Three headlines from our website:
-The first real biography of the city’s patron saint – truly something special
-For every disappearance, the immediate question is, how are you going to tackle this? There are opportunities there
-Judge vindicates students in case over delayed housing complex
“Awful, what were we thinking? Nobody’s going to read that!”
During an afternoon discussion, I asked everybody to find the headlines for their last six articles. An exercise in self-confidence, supposedly. “It’s enough to make you weep!” said one colleague. Headlines are important, especially on our website, because if they’re not eye-catching, nobody will read the article.
It’s usually a rush job here at the office. Before submitting the piece to the editor, we’ll quickly add a sentence at the top at the last minute. A punchy quote is always a good option, but sometimes it’s just the word “HEADLINE?!”, hoping a colleague will have a brainwave.
Take one of mine, for example: Pilot for FPN: Dutch lessons as part of the curriculum. Should you even use the abbreviation FPN, Faculty of Psychology and Neurosciences, in a headline? Why not just ‘Psychology’? “Because then Neurosciences will complain,” was the response during the discussion. But FPN is ugly (as are SBE, UCM etc.) and new first years from the faculties in the city centre wouldn’t have a clue. As for ‘as part of the curriculum’, well, bo-ring! Finally, after five minutes of brainstorming, we come up with the following solution: A first for Psychology: Dutch lessons in third year.
A different headline, coincidentally also about Psychology: FPN Faculty Council aims to offer research opportunities for students. For years, the faculty has reserved 10,000 euros to help underprivileged students. They never managed to actually use the money, but finally, something seemed to be happening, in the form of a paid position as a research assistant. FPN finally spending 10 thousand euros on student research, suggested one colleague. “Good one, because the word ‘finally’ is important.” But at the same time, what on earth is ‘student research’? How about: Underprivileged students get money from FPN? Shot down, too sensational.
Writing may be an art, but so is writing headlines. We’re going to pay more attention and hopefully take our time from now on. Incidentally, this headline actually did particularly well: Heerlen, get ready for this university. The article, from a few months ago, is about all sorts of education and research developments for UM in Heerlen, and while it was interesting, it wasn’t a smash hit. And yet, it was one of the top five most-read articles of the last academic year. The headline really does make a difference, we decided. No doubt, all of Heerlen read it.
The editor-in-chief gives a look behind the scenes at the editorial office.