I’m no grammarian so please keep that in mind as you read the following.  I’ve noticed lately that I have to re-read headlines to make sure I understand what the author is trying to say.  I understand that headline writers are dealing with very limited space, but sometimes I think they need to be edited a little more closely.

Here’s one I found today on WXII’s website: Woman in Court Accused of Killing Daughter.  Uh, is the court accused of killing the daughter or is the woman?  Can a court kill a daughter? Wouldn’t a better headline be Woman Accused of Killing Daughter is in Court? I mean you’re adding two letters and a total of four spaces and it’s a website for goodness sake so space isn’t that precious.

There’s this headline found on the Winston-Salem Journal’s website, although the article originally appeared in the LA Times: Features of New $5 Bill Aim at Thwarting Counterfeiters.  Can features aim?  At a minimum wouldn’t it read better if it was written as "aimed"?  Or how about New Features of $5 Bill Intended to Thwart Counterfeiters.

I understand that the idea is to convey the main thrust of the story in a few words, and I don’t think that you can always do it and be grammatically correct at the same time.  But if the idea is to get the point across quickly then I don’t think it’s a good headline if it causes the readers to say, "huh?" when they read it.  So with that criteria I think the first headline is pretty bad, while the second headline doesn’t really get in the way of understanding what the article is about. 

Maybe I’m just being picky because, you know, these people are supposedly paid to write and edit well.  All I know is it bugs the hell out of me when I read these things.