Copyreading and Headline Writing

1. Below is an excerpt from a news article published on the website of Manila Racounteur
Press.

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago raised Campus Press Freedom Bill on Thursday
replacing Republic Act 70709 or Campus Journalism Act of 1991 (CJA) despite reported
campus press violations. (Cortez, 2016)

What is wrong with the sentence?

A. The word “representative” should not be abbreviated.
B. There is a typographical error regarding “Republic Act 70709.”
C. Sarah Elago is not the Kabataan Partylist when the news was published.

2. Which of the following statements is least likely to be a duty of a copyreader?

A. Straighten out grammatical constructions.
B. Shorten sentences and tighten paragraphs.
C. Change the context of the article.

3. What is the correct sequence of the following steps in copy editing?

I. Headline Writing
II. Content Editing
III. Mechanical Editing
A. I, II, III
B. II, I, III
C. III, II, I

4. __________ is a newspaperman who occupies seat on the news desk. He/She corrects
errors and eliminates libelous and derogatory statements.
A. Copyreader
B. News Writer
C. Cartoonist

5. Statement 1: Copyreading is the same with proofreading.

Statement 2: Proofreading is the editing of errors, machine errors, or operator error made
by the linotypist or computer typesetter.
A. Statement 1 is true; statement 2 is false.
B. Statement 1 is false; statement 2 is true.
C. Both statements are false.

6. Denry, a copy editor made the following correction regarding the news article submitted
to him. Later, before giving the edited copy to the typist he realized that the correction
should have not been made. What should he do?

Fifty girls enrolled in the Journalism class yesterday.

A. Put a # symbol before the correction.

B. Put “STET” above the correction.
C. Insert this symbol in any part of the correction.
7. In journalistic writing, which of the following is incorrect?
I. Quote the name of books, short stories, plays, songs, television programs, poems,
motion pictures and operas.
II. Place the question mark inside the quotations if the mark of punctuation belongs
to the material included within the quotation marks.
III. As a general rule, spell out numbers less than ten.

A. I & II only
B. I, II & III
C. None of the above

8. Which of the following copyreading symbols are correctly defined?

I. a - capitalize III. abc - transpose

II. nine - start a new sentence IV. ab c - close up

A. I, II & III only

B. I, III & IV only
C. II, III & IV only

9. Statement 1: Proofreading symbols are different from copyreading symbols.

Statement 2: A copy is the typewritten material sent to the linotypist or to a computer
typesetter to be typeset.
Statement 3: A copy may be a news story, a feature article, an editorial, or a literary piece.
A. All of the statements are correct.
B. All of the statements are incorrect.
C. All of the statements are correct except statement 1.

10. Which of the following items may be included in the printer’s direction?
I. font size
II. type of headline according to style
III. date of copyread
IV. name of the writer
V. number of paragraphs
VI. writing style

A. I & VI only
B. I & II only
C. All except III & IV

11. Effective writing is concise. And a copyreader, to be concise should drop verbal
deadwoods in the article. Which of the following is an example of a verbal deadwood?
A. major breakthrough
B. unintentional mistake
C. notwithstanding the fact that
12. Christian Jorge (CJ), a copy reader of the school publication had a conversation with his
adviser, Jeffrey (J).

J: Christian, you are not yet done with the editing process because you have
overlooked some important considerations in order to make the article concise
and informative.
CJ: Sorry sir but it seems that I have done my task well.
J: The article is too long for our publication. It is full of excessive, unnecessary and
superfluous words.
CJ: Like what, sir?
J: Look at these phrases: “unexpected surprise,” “plan ahead,” and “postpone until
later.”
CJ: Ah, I see. Don’t worry sir, I will alter it right away.

What is the significant consideration Sir Jeffrey was talking about?

A. Verbal Deadwoods
B. Redundancies
C. Sloppy Reporting

13. What type of headline pattern is shown below?

PUP trains teachers

on research proposal making

A. Crossline
B. Bar line
C. Dropline

14. A newbie in the editorial staff submitted a news article with the title “DepEd will support
Campus Freedom Act.” As a copyreader, what is will be the best assessment regarding
the title?
A. The title is free from bias and error. Thus, it is perfect for the article.
B. The title should be replaced by “DepEd to support .....”
C. The title should be replaced by “Department of Education to support .....”

15. Bonito was asked by Mr. Despacito, school publication adviser to give the news article a
title. Since he has just started last month studying the guidelines for headline writing, he
asked for your advice on how he will make a two-line title for the said article. Which of the
following title will you most likely suggest?

A. Mentors calls for

reform of schools

B. Mentors calls for reform

of Marinduque schools

C. Mentors call for reform

in Marinduque schools