OBJECTIVE:
Writing a headline for an article in a newspaper or magazine is a great skill to develop. We are imagining that there is a newspaper article about the photograph. The HEADLINE should get the reader to read the full article.

As with captions for a photograph, we expect viewers to look at the photograph, read the headline, and then return to photograph to see it in the context of an imaginary article about the photograph.

Your headline should: (the four u’s)

• be USEFUL to the reader,
• provide him with a sense of URGENCY to read the imaginary article
• convey the idea that the imaginary article is UNIQUE
• be ULTRA-SPECIFIC about the imagined story / article.

In addition, compelling headlines will:

• offer the reader a reward for reading
• be both intriguing and believable
• trigger a strong, actionable emotion
• present a proposition

We will learn how to write intriguing headlines by using pic-lits.com.

MODEL PIC-LIT:

This headline is useful for it explains the photo and the imagined article, is unique, and is ultra-specific about the paper in the suitcase. This intrigues the reader to see the photograph in a new way.

GUIDED PRACTICE WRITING PROMPT:

1. Go to piclits.com
2. Sign in with your e-mail and password
3. Select a picture from the gallery of pictures
4. In FREESTYLE mode, write a headline at the bottom of the photograph that intrigues the reader to see the photograph in a new way and read an imagined article about the photograph’s subject.