Write headlines with the reader always in mind

Page one of a recent Nation number might have been more fetching if the sub-editors responsible had left out one of the snippets and one of the last-column mug-shots. Moreover, the colour headline “Brace for colder days and nights” contained one language problem. For, strictly speaking, in that context, the verb to brace should be reflexive.

A reflexive verb, we recall, is one in which the doer is the same person as the receiver of a verbal action. In other words, both roles are played by the same individual. In this context, then, you do not simply brace. No, you brace yourself. Likewise, I brace myself, he braces himself and they brace themselves.

MISLED READERS

A reflexive verb, then, is one in which the verbal actor is, at the same time, the receiver of the verbal action. In other words, as you may recall from a recent contribution here, a reflexive verb is one in which the doer is also the receiver of a verbal action. For instance, I brace myself, he braces himself and they brace themselves.

Yet, in our example above, the page sub-editor was so proud of his/her headline that he/she sought to attract attention to it by ordering it printed in colour. He or she thus drew even greater attention to his or her own language folly. In that way, he or she had misled very many of the newspaper’s readers.

HUMAN VALUE

Newspaper sub-editors — those employed, among other things, to polish up and strengthen the language of writers (but who never get any bylines for those essential efforts) — may frequently order a headline printed in colour. That happens especially whenever a headline seems to the page designer particularly powerful or of especial human value.

For those unfamiliar with newsroom language, a byline is the “line”, usually just before the beginning of an article, which names the writer: for example, “By Ninani Huyo” and “By Nation Reporter”. I say “usually” because, if a page designer is imaginative, she or he may order a byline placed somewhere else in relation to the story.

ALWAYS POLITE

However, a most important constraint I learned when I was the Daily Nation’s chief sub-editor many years ago is that the placing of a byline must never pose any danger of confusing the reader. In that interest, one sub-editorial rule is that the reader is by far the most important consideration all the time.

It is thus because of the reader that your headline language must always be both engaging and always polite.

VIOLENT LANGUAGE

To be sure, the politicians are among your most important headline sources. But be equally sure: The politicians use some of the crudest and most violent language against their critics, especially their constituency challengers.

As a sub-editor, therefore, among your most important tasks is to help those trying to civilise your country’s politicians by removing from the politicians’ mouths especially the crudest and thorniest words that these “ladies and gentlemen” habitually hurl at one another.

Philip Ochieng is a retired journalist. [email protected]