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Sometimes journalistic articles have a brief about-the-author sort of blurb at the end, frequently italicized, of a general form resembling:

J. Random Hacker is a dog groomer for the United States National Security Agency. He likes eggs.

How does one most properly refer to these?

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  • That could also be their job title, the example that you wrote would most likely appear in a satire magazine Oct 22, 2013 at 18:57
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    The blurb may include a title, but I believe the question is asking what the whole block of text is called. Oct 22, 2013 at 20:48

4 Answers 4

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I believe they are called 'tag lines'. according to this article https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-an-article-byline-1078265

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    Welcome to Writing.SE! Could you edit the relevant information from the article into your answer? As it stands, this is a link-only answer, and those are frowned upon as links tend to die out over time.
    – F1Krazy
    Oct 17, 2018 at 21:26
  • -1. As it currently stands, this is not a useful answer if I have to click on an external link to check whether your "belief" is correct. I'm happy to reverse my vote if you edit your answer as F1Krazy suggests. For further guidance, see How to Answer. I can also recommend taking the Tour. Oct 17, 2018 at 21:51
  • I disagree with the previous comments. This answer does suggest an answer to the question: that those author blurbs are called "tag lines". It's not necessary to follow the link to find (or understand) that information. That said, that doesn't necessarily make this a good answer, or even a correct answer. Compare Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer? on Meta Stack Exchange.
    – user
    Oct 18, 2018 at 8:42
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That would be the "author bio"


Here are some links that may be of use:
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/07/how-to-write-a-terrific-author-bio/
http://www.absolutewrite.com/freelance_writing/bio.htm

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There are many great jargon terms for these things. At one publication we called any such blurb an "excuse" (pronounced as the word that means 'why something happened,' not 'excuse me')

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Another word for them is "bylines"

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  • I thought it was byline too, but the dictionary definition just says a byline shows the author's name. It's unclear whether it includes any additional info. Oct 19, 2018 at 12:46
  • bylines also characteristically occur at the top of the piece, not the bottom
    – chaos
    Oct 22, 2018 at 16:36

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