Headlines and more errors

Headlines are not always difficult, but they can be the difference between whether a story is read or not. When writing a headline I ask myself if I would read the story after reading it. To create a great headline it has to be interesting and tell a story in just a few words. Reading the entire story before writing a headline was very important to make effective headlines. Personally, I hate word play in headlines. I think it is very unprofessional and is used by reporters who are lazy. Puns are the worst. It is childish and stupid when a writer uses a pun to write a headline.

This week’s grammar mistake comes from the 28^th Annual Golden Spike Awards program. As “Utah’s longest-running, most prestigious public relations and communications awards event,” I was happy to find basic AP style errors in their program. The first was an unforgivable oxford comma. In the bio of the young professional of the year it says, “Steven enjoys playing volleyball, reading – especially autobiographies, kissing his wife, and rough housing…” The dreaded oxford comma was a great way to finish his bio. In the communicator of the year’s bio the program misuses numbers. While listing her family member it states, “She is married to Dr. Dan E. Jones and has four children, three step-children and sixteen grandchildren,” clearly “sixteen” should be written as a numeral. The event was boring and this made it so much better to find such obvious errors.