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 verb phrases together on one line and to keep
modifiers and the words they modify on the same line. Dont worry 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. Veterans head : President does good job
c. Vets chairman:President does good job
d. Tennessee beats Kentucky at SEC championship
e. State assembly votes no on death penalty bill

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, explain why 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 each line of these headline assignments. Remember, the first
number refers to the number of columns; the second number 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 will be 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 mens 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. Defendants 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 Lower Case, a collection of awkward headlines. Then skim
the headlines in several newspapers and bring to class the 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 better headlines.

15. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline
for this story. Practice writing your heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the
completed version to the appropriate place at the top of each story. Or follow
your instructors 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) isnt completely restored, Robinsons wife, Doris, said.
But he can see straight in front of him, which he hasnt been able to do
in nine years.
You read about things like this, but you cant 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.
Robinsons 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 husbands recovery.

16. Refer to the headline schedule in Figure 9-4 (page 000) to write a headline
for this story. Practice writing your heads on scrap paper; then transcribe the
completed version to the appropriate place at the top of each story. Or if writing
headlines on a computer, follow your instructors 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 dont 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 newspapers non-
Muslim employees of poking fun at Kuwaits 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
papers American managing editor, Tadeusz Karwecki. Everyone makes
mistakes, but you dont 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 writing your heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the
completed version to the appropriate place at the top of each story. Or, if writing
headlines on a computer, follow your instructors 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 writing your heads on scrap paper, then transcribe the
completed version to the appropriate place at the top of each story. Or if writing
headlines on a computer, follow your instructors 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 TVs 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 Americas
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 companys 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-Sinai Medical Center, established
by Ozzys wife Sharon following her own battle with colon
cancer.
Ozzy Osbourne, the 22nd rocker to become part of Hard Rocks 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 by your instructor.
22. For more headline and editing practice, select press releases from PR
Newswire at http://www.prnewswire.com/ and follow your instructors directions.

23. Clip some stories and headlines from todays edition of a printed newspaper
without looking at the online version. Write headlines suitable for the online
version. Then compare your headlines with those for the same stories on the
newspapers Web site.