What is it with headline writers and the phrase ‘set to’? Is there something in their contracts that says they must use the two-word phrase on every possible occasion?

If you Google ‘set to’ you are likely to find that the first umpteen pages of results are recent headlines from online and print publications.

Prices are set to rise. Film stars are set to wed. Records are set to be broken.

Singers are set to excite. Cycling is set to get safer. Commuters are set to suffer. And I am set to say: Enough is enough!

Of the 18 headlines on the home page of a recent edition of a well-known news site, seven included the phrase ‘set to’. I won’t name and shame the site. It wouldn’t be fair. There are too many other publications that are just as bad. Or possibly worse.

There was even a recent press release from the New Zealand Government with the headline ‘High-powered air guns set to require licence’.

The first paragraph credited the Police Minister with announcing that ‘high-velocity air guns are set to require a firearms licence’. Difficult, I would have thought. Although by the second paragraph the Minister may have reached a similar conclusion. It was now ‘people who own and possess’ the guns who would be set to require a licence.

Personally, I would like to think that sub-editors everywhere are set to stop relying quite so heavily on ‘set to’. But maybe I am just set to be disappointed. – Jack Scrivano