Writing Headlines and Subheads That Work Together
July 21st, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comThere’s a simple but highly effective rule for writing stand-out headlines paired with subheads, or eye-catching titles together with subtitles. The rule is that there should NOT be any parallellism between the two. This is not one of those textbook rules, as far as I know. It’s one of those “you know it when you see it” challenges that copywriters face in their daily working lives.
Let me explain parallelism:
Parallelism in writing refers to the parallel structure of two or more phrases. It’s a technique that works to establish rhythm in your writing. Parallelism works especially well in bullets or sequences of three.
Here’s an example of parallelism:
When you get home, I’d like you to:
• clean up the dishes
• take out the trash
• bring in the paper
Why this does NOT work in a headline and subhead pairing:
As you can see, the verb agreement - action verb followed by object - establishes a pleasing flow in the above bullet series. However, headlines and titles differ from body copy in that you want the headline to function as a STOP point, not a flow. A headline is like a whistle-blow. It’s saying, “Hey! Look this way. I’m about to tell you something interesting and important, so keep on reading.”
It follows that if you’re writing headlines and titles, you need a linguistic pause that kind of snaps the reader to attention. The colon that separates headlines and subheads does a good job serving as a stop point, but it’s not enough. The actual words should prompt the pause by offering a contrast. You then follow that pause with an explanation, which comes in the subheadline or subtitle.
Weak Headline and Subhead Pairing:
Kids in America: Children With Issues
(This is weak because both the headline and subhead contain a prepositional phrase)
Still Not That Good:
Kids in America: An Up-Close Look at the Issues of Children in the United States
(Better because “An Up-Close Look” is both captivating and offers some variance in phrasing, but “Kids in America” and “Children in the United States” are both repetitive and redundant)
Better:
Kids in America: An Up-Close Look at the Issues Plaguing Today’s Children
Generally speaking, a headline works best when it’s just three words or a short phrase that evokes curiosity and then leads to a subhead that offers an explanation. Cliches and wordplay often work well as the lead-in.
This rule applies in any case where you have occasion to write a headline or title, and supporting subhead or subtitle separated by a colon. Practice the technique as a means of improving the readability of your newsletter titles, book titles, article headlines, sales letter headlines and much more.
Copyright 2007 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
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