Talk:Australian MPs exchange fighting words over healthcare rebate

Dysprosia 11:25, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Headline
Moved back. The new title sounds much weaker and much less engaging. I don't understand the point about "being a sentence", the current title is still a sentence, but uses ordinary headline conventions. Dysprosia 02:48, 31 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Here is the summary of the most recent edit from the article history page: "(Australian House members exchange epithets over healthcare rebate moved to Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate: this sounds more engaging, and still makes sense too)".

Wikinews:Style guide -- Headlines 1 Make them unique and specific. 2 Make them short. 3 Use verbs. 4 Use downstyle capitalisation. 5 Write in a neutral point of view. 6 Tell the most important and unique thing. 7 Use present tense. 8 Use active voice. 9 Try to attribute any action to someone. 10 Avoid jargon and meaningless acronyms. 11 Use comma, not 'and' or '&'.


 * Please click on the reference [1] in the box above. Here is the full text of point 3 above, "Use verbs.":

Use verbs — A headline is at its essence a sentence without ending punctuation, and sentences have verbs.
 * That is the point about the headline's being a sentence -- the Wikinews guidelines require it. And in fact "Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate" is not a sentence. "exchanged" is not the verb -- it's not intransitive, as meaning "went back and forth." And if it were a verb, it would be in past tense -- in violation of point 7 of the guidelines, "Use present tense."
 * In "Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate," the actual sentence "Fighting words were exchanged in [the] Australian Parliament over [the] healthcare rebate." is represented. This is in past tense, in violation of point 7. (Or, if " are exchanged," a violation of point 8 -- use active voice.)
 * So, I suggest, to keep as much as possible of your wording, Australian Parliament members exchange "fighting words" over healthcare rebate.
 * —67-21-48-122 06:40, 31 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the clarification. Dysprosia 06:47, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Cat please
Doneeditprotected Please add --InfantGorilla (talk) 08:45, 24 June 2010 (UTC)