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The trick is not to over-explain, but neither to under-explain.
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You have considerable freedom in deciding how to structure the information you provide and how much information you provid e (see below for templates and links to sites with more examples). Many cutlines for wild art also have a caption line (overline), but this is not a must. Such things as the “five W’s” (who, what, when, where and why) are good to remember when writing such cutlines. Photographs that do not accompany stories, but are the story themselves, often are termed “wild art.” The cutlines for wild art should provide the same basic information that a story does. There is one) describing the photograph or illustration.Įxample from a straightforward news story covering a concert: Their technical distinction is as follows:Ĭaptions: Captions are the short (usually one-line) “headlines” / titles / explanations for the photo appearing over/above the “cutlines.”Ĭutline s: Cutlines (at newspapers and some magazines) are the words (under the caption, if However, they are technically not the same. As with stories, they must be readable and informative.Ĭaptions and cutlines are terms that are often used interchangeably, particular ly at magazines. As with headlines, captions and cutlines must be crisp. It follows that standards of accuracy, clarity, completeness and good writing ar e as high for captions and cutlines than for other type. Of all the news content, only the titles of stories or headlines have higher readership than captions. P hoto captions and cutlines are the most read body type in a publication.
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