Just when I thought everyone who writes for the public is aware of the importance of grammar, sentence structure, editing, and comma placement, THIS headline glared back at me THIS WEEKEND! 
It’s still happening folks. I suppose I should be forgiving and say yeah, mistakes are made all the time. I make them too. There will probably be something in this very post that I overlook even after the fourth time reading through it and editing, revising and tightening sentences to flow for your reading pleasure.
I understand that Mr. Wilhelm intended to say that the larger dog is on a bit of a killing spree. But the larger dog hasn’t killed the same smaller dog a second time! The dead smaller dog mentioned in the headline is most definitely the killer’s second victim. We can safely assume this fact because of our knowledge of how death works – death happens once; you cannot die a second time (unless you want to talk about love and romance where, though not literally, we die many small deaths over the course of our lifetimes)!
But this is not a romantic headline. Let’s fix it.
“City investigating after large dog attacks and kills a second time.”
Do we really need to know in the headline that smaller dogs are the preferred prey for this vicious canine? No. The gory details can be described in the body of the article. The main concern is that there’s a large dog out there and he wasn’t stopped the first time he attacked and killed. He’s gone and done it again. A second victim. Another smaller dog. Bastard. That’s horrible.
Anyways, yes, the grammar of it…another solution would be:
“Large dog attacks and kills a second smaller dog; city investigates.”
OR
“City investigates a second attack – large dog kills another smaller dog.”
But however the information is worded, there should be no befuddlement. Often the best way to write is to write the way you speak. Read aloud what you’ve written to check the way it sounds. Peculiarities will stand out and you’ll be able to revise errors. This headline may be a journalistic fail – trying to cram the major highlight of the news into as few words as possible can be tricky – but sentence structure in all writing forms is what most commonly needs editing. Dangling structures, misplaced modifiers, punctuation…we may not know exactly how to define the grammatical mistake we’ve written, but we know it just doesn’t sound right!
There are so many helpful grammar sites online; see the links below to learn more about writing clearly.
- www.grammarly.com
- http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl
- http://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/outils-tools-eng.html
- http://www.grammarcheckforsentence.com/
- http://people.howstuffworks.com/10-wrong-ways-to-use-commas.htm
- or take a course: https://www.universalclass.com/i/course/grammar-and-punctuation-101.htm
…and! For more entertaining examples of headlines gone wrong (and so Mr. Wilhelm doesn’t feel too centered out), here are more links to follow!
- http://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/humrous-headlines/
- http://aplus.com/a/21-of-the-greatest-headlines-ever-written
I’m still learning from you, but I’m trying to reach my goals. I absolutely enjoy reading all that is posted on your blog.Keep the stories coming
Grammar mistakes in newspapers have become rife over the past decade. Not usually because of a lack of knowledge, but because there have been so many cutbacks in journalism, that the workers are now rushed to meet deadlines, often doing the same work that used to be done by two or three people (trust me, I know from experience). Also, reporters don’t usually write the headlines…. this is an editor, who (see above re. cutbacks) may or may not have properly read the entire story. Just thought I’d throw a bit of insider knowledge at ya.