Misleading newspaper headline

Writings/messages should be clearly presented to avoid ambiguity.






Sketches of suspects released is the headline of a news item in a popular national English daily.

Such headline can lead you to understand its meaning to be "Sketches (are or have been) released and they belong to suspects" or "Sketches of suspects (who are or have been) released".

You cannot be sure until you have read the first paragraph of the news proper which says, "Pakistan yesterday released sketches of four men suspected of involvement in a deadly ambush on Sri Lankan cricketers and broadcast CCTV footage of gunmen escaping after the siege."

To do away with the embiguity, the headline can be "Sketches released of suspects" or "Released: sketches of suspects".

There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson