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# Write headings that carry the message
- URL: https://www.plainfinance.net/write-headings-that-carry-the-message/
- Published: 2026-08-18T08:20:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-18T08:20:10.000Z
- Author: Gary Bandy

Busy readers skim headings and reads little else.

Think of the committee member turning to your report the night before the committee meets, the chief executive rushing through a briefing note between meetings, or the finance director trying to catch up with a backlog of unread emails. They run an eye down the screen and stop where something catches.

Nothing catches their eye most of the time. The headings in a finance document tend to name a topic and no more: Financial performance. Budget position. Key risks. A reader who skims the document only those learns what the sections are. They learn nothing about what the document says.

Headings can do far more than mark the joins. The three types of headings explained — **label headings, question headings** and **statement headings** — below come from [Colleen Trolove](https://www.colleentrolove.co.nz/?ref=plainfinance.net) at the [School of Unprofessional Writing](https://boom.unprofessionalwriting.com/all-access/?ref=plainfinance.net).

## Good headings show your structure and soften a dense page

A heading does two things at once.

It makes the structure visible. The reader sees how the parts fit before reading a word of the body, and finds the part they need without hunting for it.

It makes the page less daunting. A wall of text is off-putting before anyone starts. Headings break it into sections a reader can face. That matters more in finance than in most writing, because the subject already asks something of the reader. Do not make the layout ask more.

## Aim for a heading every one to three paragraphs

A heading every one to three paragraphs is more often than most writers expect.

Finance writers under-use headings because they treat them as scaffolding for long documents. They are not that. They are for any document a reader must navigate under time pressure, which is nearly all of them. A 500 word email needs them as much as a 50 page board paper.

## Label headings earn their place when readers need to find things

Label headings exist so a reader can find something, not learn something.

Board and committee papers are the case for these. Members read a lot of papers and value knowing that Background, Financial implications and Recommendations sit in the same place every time can be helpful. Repetition of plain, predictable label headings beats interest here.

But recognise their limits. Label headings point but they do not tell. Reach for one only when the reader's real need is to find things, not to learn them. Do not use them as the easy default when a statement heading would work better.

## Question headings work only if you answer them straight away

A question heading mirrors what the reader is asking in their mind.

"Can we afford the new case management system?" is the question in the reader's head, so putting it on the page meets them where they are.

But a question heading carries an expectation that you answer it in the first line that follows. The answer could be yes, no, two, sometimes. Whatever the answer, once given you can then expand on it. "Yes, but only by delaying the depot refurbishment", and the reader has the shape of it before the detail arrives.

A question you pose in a heading and then circle for three paragraphs does the opposite of what a heading is for. Withholding the answer will frustrate the reader. Use question headings only when you are ready to answer at once.

## Statement headings are the ones worth the effort

A statement heading states a fact rather than naming a subject. It is the type of heading that delivers the most to the reader, and is the one finance writers use least.

Compare "Reserves" with "Reserves run out in 2027 on current spending". The first tells you where to look. The second tells you what you will find when you get there.

Or compare "Capital programme" with "The capital programme is £4m over budget and slipping". One is a filing label. The other is the news.

The payoff from label headings is the fact that a reader who skims the headings and reads nothing else will learn real facts about the document in a matter of a minute or two (a lot less time for short documents). If the same document had label headings, the reader would learn only which topics are covered in the document. **Same document, different result, decided by how you wrote the headings.**

## Read your headings on their own to test them

There is a quick check for anything you write.

Ignore the body text and read the headings as a list (you can do this using the outline view in Word if you apply heading styles to your headings).

If the headings read like a table of contents, a set of topics, they are naming rather than telling. If they read like a summary of the argument, they are carrying the message, and the reader who skims them is in good hands.

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