English resources/Summary writing/Headlines
A headline is a summary that has to fit one line. Often present tense. Drop "a" and "the" if you can.
sheets.works/english/summary-writing
How to run this
Give them the sentence. One line. Then show a model. Then keep five of its words.
A headline is not a caption. It has a verb.
Two weeping nurses somehow saved the tiny premature twin babies before dawn.
Headline
Nurses save premature twin babies
Dropped: Weeping, somehow, tiny, dawn.
Brown flood water, rising within ten minutes, ruined the entire ground floor.
Headline
Flood ruins entire ground floor
Dropped: Brown, ten minutes.
Furious unions, calling the terms an insult, rejected all final contract offers.
Headline
Unions reject final contract offers
Dropped: Furious, insult, all.
Overnight parking was allowed on every street until the mayor banned it.
Headline
Mayor bans overnight street parking
Dropped: Allowed, every. The ban is the news.
Volunteers, not the council, reopened the railway line that collapsed in March.
Headline
Volunteers reopen collapsed railway line
Dropped: The council, March.
The last giant sundaes were licked by thirty cheering children after the van broke down.
Headline
Children lick last giant sundaes
Dropped: Thirty, cheering, the van.
From Wellfleet in November to a Coney Island afternoon eight months later, turtle Pancake rejoins the Atlantic.
Headline
Turtle Pancake rejoins the Atlantic
Dropped: November, Coney Island, eight months. Wellfleet can stay in the five. It does not have to stay in the sentence.
In thirty years at an Ohio children's hospital, one surgeon draws ten thousand cartoons on little bandages.
Headline
Surgeon draws cartoons on bandages
Dropped: Thirty years, Ohio, ten thousand, little.
Rex, a wobbly four-month-old kitten who never could walk, gets in the wheelchair Michael Hawley built him from Lego.
Headline
Wobbly kitten gets Lego wheelchair
Dropped: Rex, four-month-old, never could walk, Michael Hawley.
After a prank order of pizzas in Wyoming, one pizzeria owner gives the whole lot to the ER.
Headline
Pizzeria gives pizzas to ER
Dropped: Prank, Wyoming, whole lot, owner.
After a call from an Ohio church, a friendly pygmy goat rode to the county fair in the back seat of a police cruiser.
Headline
Pygmy goat rides police cruiser
Dropped: Ohio, church, friendly, county fair, back seat.
A Seattle dog called Eclipse rode the bus alone to the park, a few stops off, in a red harness, with her own pass on her collar.
Headline
Seattle dog rides bus alone
Dropped: Eclipse, the park, red harness, the pass.