President Schurman Talks on
Character to Victorious
Cornell Crew.
(See [Figure 6] shows a two-line head with the top deck set in 30-point condensed Gothic type and the second deck in 12-point Wayside. The top deck here is a drop line: the sentence drops down from one type line into another. The second is called a pyramid. In writing such a head a word in the first deck should never be divided. In the second deck division is permissible, but the head is better if it can be avoided. Fifteen to seventeen units in each line of the top deck make a symmetrical head, when both lines are approximately the same length. In writing the pyramid the copy reader after a little practice can tell at a glance whether a sentence will fit. Care should be taken not to place an indivisible word where it will cause trouble. For example, if the first line of a pyramid, set with the usual spacing between words, ends on the letter “m” in “Schmidt,” the word must be shifted to the second line, with the result that too much white space appears in the first. The dash is generally used to separate distinct ideas in the same deck of a head. (See [Figure 5].)
Various arbitrary rules affecting the mechanics of the head are observed by different newspapers, and the copy reader going from one paper to another is likely to find a brand new set of patterns to work by. These mechanical details, however, are easily mastered after one has acquired the knack of putting the story into terse, meaty sentences. The only way to learn how to write heads, after one knows the general principles, is to write them.
SPECIAL KINDS OF HEADS
Overline.—Head over a cut. When the name appears under a cut (this being an underline), it is not repeated in the overline, which must be an identifying sentence. “Banker Who Is Running for Congress” and “Woman Who Shot at Burglar in Her Home” are typical overlines.
Box Head.—Head enclosed in a border. Many overlines are set in this way.
Banner.—A headline extending across the top of a page.
Jump or Run-Over Head.—Head used over the continuation of a story that runs over (jumps) from one page to another. Some newspapers require a new head for the jump; others use the top deck of the original head set in smaller type.
Freak Head.—Special type of head used over freakish news stories. (See [Figure 7].)