Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/310

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ALL CITIZENS, BEWARE! "HOLD-UP" MEN ARE OUT

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TRUST WEAKENS; DEALERS PROMISE 8-CENT MILK SOON

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"DON'T BUTT IN" MEXICO IS TOLD IN POLITE WAY

Methods of Building Headlines. The editor or copy-reader who is constantly writing heads comes to think unconsciously in headline units; that is, his daily practice makes it possible for him to frame readily statements of the essential facts that will fulfill the requirements of each deck of the head. Nevertheless, he always counts the units to be sure that the number is correct. For the beginner the process of building up the several decks of a typical headline is analyzed at some length in the following pages, in order to demonstrate the methods pursued.

The story selected for showing the process of headline writing has been taken from the Chicago Record-Herald, which gave it a headline constructed on the following plan: