10.30.2007

Good Headline/ Bad Headline

I was searching for bad headlines, and I found this one from the Cornell Daily Sun: "Colbert Brings Satire, T-Shirt Gun to Barton Hall" http://cornellsun.com/node/25260

I think it's kind of a confusing headline because it's meaningless at first glance and doesn't provide much insight into the story. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't understand the "T-shirt gun" part until reading the article and realizing the headline referred to a T-shirt launcher. During a visit to Cornell University, Stephen Colbert used a t-shirt launcher as part of the show. I've never heard of a t-shirt launcher referred to as a t-shirt gun, so I think the more common name would avoid confusion and be more appropriate for the headline.

An example I found of a good headline is "Mukasey Unsure About Legality of Waterboarding" from the Washington Post. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/washington/31CND-mukasey.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

This headline is straight to the point, and you don't even have to read the story to know what it's about. In the article Michael Mukasey denounced waterboarding but said he had to "review the legality" of all interrogation techniques. The headline is in present tense and has an appropriate tone for the story. Also, very important terms like "Mukasey" and "waterboarding," could easily be searched to produce this article.

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