good/bad headlines

Good headline: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-taxes0626,0,2838871.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Leaders differ on budget fix

I think this iheadline from today's Baltimore Sun is a good, strong headline because it is short and concise and the reader knows exactly what they are going to get. It also follows the structure of a good headline which we discussed in class: subject verb object. Here the subject, leaders, preceeds the noun, differ which preceeds the object, the budget fix. The headline reads easily and appears to fit into the appropriate size for professsional headlines.

Bad headline: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501763.html


Pension For Police Appointee Debated

This headline from today's Washington Post is not good because the verb is not only at the end of the sentence, but it is in past tense. As we learned today, headlines should be in present tense. This headline does not follow the subject, verb, object structure because the object is the first word which is followed by the subject, which is followed by the past tense verb. It does not mislead the readers but I think it could be written much stronger for a paper such as the Post.