How to Write Headlines and Subheads

How to Write Headlines and Subheads How to Write Headlines and Subheads How to Write Headlines and Subheads By Mark Nichol The first thing most readers notice in print or online is a headline. Think of it as a virtual handshake. If your headline is the text equivalent of a cold, dead fish, you’ll make a poor first impression. Or think of it as analogous to a cover letter or a request for a date. You only get one chance to introduce yourself make it good. Various types of headlines exist, and some are more suitable than others for various types of content. Here are eight categories appropriate for selling something, whether it’s a product or an idea, along with a sample headline of that type: 1. Direct: â€Å"Lawn Mowers on Sale† Such an approach may seem dull, but consider that no single reader personality prevails; some people like an unadorned statement. Many people looking for lawn mowers on sale will be gratified to see the headline â€Å"Lawn Mowers on Sale† â€Å"Ah, just what I was thinking.† 2. News: â€Å"Remote-Control Lawn Mower to Debut in April† A journalistic headline conveys authority and is straightforward without being plain. 3. How-To: â€Å"How to Select the Best Lawn Mower for Your Yard† The words â€Å"how to† have launched a million headlines (many of them right here on this site), and for good reason: What do you type into a search engine when you want to learn how to do something? â€Å"How to† tells readers that somebody out there wants to help them. 4. Question: â€Å"Is Your Lawn Mower the Right One for the Job?† A query to readers is an invitation, a promise that they’ll get something out of the experience; all they have to do is pick up the magazine or click on the link and read. 5. Command: â€Å"Go to Lawn Mowers R Us for the Best Deals† You don’t have to be a current or former military service member to know that a directive gets one’s attention. Of course, it’s more likely to succeed in a marketing pitch if it aligns with the target audience’s desires. 6. List: 7 â€Å"Things to Look for in a New Lawn Mower† The next-best approach to a how-to headline is a list. Look in the archives here at Daily Writing Tips and notice how many headlines start with a number. People like enumeration; it offers a promise that they will come away from the reading experience with quantifiable results. 7. Testimonial: â€Å"I Got a Great Deal on a New Lawn Mower† A testimonial, an authentic or fictional statement about the value of a good or service, is a time-honored advertising strategy. People are drawn to anecdotal evidence especially if it is accompanied by a photograph of a celebrity or an attractive model who has ostensibly offered the claim even though such overtures are notoriously unreliable. But if you routinely employ testimonials that stand the test of trust, even readers who practice critical thinking will find them appealing. 8. Teaser: â€Å"The Most Important Purchase You’ll Make This Year† Take care with this approach, because you can easily overextend yourself. â€Å"My most important purchase of the year will be a lawn mower? Really?† If you can back up the tease a survey of real estate agents concludes that good lawn care drives up property values and is a significant factor in home sales over the asking price then by all means use it. But be careful: One unsubstantiated teaser headline can drive a reader away forever. Conciseness Notice that none of the sample headlines above is more than ten words long. Many effective headlines are half that long, or even shorter. Make sure your headlines are no longer than they need to be, but nail the technique or catch the vibe you want first, then reduce the word count if possible. Take care, however, not to truncate unnecessarily: You might think, for example, that â€Å"How to Select the Best Lawn Mower for Your Yard† has three extraneous words at the end, but the best lawn mower overall may not be the best lawn mower for your yard, and the use of the word your personalizes the message hey, reader, I to help you! Originality Copy and paste your final draft into a search engine. If it comes up, consider altering one or more words or starting over again. There’s nothing wrong with using an existing headline there are only so many ways to string together a handful of words about a topic but you may not want your article to be associated with the content beneath that existing one, especially if it’s of inferior quality. And don’t hesitate to use a basic, functional headline, or to assume that it’s already been taken: In an online search, the headline for this post (the most fundamental wording I can think of for the topic) came up only in a single extent reference, and was in an obscure video tutorial. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Using "a" and "an" Before Words10 Colloquial Terms and Their MeaningsPrepositions to Die With

Dick cheney's influence on foreign policy in the white house Essay

Dick cheney's influence on foreign policy in the white house - Essay Example He is the vortex in the White House on foreign policymaking. Everything comes through him† (Slavin & Page, 2003). This discussion examines this statement which reflects common perceptions regarding Cheney’s exceptional authority. When the current President Bush, with no previous foreign policy knowledge chose Dick Cheney, the Secretary of Defense under the first president Bush, as his Vice presidential nominee, it came to no one’s surprise that Cheney would have strong influence in these matters. However, early in the first term, the President was perceived as being surrounded by four equally powerful advisers, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Because of the President’s inexperience, Powell being kept in relative isolation from decision strategy sessions and Rice’s relegation as a coordinator, not a policy maker, both Cheney and Rumsfeld controlled foreign policy decisions. Though Powell left his position after the first term which Rice later accepted, the Cheney/Rumsfeld monopoly of foreign affair decision making remained unaffected. Currently, Cheney is undoubtedly the person shaping foreign policy and his staff is considered more influential than that of the National Security Council. Participants at upper-level foreign policy meetings have remarked that Cheney usually just asks questions and divulges little about his viewpoints regarding the discussions saving his opinions for private meetings with Bush. Cheney’s foreign affair positions may be obscured from the public and even the inner-circle at the White House but the impacts of those opinions have been front page news. Administration officials commented that Cheney produced the administration’s approach in the war on terrorism and toughened Bush’s determination to maintain the United State’s

Memory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Memory - Essay Example This is stored with the usage of three ways. First of all, the human mind changes matter into storage forms. This is done by integrating memory with known events which can be things are seen, heard or experienced. This method is referred to as encoding. The second step is storage whereby the human mind places information in the memory for storage. The final part is the ability of a human being to recall and recover the stored information in times of need that is when a person needs to utilize the memory. An interesting aspect of human memory which is unique to the human memory is that their memory functions as a multi unit. The three basic divisions include the sensory memory, the short term memory and the long term memory. The sensory memory is one which comes directly from the persons five senses. This memory is not very long lasting and stays for around 350 milliseconds. This memory does not possess ways for improvement. In 1960 an experiment was conducted by George Sperling to test this memory. According to the procedure a group of people was shown twelve letters arranged in three different rows. Different subjects were asked to repeat the different letters present in different rows. The subjects recalled what they saw but they could not remember it for a long time. The experiment suggested that the sensory memory got erased after some time and the maximum capacity of the sensory memory that a person could retain was around twelve letters. The short term memory is the next step which is reached when the events are moved from the sensory part to the area of realization and perception. This information is also short lived but the time duration of this memory is greater than that of the sensory memory. This time is around 30 seconds and this memory is used basically in short tasks. But this memory does have space for improvement by a method which is known as chunking. Chunking as the name implies means to break in to pieces. An

Squaring the Circle and Trisecting an Angle Essay

Squaring the Circle and Trisecting an Angle - Essay Example Babylonian mathematicians has found the way of constructing a square of equivalent area with respect to given circle. The Indian and Egyptians has also shown method of evaluating which appears in Sulba Sutras and Rhind papyrus of 1800 BC respectively. The Egyptian has calculated the value of approximated to 256/81. Archimedes has better precision which approximates the to be in the range of 3+1/7 and 3+10/71. Anaxagoras was supposed to be a first Greek mathematician who has worked in finding the solution of squaring the circle in the first century of AD. Hippocrates of Chios put an effort to solve it by squaring lunes. Antiphon suggested the method of inscribed polygons in circle and increasing the numbers of sides so that square and circle will have infinitesimally small difference in their area. Eudemus was not convinced with the approach. Bryson augmented the theory of Antiphon by circumscribing the polygon to support its validity. This problem was even discussed in the Birds, play written by Aristophanes around 414 BC. Oenopides, Antiphon, Bryson, Hippocrates, and Hippias were the prominent mathematicians who worked the problem during this period. Oenopides was pioneer in searching for use of compass and ruler as method of constructing a proof. He has contributed the method to draw a perpendicular line. James Gregory tried to prove its impossible nature of construction in 1667. Ferdinand von Lindemann finally succeeded in providing substantial proof in 1882. Hippias and Dinostratus have used the quadratrix to design the method of squaring the circle. This curve is created by mechanical method which produces uniform motion of a line equivalent to rotating radius of a circle in same time. The Greek mathematician has invested enough energy and effort for developing the algorithm of dividing arbitrary angle into desired ratio which will be helpful in constructing regular polygon of n sides. Gauss invented the construction of polygons through ruler and compass although Greeks didn't succeed in achievement of such a mathematical feat. Hippocrates was also aware of method to trisect an angle. Archimedes has significant contribution in many of the mathematical principles mentioned in the Book of Lemmas. His work 'On spirals' has general recognition in on the results provided for trisecting an angle. The contemporary mathematician Nicomedes introduced the concept of conchoids curve to formalize the proof of trisecting an angle. It uses rulers and compass methods where ruler rotates around the conchoids curve with axis fixed on root point of the given line. Another mathematician Pappus referred the solution of trisecting an angle by Apollonius applying the construction of conic. Pappus utilizes the geometry of hyperbola for two of his solutions. Mathematics Applied in Solution of the Geometrical Construction Archimedes applies the construction of spiral curves as method of measurement of the circle. In above drawing Archimedes proved that circumference of the circle with radius OP where

Carrying A Concealed Weapon, In California, Is A Threat To Society Essa

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Matilda Crabtree, 14, was shot and killed by her father when she jumped from the closet and yelled ‘BOO’ to scare her parents; her last words were, ‘I love you, daddy.†(Rottenberg 87) Laws that regulate carrying concealed weapons (CCW) have been wildly debated in the California and the US. There have mainly been two different types of laws. One is a type of legislation known as â€Å"may need† laws, which issues licenses to people who are in absolute need of carrying a concealed weapon. The other is known as â€Å"shall use† laws, which is a lot more lenient for people and makes it easier for the general public to get a gun. This law gives state authorities to issue concealed weapon licenses to any adult who does not have a felony conviction or history of mental illness. The use of firearms is justifiable only when a person is threatened with serious bodily injury. It does not mean that if a person is stealing your system from your car, you can shoot them. Legalizing concealed weapons to the general public is a direct attack on society’s safety in public places. Too many people will resort to force instead of a chance to runaway; everyone would rather be a hero. At the moment there are 31 states in the United States that permit people to possess a concealed weapon; California is not one of them. Carrying a concealed weapon is a threat to society because there have been too many accidents, concealed weapon laws might cause criminals to act more violently, and finally carrying concealed weapons might stimulate violent confrontation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Shall use† CCW laws do not cut down the amount of gun violence. Even though these laws are pretty recent, studies show that more carefree concealed weapon laws will not decrease the amount of gun related violence. Based on data collected from three states, University of Maryland researchers David McDowall, Colin Loftin, and Brian Wiersema found that the homicide rates did not significantly drop in these states following the adoption of Concealed Carry Laws. Instead, in three of the five cities studied these researchers found a statistically significant increase in the rate of gun related homicides - 74% in Jacksonville, 43% in Jackson, and 22% in Tampa (Ford 65).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Carrying a concealed weapon creates a false sense of security and diverts attent... ...nal, even when well-trained police officers are involved. The idea that poorly trained, self-appointed vigilantes are running through our streets looking to become heroes, should not make any of us feel safer. Arming a society does not create civility nor does it produce solutions to gun violence. We cannot solve our society’s disease of violence by arming ourselves with the epidemic. Work Sited Fisherman, Steve (1993, October). â€Å"What You Know About Guns Can Kill You,† Vogue, 32-38. Ford, Liam T.A. (1994, August/September). â€Å"Gunning for Change,† Reason, 64-66 Kirchner, Paul (1994, February). â€Å"Defending Gun Ownership,† Chronicles, available from 934 N. Main St., Rockford, IL. 61103-7061 Reese, Charley (1996, January). â€Å"You Can’t Beat an (Armed) Woman,† Conservative Chronicle, available from Box 29, Hampton, IA. 50441. Rottenberg, Annette T. (1997). Cease fire advertisement. The Structure of Argument. Boston: Bedford Books a division of St. Martin’s Press Inc. Sojourners (1994, March). â€Å"Annie Get Your Gun,† available from 2401 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. Voll, Daniel (1995, March). â€Å"The Right to Bear Sorrow,† Esquire, 79-83

My Technologically Challenged Life Essay

Monica’s parents play a huge role in limiting her access to technology. They choose to not use technology which I think is the main reason why they wouldn’t buy a computer for their daughters. Their reasoning sounds extremely familiar to me because my parents have done the same kind of thing to me. I begged my parents for a cell phone from seventh grade until my sophomore year when I finally bought my own but they would always tell me I don’t need a cell phone while my mom had one and my dad had THREE for his work. Anyways, I can relate to Monica on many levels. 2. I don’t think Monica is to blame for her technological difficulties at all. I think the main reason she is having troubles is her parents except for the lack of technology in her car which is obviously the manufacturers doing and not her parents. The lack of technology at the health-care facility is a pretty big issue if you ask me. The technology the workers could be and probably should be usin g would greatly improve the efficiency of the jobs they do. 3. Wunderlich’s reference to the weekend when terrorists were â€Å"supposed to be blowing up† the bridges in san Francisco was her way of adding some comedy to the story because there was probably a bomb threat that day and she could have potentially died simply because she didn’t have a GPS and got lost. If she had owned a GPS at the time, she wouldn’t have gotten so lost and never would have been on both of the bridges on accident.

Brandeis University Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA

Brandeis University is a private research university with an acceptance rate of 31%. Established in 1948 and located close to Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis takes pride in its Pulitzer Prize-winning alumni and faculty and 10-to-1 student/faculty ratio. Brandeis has a chapter of  Phi Beta Kappa  and is a member of the  Association of American Universities. Considering applying to Brandeis? Here are the admissions statistics you should know, including SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of admitted students. Acceptance Rate During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, Brandeis University had an acceptance rate of 31%. This means that for every 100 students who applied, 31 students were admitted, making Brandeis admissions process competitive. Admissions Statistics (2017-18) Number of Applicants 11,798 Percent Admitted 31% Percent Admitted Who Enrolled (Yield) 24% SAT Scores and Requirements Brandeis has a test-optional policy which allows students to choose which scores to send with their application for admission. Applicants may provide SAT or ACT scores, 3 exams from an approved list of AP, IB, and SAT Subject tests, or an academic portfolio. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 69% of admitted students submitted SAT scores. SAT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile ERW 630 720 Math 650 780 ERW=Evidence-Based Reading and Writing This admissions data tells us that of those who submitted SAT scores, most of Brandeis Universitys admitted students fall within the top 20% nationally on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Brandeis scored between 630 and 720, while 25% scored below 630 and 25% scored above 720. On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 650 and 780, while 25% scored below 650 and 25% scored above 780. Applicants with a composite SAT score of 1500 or higher will have particularly competitive chances at Brandeis. Requirements Brandeis does not require the SAT writing section. Note that Brandeis participates in the scorechoice program, which means that the admissions office will consider your highest score from each individual section across all SAT test dates. ACT Scores and Requirements Brandeis has a test-optional policy which allows students to choose which scores to send with their application for admission. Applicants may provide SAT or ACT scores, three AP, IB, or SAT Subject test scores from an approved list, or an academic portfolio. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 32% of admitted students submitted ACT scores. ACT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile English 30 35 Math 28 33 Composite 29 33 This admissions data tells us that of those who submitted ACT scores, most of Brandeis Universitys admitted students fall within the top 9% nationally on the ACT. The middle 50% of students admitted to Brandeis received a composite ACT score between 29 and 33, while 25% scored above 33 and 25% scored below 29. Requirements Note that Brandeis does not superscore ACT results; your highest composite ACT score will be considered. Brandeis does not require the ACT writing section. GPA In 2018, the average high school GPA for incoming Brandeis freshmen was 3.83, and over 90% ranked in the top 25% of their class. These results suggest that most successful applicants to Brandeis have primarily A grades. Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph Brandeis University Applicants Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph. Data courtesy of Cappex. The admissions data in the graph is self-reported by applicants to Brandeis University. GPAs are unweighted. Find out how you compare to accepted students, see the real-time graph, and calculate your chances of getting in  with a free Cappex account. Admissions Chances Brandeis University has a competitive admissions pool with a low acceptance rate and high average SAT/ACT scores. However, Brandeis University has a  holistic admissions  process involving other factors beyond your grades and test scores. Brandeis test-optional policy allows students to choose which scores to send to the university. A strong application and  optional short answer essay, and glowing letters of recommendation can strengthen your application, as can participation in meaningful extracurricular activities and a rigorous course schedule. Students with particularly compelling stories or achievements can still receive serious consideration even if their grades and scores are outside of Brandeis average range. Note that Brandeis offers optional on-campus interviews. While not required, interviews are an opportunity for applicants to demonstrate interest in the university. In the graph above, the blue and green dots represent accepted students. You can see that the majority of successful applicants had high school grades in the A range, combined SAT scores of 1250 or higher (ERWM), and ACT composite scores of 27 or better. Many applicants had impressive 4.0 GPAs. Its important to recognize that high grades and test scores are not enough to get into Brandeis. In the graph, youll notice quite a few red dots (rejected students) and yellow dots (waitlisted students) mixed in with the green and blue. Many students with grades and test scores that were on target for Brandeis University did not receive an acceptance letter. If You Like Brandeis University, You May Also Like These Schools ï » ¿Other generally selective schools similar to Brandeis include  Brown University,  Boston College,  Tufts University, and  Cornell University. All admissions data has been sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics and Brandeis University Undergraduate Admissions Office.