Copy reading and

Headline writing

REBECCA N. BELAYA
The copy
Material for a newspaper or magazine
article
The text as written by the author
Copyreading
Itis the art of arranging, correcting, and
selecting the quality and type of news
It is also called copyediting.
One who edits copies is called a
copyreader or copyeditor
C’s of Copyreading

• Correct
• Check
• Condense
• Clarify
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What to look for in Copyreading?
1. Grammar

2. Writing Style

3. Font/Typography

4. Slugline

5. Printer’s Direction

6. Headline Writing

7. Copyreading Symbols

8. Unit count
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Copyreading vs Proofreading

Copyreading – editing the copy

Proofreading – editing the proof/galley proof

Proof – The work displayed or printed.

 Slug verb with
Pork Barrel action
Active voice

Subject DOJ probes Revilla Summary of

Conventional
lead

more
THE EDITED COPY
THE PROOFREAD COPY

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Who is a copyreader?
• Sometimes called butcher or mutilator
• Corrects errors in copies
• Should know the basics of all forms of
journalistic writing
Responsibilities of a copyeditor

1) edits errors on grammar (spelling, tenses,

agreement, etc.)
2) edits errors of fact (accuracy check)
3) edits verbose copy
4) deletes opinion or slant and libelous
statements
5) writes the headline
Copyreading symbols
09/13/2023
Pointers in Copyediting
Numbers

The numbers 1 – 9 are written in words

while the numbers 10 and above are
written in figures.
Example:
nine students
13 children
Numbers
EXCEPTIONS:
 dates, address: always in figures.
 proper nouns: may be written in
figures/words
 beginning of sentence: always in words
 events: 1st – 9th is allowed
Spelling
Look for misspelled words.
Here in the Philippines, American English
is used, not British English.
Ex: color, not colour
Ifa word has more than one accepted
spelling, the shortest one is preferred.
Ex: judgment, instead of judgement
Capitalization
The first letter of the sentence is always
capitalized.
Proper nouns are capitalized, common
nouns are not.
Ex: singer
Regine Velasquez
Small letters are usually used for title or
position.
Ex: Mrs. Cecilia Burayag, the principal of
BCIS, delivered the opening remarks.
Capitalized titles: Governor Umali
Abbreviations
Spellout Dept., gov’t, and other
abbreviations.
Theabbreviations Jr. and Sr. are allowed in
names.
Remember:

Engr. Emmanuel Delgado;

Engineer Delgado
12 Dimagiba St.; Dimagiba Street
A titleor position of a person may be
abbreviated if it appears before the name
but not if simply used in the sentence:
Ex: Sen. Recto filed another taxation bill
yesterday.
The senator filed another taxation bill
yesterday.
Acronyms
Acronyms are usually written in capital
letters.
Example:
BCIS
Check if the letters of the acronym are in
the correct order.
When an acronym appears for the first time
in a news story, it is written after its
meaning and it is enclosed in parentheses.
Ex: University of the Philippines (UP)
Paragraph

The first sentence of a paragraph is

indented.
Innews stories, the rule is one paragraph,
one sentence only.
Lead
There should be no names of unknown
persons in the lead.
Check for buried leads.
The standard lead answers the 5 Ws and 1
H.
Grammar

Check for errors in:

Tenses of Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
(agreement in gender and number)
Articles (a, an, the)
Remember: he said and not said he;
Aquino said and not said Aquino
Remember: three-day training and not
three-days training.
Trained for three days and not trained for
three-day.
Punctuation: period
.
Itis used at the end of declarative and
imperative sentences.
Itis used in abbreviations such as p.m.,
a.m., Jr., Sr., Pres., Sen., Rep., Gov., Gen.,
Capt., Dr., Fr., Atty., Corp., and Inc.
Acronyms of schools, organizations and
offices do not need periods.
Punctuation: comma ,
Use commas:
toseparate the month and day from the
year.
toseparate the street, barangay, town and
province in an address
toseparate facts concerning victims and
suspects.
Punctuation: comma ,
Ex: Jolas Burayag, 17, of Barangay San
Fernando Norte
Do not use commas:
to separate the abbreviation Jr., Sr., or III
from the name.
Ex: Emmanuel Delgado Jr.
Punctuation: hyphen -
Use hyphen:
in most compound nouns
Ex: editor-in-chief, officer-in-charge
in fractions
Ex: two-thirds, three-fourths
Punctuation:
Quotation marks “ ”
 Quotation marks are used in direct quotations. Indirect
quotations do not need them.

Ex. “I forgot it,” he said.

He said he forgot it.

 Periods and commas are written first before closing
quotation marks.

Ex. “Let’s go to SM,” the boy said.

Punctuation:
Quotation marks
“ ”
 Quotationmarks are used to set off titles of events, shows,
movies, books, etc.

Ex. We watched “The Titanic.”

 Quotation marks are used to set off an alias or nickname.

Ex. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Juan Chua a.k.a. “Boy Singkit”

Punctuation: Apostrophe ‘
 Apostrophes are used in the possessive form of
the noun.
Ex. the teacher’s table
the teachers’ meeting
 In contractions
Ex. I’m (I am)
you’re (you are)
Reminders
 Watchout for jumbled letters, words and
paragraphs.
 Check for joined/disjoined words.
Ex. class room, new teacher
 Delete editorializing words/phrases.
Ex. The very beautiful and intelligent principal…
The cops were right in arresting…
Reminders
 Checkfor redundancies (recurring
words/phrases/paragraphs, synonymous or
redundant terms).
Ex. the concert the concert ended
 REMEMBER: After editing the news story, write
30 at the end of the article. If the article is not yet
finished, write more at the bottom of the page.
Headline writing
Headline
an assemblage of words written in bigger,
bolder letters than the usual page text at the
beginning of the news
The title of a news story
FUNCTIONS OF HEADLINE
1) to attract readers
2) to tell the story (in a summary)
3) to add variety of type (to break monotony in a
sea of type)
4) to identify personality of newspaper (use of
font/style of letters)
5) to index/grade the news (big type for important
news; small type for less important)
Tips in headline writing
1. First, read the story for general meaning.
2. Clues to the headline are usually in the
lead.
What happened?
Who did what?
How did if happen?
3. Use the shortest words possible.
Examples include:
cop – policeman
nab – arrest
mishap – accident
up – increase
down – decrease
thief - robber
4. Have a subject and a verb. Avoid starting
with a verb; the headline might sound as
if it were giving orders.
Wrong: Revise money mart guidelines
Correct: Central Bank revises money mart
guidelines
5. Use the historical present tense if the verb
is in the active voice.
Wrong: Delgado topped editorial tilt
Correct: Delgado tops editorial tilt
6. Omit the helping verb if the verb is in the
passive voice. Only the past participle is
retained.
Wrong: Drug pushers are nabbed
Correct: Drug pushers nabbed
7. Use the infinitive for future events.
Wrong: City Hall will punish anti-squatting
drive
Correct: City Hall to punish anti-squatting
drive
8. Do not use a period at the end of the
headline.
9. Omit articles (a, an, the).
Wrong: A fire hits Tondo slum area
Correct: Fire hits Tondo slum area
10. Use a comma instead of “and” in writing
headlines.
Delays, confusion bug Asiad
Lacson, Trillanes no show at SONA
11. Use semicolon to separate sentences.
Gina Lopez heads Pasig body;
Noy swears in 35 other execs
12. Use the punctuation marks (especially the
exclamation point) sparingly.
13. Use single quotes (‘) in headlines
instead of double quotes (“).
14. Always give the source of a quote.
Quotation marks are not needed, a dash
or a colon will serve the purpose.
Crackdown on errant bus firms – Enrile
Enrile: Crackdown on errant bus firms
15. Use the down-style – only the first word
and proper nouns are capitalized, unless
otherwise indicated. This is more
readable because people are used to
reading sentences this way.
Ex. Faculty honors Nuñez
16. Use only widely known abbreviations.
Wrong: JEE to play Santa this Christmas
17. Don’t use names unless the person is well
known, use common nouns instead.
Wrong: Santos electrocuted
Correct: Carpenter electrocuted
18. Use specific terms instead of generalities
Example: Trader killed
Better: Trader stabbed to death
19. Just report the facts; do not editorialize.
Wrong: Noy gives inspiring talks
(The word “inspiring” is just your opinion.)
20. Be positive. Don't use negatives in
headlines. They weaken not only the
headlines but also the stories.
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DECK
This is the number of lines your headline
will have
Example:
BCIS bags medals in NEPEESA quiz bee
(1 deck)
10 more cops wanted
for Maguindanao massacre
(2 decks)
Unit counts
A count system considers differences in the
widths of letters.
Capital letters: Small letters:
m, w – 1 ½ units
M, W – 2 units
jilft – ½ unit
JILFT – 1 unit others – 1unit
Others – 1 ½ units
Punctuation marks
dash (–) – 1 ½ units
question mark (?) – 1 unit
others - ½ unit
Number digits
0 to 9 – 1 unit
Space – 1 unit
BCIS bags medals in NEPPESA quiz bee
B C I S b a g s
1½+1½+1+1½+1+1+1+1+1+1

(11 ½ units)

m e d a l s i n
1½+1+1+1+1+1+1+½+1+1
(10 units)
BCIS bags medals in NEPPESA quiz bee
N E P P E S A
1½+1½+1½+1½+1½+1½+1½+1
(11 ½ units)

q u i z b e e
1+1+½+1+1+1+1+1
(7 ½ units)
TOTAL = 11 ½ + 10 + 11 ½ + 7 ½ = 40 ½ units
Slugline
- compose of date, what type of story that was
edited, what the story was all about, initial of
the author and page where you want to place
the story. It is usually encircled in the upper
left corner of the copy.
Ex. 07/10/16
News
Duterte names…
DOB
Page 2
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Printer’s Direction
- instructs the printer on how to lay out the copy in
the newspaper.

Head: Font style, font size, how many

decks headline style, headline structure

Ex. Tahoma, 48 pts, 1 deck, downstyle,

flush left

Body: Font style, font size, ex. Arial, 12 points

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My Technique

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 Thank you
for listening!