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Chapter 6

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Exercises

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Editing 2.0 Exercises: What would Google do?

Module 6.1

Questions

  1. If direct headlines are the best headlines, at least in terms of SEO, why do you think so many major news organizations online get this wrong? Why do headline writers online so often succumb to the temptation of trying to be cute?
  2. What are the primary purposes of headlines? How might this list help you determine your key words?

Activities

  1. Take anything you’ve written longer than, say, 350 words. Go to Wordle.net and create a “wordle” (or “word cloud”) for that written piece.
  2. Because another method of determining or choosing search-optimized terms is to visit Google Trends (www.google.com/trends/), try it out. Provide some key words of your choosing, then inspect Google’s data on the popularity of your terms.

Quiz

Editor’s Bookshelf—Additional Reading Suggestions

Focus on headlines: Precision, power and poetry

Bercovici, Jeff. These five astonishing headline writing secrets will make you cry, or at least click. Forbes.com, March 1, 2013.

 

Ellis, Justin. Nick Denton wants shorter headlines for Gawker Media stories. Niemanlab.org, April 11, 2013. The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University attempts to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age.