The Writer of This Article Also Wrote This Headline and That’s Rare

Everything you need to know about headlines and the art of writing them.

By Ryan Brown

Jun 12, 2021

Journalists can spend a fair amount of time discussing and defending their work on Twitter. But there is one complaint that readers should know will probably fall on deaf ears: headlines. Earlier this week Tom Nichols, a professor and author, shared on social media a piece he’d written for The Atlantic in February.

Now that the Republicans are just about using the coercive power of the state for obedience to the Party, reupping this @TheAtlantic piece about how the GOP is just American Brezhnevism at this point.https://t.co/q0S8NrLSMm
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 8, 2021

One of his followers responded: “This is a damn good analysis. Headline gives false hope, but I’d bet a buck Tom didn’t write it.”

Another Twitter follower pointed to Nichols’ byline, implying it was he who in fact wrote the headline. Nichols responded to the back and forth, ending the debate, “I did not write the headline. Most writers don’t.”

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