.” She spelled it “glitsch.”
After Jacques properly spelled “glitch,” he breezed through “elucubrate”
before pronouncer Richard Baker could provide the definition.
Jacques is no stranger to elucubration— laborious work, especially at
night or by candlelight.
“Well, you read a lot and you work a lot,” he said, explaining his secret
of success.
Jacques and Paige were the top of 112 finalists who came to Washington
for the 53rd annual competition sponsored by Scripps Howard
Newspapers.
Jacques spelled “auburn,” “finesse,” “maladroit,” “nimiety,” “juratory,”
“davit,” “abecedarian,” “frijoles,” “blatherskite,” “wassail” and “halcyon” to
reach the final face-off.
Jacques won $1,000 and a loving cup. Paige won $500.
18. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline for this story. Practice writingyour heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the completed version to the appropriate place at the top ofeach story. Or if writing headlines on a computer, follow your instructor’s directions.
4-48-1 with 4-30-1 underline:
WASHINGTON— More than two-thirds of Americans believe television
contributes to violence, erodes family values and fosters a distrust of government,
according to a new poll released Saturday.
The public also is troubled by increasingly graphic portrayals of sex
during prime time, said the poll, which will appear in the U.S. News &
World Report issue on newsstands Monday.
Nearly 80 percent of Hollywood executives questioned by mail in a
separate survey agreed there was a link between TV violence and violence
in real life, but they were not nearly as concerned about TV’s role in other
social problems.
Fifty-three percent of the executives said TV contributed to distrust of
government, and 46 percent thought it contributed to the decline of family
values. Thirty-four percent believe TV played some role in America’s
divorce rate.
One thousand adults were interviewed for the poll, which had a margin
of error of plus or minus 3 percent. U.S. News said 570 of the 6,500 Hollywood
executives who received the mail surveys responded to them.
“It is not a scientific survey, but the total number of responses was signify-
cant and suggests that many Hollywood leaders are concerned about
trends in the television business,” the magazine said.
Eighty-four percent of the general public said they were concerned
about the relationship of extramarital sex on TV and real-life problems.
In contrast, 43 percent of the Hollywood executives said they were
concerned.
Seventy-five percent of the public said they were concerned about the
portrayal of passionate encounters and heavy kissing on TV, compared
to 28 percent of Hollywood leaders.
When asked about the solutions they would favor, 95 percent of both
groups agreed that parental supervision was the most important step,
the magazine said.
19. Write a news brief headline (1-14-2) for this press release.
ORLANDO, Fla., July 27 /PRNewswire/ — Ozzy Osbourne has conquered
it all. This rock ‘n’ roll rebel pioneered the heavy metal revolution, became
a reality TV star (of the Emmy-winning “The Osbournes”) and has even
been invited to the White House - turning a passion for music into a
rock empire.
Now, the “Godfather of Heavy Metal” is taking on Hard Rock International
to become the hardest rocker yet in the company’s Signature Series.
Hard Rock today unveiled its latest Signature Series T-shirt, designed by
the “Ironman” himself, Ozzy Osbourne.
Proceeds from the new Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt benefit the Sharon
Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars-SinaiMedicalCenter, established
by Ozzy’s wife Sharon following her own battle with colon
cancer.
Ozzy Osbourne, the 22nd rocker to become part of Hard Rock’s Signature
Series T-shirt program, joins music icons and legends, such as Elton
John, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen, helping to raise millions of
dollars for a number of charitable causes worldwide.
20. Write news brief headlines (1-14-2) for each of the press release leads you edited in Exercise 1 of
Chapter 3.
21. Write headlines for the stories in the exercise section of Chapter 5. Use head specifications assigned byyour instructor.
22. For more headline and editing practice, select press releases from PR Newswire at and follow your instructor’s directions.
23. Clip some stories and headlines from today’s edition of a printed newspaper without looking at the onlineversion. Write headlines suitable for the online version. Then compare your headlines with those for thesame stories on the newspaper’s Web site.