I saw this headline two mornings ago on CNN.<\/p>\n
Problem:<\/strong> Explanation:<\/strong> My immediate reaction: “Huh?”<\/p>\n Because so many Americans use the noun “economy” instead of “economical” as an adjective, my first impression was that the story was about economical suicides.<\/p>\n I said to myself, “Economical<\/em> suicides? Huh?”<\/p>\n I then saw the word “LINK” and initially wondered to WHAT economical suicides were links.<\/p>\n I doubt that the headline writer was trying to be provocative by creating some sort of confusing headline.<\/p>\n Instead, I believe that the headline writer was trying to say in as few words as possible that there was a possible link between the U.S. economy and the suicide rate.<\/p>\n The problem with this “as few words as possible” approach is that it can often lead to confusing instead of concise headlines.<\/p>\n Assuming that the headline system at a TV network such as CNN automatically adjusts the font size to make the characters fit the width of the banner, there truly was not a good reason to write something as cryptic as “ECONOMY SUICIDE LINK”.<\/p>\n I would not use a hyphen between “ECONOMY” and “SUICIDE” because many people still would see that as some sort of reference to economical suicides.<\/p>\n The solution to this confusion comes, in my opinion, from a slash or a few more words.<\/p>\n The reason that I recommend a slash instead of a hyphen is:<\/p>\n The news story was about the connection between separate activities — the U.S. economy and suicides — NOT about using “ECONOMY” to modify “SUICIDE”.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> I saw this headline two mornings ago on CNN. Problem: A slash or more words are missing. Explanation: The headline appeared in a banner beneath the journalist during a news story on the Cable News Network television channel. My immediate reaction: “Huh?” Because so many Americans use the noun “economy” instead of “economical” as an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hyphens"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nA slash or more words are missing.<\/p>\n
\nThe headline appeared in a banner beneath the journalist during a news story on the Cable News Network television channel.<\/p>\n\n
\n“ECONOMY\/SUICIDE LINK”
\nor
\n“LINK BETWEEN ECONOMY AND SUICIDE (RATES)”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"