There are several special verb phrases in headlines that show that the information is a report of what someone else, a source, told a journalist, rather than information that the reporter gathered alone. The source might or might not be named in the news article. American laws protect the identity of a secret source: a journalist cannot be forced to reveal his or her name. The three most common expressions that indicate the indirect reporting described above are: is said to (Westchester mayor said to be near death), is reported to (Weschester mayor is reported to have Mafia connections), and reportedly (Mayor’s birthday party reportedly cost $25G).

Headlines pack a great deal of information into a limited space, so it is not surprising that headline writers use several methods to conserve space. One obvious example is to use abbreviations (“PM” for “Prime Minister”, etc.). But they also use a special grammar, omitting articles (“a” and “the”) and the verb “to be” wherever possible.

Cooperation agreement signed

(A cooperation agreement is signed)

Australian ex-judge sworn in to represent UK queen

(An Australian ex-judge is sworn in to represent the United Kingdom queen)

Be sure to notice that the omission of the verb “to be” can make the headline appear to be in the past tense when it is actually present tense, passive voice.

Punctuation Marks in Headlines

The comma

•Takes place of and (Income, spending up sharply)

•Is used with its normal function of separating words in a list (Massive, Mobile UN Force…)

•Separating phrases (19hrs. after deadline, the war began)

The colon

•Is used after a word or phrase to explain it (Washington prediction: slow growth, no recession)

•Following a name, tells what a person said without quoting their exact words (Junkie: I’ll take test)

Single quotation marks

•Tell what a person said, using their exact words. The whole headline (or subheadline) can be a quotation or just a few words. The speaker can be named in the headline or not (‘The liberation of Kuwait has begun’ – President Bush or Iraqi air force ‘decimated’