Talk:Australian MPs exchange fighting words over healthcare rebate

Original reporting

This article contains original reporting based on official transcripts of parliament (Hansards). Dysprosia 11:25, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Headline

Moved back. The new title sounds much weaker and much less engaging. I don't understand the point about "being a sentence", the current title is still a sentence, but uses ordinary headline conventions. Dysprosia 02:48, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Here is the summary of the most recent edit from the article history page: "(Australian House members exchange epithets over healthcare rebate moved to Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate: this sounds more engaging, and still makes sense too)".

   Wikinews:Style guide -- Headlines [1]
 1 Make them unique and specific.
 2 Make them short.
 3 Use verbs.
 4 Use downstyle capitalisation.
 5 Write in a neutral point of view.
 6 Tell the most important and unique thing.
 7 Use present tense.
 8 Use active voice.
 9 Try to attribute any action to someone.
10 Avoid jargon and meaningless acronyms.
11 Use comma, not 'and' or '&'.

Please click on the reference [1] in the box above. Here is the full text of point 3 above, "Use verbs.":

Use verbs — A headline is at its essence a sentence without
ending punctuation, and sentences have verbs.

That is the point about the headline's being a sentence -- the Wikinews guidelines require it. And in fact "Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate" is not a sentence. "exchanged" is not the verb -- it's not intransitive, as meaning "went back and forth." And if it were a verb, it would be in past tense -- in violation of point 7 of the guidelines, "Use present tense."

In "Fighting words exchanged in Australian Parliament over healthcare rebate," the actual sentence "Fighting words were exchanged in [the] Australian Parliament over [the] healthcare rebate." is represented. This is in past tense, in violation of point 7. (Or, if "are exchanged," a violation of point 8 -- use active voice.)

So, I suggest, to keep as much as possible of your wording, Australian Parliament members exchange "fighting words" over healthcare rebate.

—67-21-48-122 06:40, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Dysprosia 06:47, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Cat please

Done{{editprotected}} Please add [[Category:Julia Gillard]] --InfantGorilla (talk) 08:45, 24 June 2010 (UTC)