The Awl http://www.theawl.com/ Be Less Stupid Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:30:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 How Not to Write a Headline http://www.theawl.com/2009/11/the-shadow-editors-wordplay-most-fouled-how-not-to-write-a-headline http://www.theawl.com/2009/11/the-shadow-editors-wordplay-most-fouled-how-not-to-write-a-headline#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:30:23 +0000 Tom Scocca http://www.theawl.com/2009/11/the-shadow-editors-wordplay-most-fouled-how-not-to-write-a-headline MM HMMTom Scocca: Here is a headline from Sunday's Washington Post:
Tom Scocca: In art we lust
Tom Scocca: "At second blush, classic works are allowed to rise to their full erotic potential."
Tom Scocca: The Post is plagued by bad, amateurish, would-be-snappy headlines these days, and this one epitomizes the problem.
Tom Scocca: If you have to change two parts of a stock phrase to make your headline, you are making a dumb and clunky headline.
Tom Scocca: "In God We Trust" has nothing to do with the permeability of the barrier between "nude" and "naked" (aka "art" and "pornography").
Tom Scocca: So it's "In [WHOLLY UNRELATED WORD] we [SEMANTICALLY UNRELATED, BUT RHYMING WORD]." Half the phrase is swapped out.
Tom Scocca: If you can't do it in one step, don't do it.
Choire Sicha: Ha.

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]]> MM HMMTom Scocca: Here is a headline from Sunday's Washington Post:
Tom Scocca: In art we lust
Tom Scocca: "At second blush, classic works are allowed to rise to their full erotic potential."
Tom Scocca: The Post is plagued by bad, amateurish, would-be-snappy headlines these days, and this one epitomizes the problem.
Tom Scocca: If you have to change two parts of a stock phrase to make your headline, you are making a dumb and clunky headline.
Tom Scocca: "In God We Trust" has nothing to do with the permeability of the barrier between "nude" and "naked" (aka "art" and "pornography").
Tom Scocca: So it's "In [WHOLLY UNRELATED WORD] we [SEMANTICALLY UNRELATED, BUT RHYMING WORD]." Half the phrase is swapped out.
Tom Scocca: If you can't do it in one step, don't do it.
Choire Sicha: Ha.

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See more posts by Tom Scocca

12 comments

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