I saw this headline two mornings ago on CNN.

Problem:
A slash or more words are missing.

Explanation:
The headline appeared in a banner beneath the journalist during a news story on the Cable News Network television channel.

My immediate reaction: “Huh?”

Because so many Americans use the noun “economy” instead of “economical” as an adjective, my first impression was that the story was about economical suicides.

I said to myself, “Economical suicides? Huh?”

I then saw the word “LINK” and initially wondered to WHAT economical suicides were links.

I doubt that the headline writer was trying to be provocative by creating some sort of confusing headline.

Instead, I believe that the headline writer was trying to say in as few words as possible that there was a possible link between the U.S. economy and the suicide rate.

The problem with this “as few words as possible” approach is that it can often lead to confusing instead of concise headlines.

Assuming that the headline system at a TV network such as CNN automatically adjusts the font size to make the characters fit the width of the banner, there truly was not a good reason to write something as cryptic as “ECONOMY SUICIDE LINK”.

I would not use a hyphen between “ECONOMY” and “SUICIDE” because many people still would see that as some sort of reference to economical suicides.

The solution to this confusion comes, in my opinion, from a slash or a few more words.

The reason that I recommend a slash instead of a hyphen is:

• A slash connects two words but tells the reader to treat the two words as separate concepts, activities, or entities.
• A hyphen connects two words and tells the reader that the first word modifies the second word.

The news story was about the connection between separate activities — the U.S. economy and suicides — NOT about using “ECONOMY” to modify “SUICIDE”.

Solution:
“ECONOMY/SUICIDE LINK”
or
“LINK BETWEEN ECONOMY AND SUICIDE (RATES)”