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There are many stories for which a snappy headline writes itself. Any half-decent sub-editor can knock up a headlines which reads Council Tax up by 20 per cent or Five die in city road crash.

Usually we don't have that luxury. Our pieces are much more difficult to sell. So we use the trusty list of dos and don'ts passed down from editor to editor, through the ages.

Rule one; always write as you would talk to a friend. Don't whatever you do, lapse into jargon or council speak. Remember roads are either built or laid but never delivered. Similarly, stakeholders are only butchers (or perhaps chefs) who can't spell.

It's also worth pointing out that any workshop which doesn't involve manual labour is probably just a meeting.

In headlines, an "abbreviation" should become a "cut" and "arbitrator is a "judge" and a "settlement" must be a "deal". Every word must count. Headlines should be accurate and to the point. However, after successfully avoiding jargon, they must be careful not to slip into cliché.

Detailed criticism is too often turned into a "slam" or a "rap" by lazy headline-writers. In the same way, anyone who falls from a height deserves better that to become another victim of a sub-editor's obsession with the adjective "to plunge".

A headline reading "Mystery surrounds…" can be roughly translated as "We haven't got a clue about this story". "Mystery still surrounds" means "Yesterday we didn't have a clue about this story and today we're having to run it again because we've got nothing else."

Above everything, writing a headline must be taken as seriously as writing a story. If a reader takes the trouble to scan a headline, then the least a sub-editor can do is make it worth his while.

Most readers can tell if they are being short-changed.

I once picked up a weekly newspaper which carried a two-paragraph story about a talk, given to a local WI group, on bee-keeping. The headline read: Buzz words. "These subs make an effort", I thought.

As I flicked further forward in the paper I noticed a lead story about a man killed in a poultry factory.

The headline read: Factory staff refuse to work after death.

At least they weren't spitting feathers!