It should be noted that the final pyramid deck is in four parts and is constructed so that the last line of the pyramid is the single word | Elect. | Visually, this means you have the first and last lines of this six-deck head centered between the column rules. All other lines between these are either centered or are the full width of the column so the overall appearance has a symmetry.
The image above is example | (2) | of a headline that depends for its effect upon the continuation of a statement through several decks. This one has just two decks. The first deck is cross-line form with the single, centered, upper-case word | PANCAKES | in a largish, thin, font.
The second deck is pyramid form in mixed-case and a smaller font and says | Wife Baked Tempted Soldier To Freedom, But Sirup To Put on Them Caused His Arrest. |
The full headlines says | PANCAKES Wife Baked Tempted Soldier To Freedom, But Sirup To Put on Them Caused His Arrest. |
Style in Heads. Rhyme and alliteration may be used to advantage on rare occasions, but generally this similarity of sound produces a jingling result that is not pleasing. Originality and novelty can be given by choice and combination of words much more effectively than by the artificial means of similar sounds.
To make headlines as concise as possible the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are omitted, and auxiliary verbs not absolutely necessary are suppressed. When articles and auxiliaries are convenient to fill out the line to the required number of units, they may be retained, but should not be used at the beginning of a deck.
To give freshness and vividness to the head, the verb is usually put in the present tense even though the action is in the past; for example, “Roosevelt Speaks in Cleveland.” Future action is expressed by the infinitive or by the regular future form with “will”; for example, “Roosevelt to Speak in Cleveland,” or “Roosevelt Will Speak in Cleveland.”
The active voice of the verb is preferred to the passive because the active is more vivid and more concise. “Cornell Wins Intercollegiate Regatta,” is better than “Intercollegiate Regatta Won by Cornell.” When, however, the passive is required to give the more significant part of the statement prominence in the first part of the top deck it should be used in preference to the active. In the following head the important point is that the post office has been robbed, rather than the fact that it was robbed by tramps.
