Best Headline Portfolio ( More than 15,000 Students)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Entry Title: Best Headline Portfolio - Mustang News Entry Credit: Omar Rashad Judge Comment: Spilling trauma: Lively, visual way to describe what essay writers do. And hed captures the essence of the story perfectly. COVID-19 ... Gets to point of story and makes it clear to readers why there is cause for concern. The cadence of the hed creates a sense of urgency. Dashboard ... same thing.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Chico State University Entry Title: Melvin Bui - Orion Entry Credit: Melvin Bui Judge Comment: Father's dream ... Very melodic. The words promise an interesting story.
Cows, pigs ... Repurposes a familiar phrase in a fun way. But "thrills" seems like a stretch, given the description of the farm
and a lack of someone actually saying he was thrilled. Twindemic ... Straightforward, does the trick.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: University of California, Los Angeles Entry Title: Daily Bruin Entry Credit: Kaiya Pomeroy-Tso Judge Comment: Scratching the surface ... This story actually looks pretty in-depth with several sources and graphics, so not sure the hed works. Plus why write a hed that says "Not much here!"
I worry that head was chosen in an effort to be clever.
Tyger Campbell ... "Ham" works for me, in the sense of "hamming it up" with the sandwich that goes to extremes.
Makes a splash ... Too obvious a pun. Probably been used a million times with water sports stories.
Competition Comment: A great many of the headlines here incorporated some sort of ghastly pun or well-intentioned play on words. Good headlines can have some cleverness, but they need to
be more subtle than most of what I saw here. Any wordplay should attempt to bring a small smile to a reader's
face and not a guffaw. I like headlines with pop and impact, capture the tone and flavor of a story and tell readers why they should care.
