5 ms·

Is it time to stop writing headlines that end in question marks?

73 points by pascal07 14y ago

nikcub 14y ago
My pet peeve. This was closely watched at Techcrunch and we mocked other blogs (and our own bloggers) who fell back on it frequently (pronouncing titles with question marks with an inflection). Using a question mark just means you aren't sure of your position or what you are trying to say. It makes it easier to sit on the fence and not really say anything, playing it safe. I think most readers prefer a firm opinion or statement, regardless of if they agree with it or not.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  Then how does one write about interesting open questions? If the implicit assumption that there aren't any interesting open questions, then I have doubts. Such a field should be a mature industry, and not a field for startups or serious research.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    I question whether articles without conclusions are necessary at all, and the situation you describe is one of poor writing. Say something, then create a headline based on that. If you aren't saying anything, then a bad headline is all that's possible.
    - stcredzero 14y ago
      So you're saying it's never necessary to consider open questions at all? What if the question was written as a conjecture, then the name of the conjecture was used as the title, would that be somehow better? That makes no sense.
      - rhizome 14y ago
        Kind of. Sturgeon's Law takes care of the rest.
        stcredzero 14y ago
        Non sequitur.
wamatt 14y ago
Are all rhetorical questions bad?
- JonnieCache 14y ago
  Is this a rhetorical question?
bdunn 14y ago
What's wrong with marketing an article? People respond well to questions, "Top 5...", and other tried and true methods of "baiting" someone into giving your post a chance. I don't I would have read your post if it was titled like an academic paper.
Spoom 14y ago
No. Wait... I see what you did there.
tomelders 14y ago
I have to agree. Whilst "questions as headlines" don't mean the article is bull-hunky, I'm finding it's a very convenient rule of thumb.
acoyfellow 14y ago
Interesting points.. but I'm unsure if your use of a question mark in this HN post is a ironic or a coincidence?
- its_so_on 14y ago
  (to me it's pretty obviously ironic)
heyitsnick 14y ago
I'm co-editor for a niche news site (http://pokerfuse.com http://pokerfuse.com) and we strictly do not write any headlines in the "is...?" format. It's a good check before publishing anything - if your headline naturally falls in to this format, it should be a signal that either (a) we shouldn't be writing this story, (b) we should stand by our convictions and write the headline in the affirmative, (c) the story needs more research before publishing. We pass up on some easy pageviews, but we see the upside in more loyal/repeat visitors. edit: NewsItem.objects.published().count() >>> 648 NewsItem.objects.published().filter(title__istartswith='is', title__endswith='?').count() >>> 2 (a couple of stories do have this format, but they seem like the rare appropriate cases)
- its_so_on 14y ago
  why would you insist on starting with an "Is"? A proper yes or no question can start with "Is", "Are", "Does", "Do", "Have", "Has", "Were", "Did", etc etc. How many of your titles end with a question-mark? It's hard to think of how any of those can be false positives.
withad 14y ago
Any time I see a headline ending in a question mark, I always think of this SMBC comic - http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2075 http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2075.
rmATinnovafy 14y ago
No, if you are copywritng. A question headline attracts the reader to read the sub-headline. And that is the purpose of headlines (and copy). To get people to read smoothly until they take out the CC and buy. Problem is that if you overuse it in a blog (for example), then your writing style will end up souding like an infomercial. Mind you, if you see yourself using linkbait to gain eyeballs, then your blog is just not worth reading (or advertising in).
elliotlai 14y ago
I thought you meant HN headlines :D
Karunamon 14y ago
First time I've seen one of these headlines that is answered with a yes :)
sosuke 14y ago
I liked Jon Stewart's take on this question in his segment on the question mark. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-13-2006/the-question-mark http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-13-2006/the-... Cartman also uses the just asking questions tactic to antagonize Wendy in a South Park episode where he takes the job of school announcer. http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e13-dances-with-smurfs http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e13-dances-...
- _delirium 14y ago
  There was a bit of a brouhaha about this a few years ago with TV pundit Glenn Beck as well. Beck has a certain style of saying he's "just investigating" questions, where he'll posit some extreme allegation, and wonder out loud why the target of the allegation won't go on record denying it and provide evidence. He'll insist he doesn't even necessarily think the allegation is true, but just wants the questions to be aired and discussed openly, and says refusal to do so is suspicious evasion. In response, someone started a website wondering aloud why Glenn Beck won't deny allegations that he raped and killed a girl in 1990--- the website author, of course, claims he doesn't believe the allegations, but is just wondering why Beck won't address them publicly, and provide evidence of his whereabouts at the time of the alleged incident. Beck, of course, sued for libel in response... http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/10/beck_tries_to_kill_parody_webs.php http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/10/beck_tries_to_kil...
  - bonch 14y ago
    That link says Glenn Beck didn't sue for libel.
dotBen 14y ago
If the primary motive for question-mark headlines is link-bait, surely this can be more easily solved by getting your headlines from a better source of news? Don't feed the trolls, and all that.
Too 14y ago
Is it a coincidence that someone posted a comment here on HN about Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, just last week, which got quite many upvotes, and now this is posted...(can't remember in which thread, something about "is x dead?") Seems like circlejerking and/or blogspam to me. Sure, it's a quite interesting theory but just post to wikipedia or the comment instead.
AznHisoka 14y ago
If you over-use it, it's not effective but for copywriting purposes, you'll get more clicks. Same with email: even if the subject is not a question, put a ? in it, and you'll get more clicks (it's been A/B tested by a few folks)
NHQ 14y ago
It is also time to stop writing headlines that start with "How".
mpclark 14y ago
Can't stop people writing them, but it's certainly time to stop clicking on headlines that end in question marks...
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  Now if there were a way to automatically nuke any news item that ends in a qmark on major news sites .... I RIP[1] a ton of shit out of sites already. That's one I'd like to add to the mix. --------------------------------- Notes: 1. Remove it Permanently Firefox plugin. No equivalent for Chrome AFAIK.
stcredzero 14y ago
Recently, I was in a group, and it came up that we don't know why people join the organization and what they want to get out of it. So I asked, why don't we know these things? This question was met with emotional violence. I suspect that the reaction to interesting questions is a litmus test of the intellectual health of an organization. Arguably, a natural reaction to a question that evokes a strong feeling is to take that as an attack. (Example: If the world was created in 6000 years, how did these seashell fossils get inside mountaintop rock strata?) Often, this natural reaction cuts off an opportunity to learn something interesting.
wegwerf 14y ago
British journalist & political columnist John Rentoul is writing a book on this: Questions To Which The Answer Is No. Since 2009 he has curated examples at http://blogs.independent.co.uk/tag/headline/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/tag/headline/
silentscope 14y ago
it's a feature article/news article difference. A feature isn't 100 percent news. It's interest as well, so a question can be fair game. if you're all feature articles though, you're a "soft" outlet. there's a time and place for everything.
jonnathanson 14y ago
Whenever I encounter a rhetorical question in a headline or link, I assume the author is either going to reach some foregone and facile answer, or no answer at all. In this sense, questions as headlines are not only linkbait; they're often the signs of worthless articles, usually consisting of regurgitated common sense, or else poorly distilled coverage of superior source material. There are occasional exceptions, to be sure. But generally, if I can guess what answer an author is going to get to long before he gets there, he's wasting my time.
- rhizome 14y ago
  I often flag or downvote question-titles and "X ways you're..." self-helpy magazine headlines. As you say, it's an almost perfect indicator of bad writing.
SamReidHughes 14y ago
No.
SamReidHughes 14y ago
Yes.
wdewind 14y ago
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit Related: George Orwell's Politics and the English language. Taught me how to write, and thus greatly influenced the way I program as well.
fabricode 14y ago
These question marks are almost as annoying as the "self-interview" question marks made popular by former Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld. What is a self-interview? Well, it's when you ask yourself a question then immediately answer it. Are they occurring more now than before? Listening to people on TV news shows and NPR seems to show that more are doing it now. Why would people do this? Because it makes it sound as if they're answering a question that has been asked -- even if the answer they're giving wasn't actually in response to the actual interviewer. Can we stop this now? I sure hope so.
- ars 14y ago
  Wouldn't it be easier to give the reporter a list of suggested questions? I think it would. Would some reporters object? Probably, but I sure you could find a friendly one, or let them ask some question not from the list. Would this make reporting better? It would sound better, so that's something. But does asking yourself a question and answering it do any harm? I don't think so - it's a pretty effective way of transmitting information. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method

73 points by pascal07 14y ago

My pet peeve. This was closely watched at Techcrunch and we mocked other blogs (and our own bloggers) who fell back on it frequently (pronouncing titles with question marks with an inflection). Using a question mark just means you aren't sure of your position or what you are trying to say. It makes it easier to sit on the fence and not really say anything, playing it safe. I think most readers prefer a firm opinion or statement, regardless of if they agree with it or not.

stcredzero 14y ago
Then how does one write about interesting open questions? If the implicit assumption that there aren't any interesting open questions, then I have doubts. Such a field should be a mature industry, and not a field for startups or serious research.
- rhizome 14y ago
  I question whether articles without conclusions are necessary at all, and the situation you describe is one of poor writing. Say something, then create a headline based on that. If you aren't saying anything, then a bad headline is all that's possible.
  - stcredzero 14y ago
    So you're saying it's never necessary to consider open questions at all? What if the question was written as a conjecture, then the name of the conjecture was used as the title, would that be somehow better? That makes no sense.
    - rhizome 14y ago
      Kind of. Sturgeon's Law takes care of the rest.
      - stcredzero 14y ago
        Non sequitur.

wamatt 14y ago

Are all rhetorical questions bad?

JonnieCache 14y ago
Is this a rhetorical question?

bdunn 14y ago

What's wrong with marketing an article? People respond well to questions, "Top 5...", and other tried and true methods of "baiting" someone into giving your post a chance. I don't I would have read your post if it was titled like an academic paper.

Spoom 14y ago

No. Wait... I see what you did there.

tomelders 14y ago

I have to agree. Whilst "questions as headlines" don't mean the article is bull-hunky, I'm finding it's a very convenient rule of thumb.

acoyfellow 14y ago

Interesting points.. but I'm unsure if your use of a question mark in this HN post is a ironic or a coincidence?

its_so_on 14y ago
(to me it's pretty obviously ironic)

heyitsnick 14y ago

I'm co-editor for a niche news site (http://pokerfuse.com http://pokerfuse.com) and we strictly do not write any headlines in the "is...?" format. It's a good check before publishing anything - if your headline naturally falls in to this format, it should be a signal that either (a) we shouldn't be writing this story, (b) we should stand by our convictions and write the headline in the affirmative, (c) the story needs more research before publishing. We pass up on some easy pageviews, but we see the upside in more loyal/repeat visitors. edit: NewsItem.objects.published().count() >>> 648 NewsItem.objects.published().filter(title__istartswith='is', title__endswith='?').count() >>> 2 (a couple of stories do have this format, but they seem like the rare appropriate cases)

its_so_on 14y ago
why would you insist on starting with an "Is"? A proper yes or no question can start with "Is", "Are", "Does", "Do", "Have", "Has", "Were", "Did", etc etc. How many of your titles end with a question-mark? It's hard to think of how any of those can be false positives.

withad 14y ago

Any time I see a headline ending in a question mark, I always think of this SMBC comic - http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2075 http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2075.

rmATinnovafy 14y ago

No, if you are copywritng. A question headline attracts the reader to read the sub-headline. And that is the purpose of headlines (and copy). To get people to read smoothly until they take out the CC and buy. Problem is that if you overuse it in a blog (for example), then your writing style will end up souding like an infomercial. Mind you, if you see yourself using linkbait to gain eyeballs, then your blog is just not worth reading (or advertising in).

elliotlai 14y ago

I thought you meant HN headlines :D

Karunamon 14y ago

First time I've seen one of these headlines that is answered with a yes :)

sosuke 14y ago

I liked Jon Stewart's take on this question in his segment on the question mark. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-13-2006/the-question-mark http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-13-2006/the-... Cartman also uses the just asking questions tactic to antagonize Wendy in a South Park episode where he takes the job of school announcer. http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e13-dances-with-smurfs http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e13-dances-...

_delirium 14y ago
There was a bit of a brouhaha about this a few years ago with TV pundit Glenn Beck as well. Beck has a certain style of saying he's "just investigating" questions, where he'll posit some extreme allegation, and wonder out loud why the target of the allegation won't go on record denying it and provide evidence. He'll insist he doesn't even necessarily think the allegation is true, but just wants the questions to be aired and discussed openly, and says refusal to do so is suspicious evasion. In response, someone started a website wondering aloud why Glenn Beck won't deny allegations that he raped and killed a girl in 1990--- the website author, of course, claims he doesn't believe the allegations, but is just wondering why Beck won't address them publicly, and provide evidence of his whereabouts at the time of the alleged incident. Beck, of course, sued for libel in response... http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/10/beck_tries_to_kill_parody_webs.php http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/10/beck_tries_to_kil...
- bonch 14y ago
  That link says Glenn Beck didn't sue for libel.

dotBen 14y ago

If the primary motive for question-mark headlines is link-bait, surely this can be more easily solved by getting your headlines from a better source of news? Don't feed the trolls, and all that.

Too 14y ago

Is it a coincidence that someone posted a comment here on HN about Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, just last week, which got quite many upvotes, and now this is posted...(can't remember in which thread, something about "is x dead?") Seems like circlejerking and/or blogspam to me. Sure, it's a quite interesting theory but just post to wikipedia or the comment instead.

AznHisoka 14y ago

If you over-use it, it's not effective but for copywriting purposes, you'll get more clicks. Same with email: even if the subject is not a question, put a ? in it, and you'll get more clicks (it's been A/B tested by a few folks)

NHQ 14y ago

It is also time to stop writing headlines that start with "How".

mpclark 14y ago

Can't stop people writing them, but it's certainly time to stop clicking on headlines that end in question marks...

dredmorbius 14y ago
Now if there were a way to automatically nuke any news item that ends in a qmark on major news sites .... I RIP[1] a ton of shit out of sites already. That's one I'd like to add to the mix. --------------------------------- Notes: 1. Remove it Permanently Firefox plugin. No equivalent for Chrome AFAIK.

stcredzero 14y ago

Recently, I was in a group, and it came up that we don't know why people join the organization and what they want to get out of it. So I asked, why don't we know these things? This question was met with emotional violence. I suspect that the reaction to interesting questions is a litmus test of the intellectual health of an organization. Arguably, a natural reaction to a question that evokes a strong feeling is to take that as an attack. (Example: If the world was created in 6000 years, how did these seashell fossils get inside mountaintop rock strata?) Often, this natural reaction cuts off an opportunity to learn something interesting.

wegwerf 14y ago

British journalist & political columnist John Rentoul is writing a book on this: Questions To Which The Answer Is No. Since 2009 he has curated examples at http://blogs.independent.co.uk/tag/headline/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/tag/headline/

silentscope 14y ago

it's a feature article/news article difference. A feature isn't 100 percent news. It's interest as well, so a question can be fair game. if you're all feature articles though, you're a "soft" outlet. there's a time and place for everything.

jonnathanson 14y ago

Whenever I encounter a rhetorical question in a headline or link, I assume the author is either going to reach some foregone and facile answer, or no answer at all. In this sense, questions as headlines are not only linkbait; they're often the signs of worthless articles, usually consisting of regurgitated common sense, or else poorly distilled coverage of superior source material. There are occasional exceptions, to be sure. But generally, if I can guess what answer an author is going to get to long before he gets there, he's wasting my time.

rhizome 14y ago
I often flag or downvote question-titles and "X ways you're..." self-helpy magazine headlines. As you say, it's an almost perfect indicator of bad writing.

SamReidHughes 14y ago

No.

SamReidHughes 14y ago

Yes.

wdewind 14y ago

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit Related: George Orwell's Politics and the English language. Taught me how to write, and thus greatly influenced the way I program as well.

fabricode 14y ago

These question marks are almost as annoying as the "self-interview" question marks made popular by former Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld. What is a self-interview? Well, it's when you ask yourself a question then immediately answer it. Are they occurring more now than before? Listening to people on TV news shows and NPR seems to show that more are doing it now. Why would people do this? Because it makes it sound as if they're answering a question that has been asked -- even if the answer they're giving wasn't actually in response to the actual interviewer. Can we stop this now? I sure hope so.

ars 14y ago
Wouldn't it be easier to give the reporter a list of suggested questions? I think it would. Would some reporters object? Probably, but I sure you could find a friendly one, or let them ask some question not from the list. Would this make reporting better? It would sound better, so that's something. But does asking yourself a question and answering it do any harm? I don't think so - it's a pretty effective way of transmitting information. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method