A good headline is ...

... a single, uncluttered thought ... that summarizes the essence of the story ... that is positive ... and specific ... expressed with a strong verb ... stated in active voice ... placed in present tense ... attributed to a source when necessary ... and constructed of short, simple words

A good headline needs ...

... to summarize rather than describe ... to be specific rather than general ... to entice and interest the reader ... to depict the mood of the story ... to help the reader grade the news

A good headline writer will ...

... keep track of key words as he/she reads the story: Which words must I include in the headline to convey the meaning of the story? ... reduce the storys essence into a single sentence ... re-form that sentence (by shortening, compacting and energizing) into headline form that fits the space

A good headline writer will ...

... avoid simply repeating the lead ... try to cover the main point of the story well rather than covering everything

To punctuate a good headline ...

... use semi-colons to separate complete thoughts ... can use commas to replace and ... and use commas with attribution and as you would in a sentence ... use periods only in abbreviations ... avoid ?s and rarely (if ever) use ! ... use rather than ... use the long dash for emphasis ... dont split a hyphenated word between lines

For clarity, a good headline ...

... places modifiers on same line as words modified ... places all parts of verbs on same line ... does not end a line in a preposition ... does not repeat the same words ... avoids the verb is and other forms of to be ... avoids acronyms and unfamiliar abbreviations