I The introduction of headline
　　For a piece of news, its headline plays a very important part since headline is the most probable thing that comes first into sight. Headlining is one of the main procedures of news editing. Headlines are used to summarize and advertise the content of the news report to help readers to better understand the report. Usually headline reflects or summarizes the main idea of the whole story. It sums up the main point of the news. By reading the headline, readers can get a rough idea of what the news is talking about. The purpose of headlines are to sum up the essence of the event and to attract readers' attention. Therefore, the news stories must be written in a concise and attractive manner.
　　II Functions of News Headline
　　1、To attract readers’ attention on News
　　In order to attract its readers, headline must be attractive and interesting. In other words, a good headling should be able to attract readers to such an extent that he is willing to read the following story. A daily newspaper may contain a great number of pages. Some newspapers on Sunday many even include more than 200 pages. If readers want to find the information they needin a short period, they must read as fast as possible and get the main idea. When we read a newspaper, there is no doubt that the first thing that catches our eyes is the headline since a good headline is capable of informing us of the whole information in one sentence Thus for people who are very busy, reading headlines is an effective way of getting the information they really want or need. For most readers, when we read news for happiness or to know what happened around the world, we are not ready to read the whole story. In fact, it is impossbile to read all the news or remember all the details of a story in a newspaper or other mass medias. Instead, we just choose to spend our valuable time reading what we are very interested in detail after glancing at its headline. So the most important function of a headline is to advertise or sell the news. Even on the same and single newspaper, a better headline is very likely to draw more attention to the specific story from among the many same pages. A headline which does not arouse readers’s interest at first glance is not worthy since readers are the decision-makers who decide whether a certain story should be read or ignored by taking a look at the headline. A good headline is a perfect summary and advertisement of the story. In a word, headline is the lifeblood of newspapers. It is an essential ingredient in a news story. A good headline is the best tool to sell the story.　2、To Sum up the Story
　　The function of summarizing is natural to understand. A headline summarizes or makes comments on the news contents that follow. Since we are living in a modern world and everyday so much information is poured to us. We could not cover them all and neither is time and energy allowed. If you have a pile of pages to read, what will you do? Of course go over all the headlines only in a rush. The summing function makes newspaper capable of satisfying this demand of modern readers.They summarize the news, so that by taking a glance at the headline, the reader will know what the story is about. Summarizing the story is to make readers get the main ideas that make it informative. A good editor should be able to produce headlines from which readers can see a general picture of the story. For readers, their limited time is supposed to get as more imformation as possible. since headlines are put in the most conspicuous space of the newspaper, reader immediately notice what is about, so many readers may try to know the information by just reading the headline. Therefore a good headline should mirror and reflect the essence or the main content of the story. Headlines should be produced very carefully, not in a too exaggerated or misleading way.
　　IIIConclusion
　　The headline must be interesting , accurate and eye-catching. With the pace of life getting faster and faster and everything seems to be bidding for people's attention, and newspapers are no exception. So a headline must lure its readers to enough time on the lead. A good headline can make readers curious to read the following parts of the story.That is to say, readers will decide whether to continue reading more carefully the following details they are interested in or just to leap it over after reading its headline.
　　
　　参考文献：
　　[1]Alfred A.Crowell.Creative News Editing(Second Edition).Dubuque:Brown Company Publishers.Beijing Weekend,1975.
　　[2]Brooks,Brian S,and Jack Z.Sissors.The Art of Editing.Be Renmin University Press,2003.
　　[3]Brown,and Gorge Yule.Discourse Analysis.Beijing:Foreign LanguageTeaching and Research Press,2002.