which to begin the lead of the report of any speech. It would be wrong
to say that any one is more common or better than the others; the choice
of the beginning must rest with the reporter. And yet there are various
things to be noted in connection with each of these beginnings.
=1. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Sentence.=--The quotation that is to
have the first line must of course be the most striking or the most
interesting statement in the speech. If it consists of a single
sentence--and it cannot be less than a sentence--the report may begin
thus:
| "Participation in government is not |
|only the privilege, but the right, of |
|every American citizen and should be |
|considered a duty," said the Rev. |
|Frederick W. Hamilton, president of Tufts|
|College, who spoke on "The Political |
|Duties of the American Citizen" at the |
|monthly men's neighborhood meeting in the|
|Roxbury Neighborhood House last |
|night.--_Boston Herald._ |
Here the reporter has given us a sentence that is practically a summary
of the speech, has told us who said it, when and where, and has
completed the paragraph with the title of the speech. Sometimes the
title of the speech is not of great importance and its place in the lead
may be given to a little summary as in the following:
| "The modern man isn't afraid of hell," |
|was the concise explanation which W. |
|Lathrop Meaker gave in Franklin Union |
|Hall yesterday afternoon and evening of |
|the fact that the churches are losing |
|their grip on the average man.--_New York|
|Sun._ |
A question which embodies the content of a speech may often be quoted at
the beginning; thus:
| "Will the Baptist church continue to |
|maintain an attitude of timidity when |
|John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil is |
|mentioned?" asked the Rev. R. A. Bateman,|
|from East Jaffrey, N. H., of the |
|ministers assembled in Ford Hall last |
|evening at the New England Baptist |
|conference.--_Boston Herald._ |
The opening quotation may sometimes be made an excuse for a brief
description of the speaker or his gestures as in the following. This is
good at times but it may easily be overworked or become "yellow" in
tone.
| "There is no fire escape," remarked |
|Gypsy Smith, the famous English |
|evangelist, yesterday before the |
|fashionable audience of the Fifth Avenue |
|Baptist Church. He held aloft a Bible as |
|he made this declaration during an |
|eloquent sermon on the possibility of |
|losing faith and wandering from the |
|narrow way.--_New York World._ |
=2. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Paragraph.=--You notice that in each of
the foregoing the quoted sentence is incorporated grammatically into the
first sentence of the lead. It is followed by a comma and the words
"said Mr. ----," "was the statement of ----," "declared Mr. ----," etc.
This construction is possible only when the quoted sentence is short and
simple. When it is long or complex, it is well to paragraph it
separately and to put the explanations in a separate paragraph, thus:
| "If the United States had possessed in |
|1898 a single dirigible balloon, even of |
|the size of the one now at Fort Myer, |
|Virginia, which cost less than $10,000, |
|the American army and navy would not have|
|long remained in doubt of the presence of|
|Cervera's fleet in Santiago harbor." |
| |
|This statement was made today by Major |
|G. O. Squier, assistant chief signal |
|officer of the army, in an address on |
|aëronautics delivered before the American|
|Society of Mechanical Engineers at 29 |
|West Thirty-ninth street.--_New York |
| Mail._ |
This same construction must _always_ be used when the statement quoted
in the lead consists of more than one sentence, as in the following:
| "The climate of Wisconsin is as good |
|for recovery from tuberculosis as that of|
|any state in the union. It is not the |
|climate, but the out-of-doors air that |
|works the cure." |
| |
|So said Harvey Dee Brown in his |
|tuberculosis crusade lecture in Kilbourn |
|park last night.--_Milwaukee Free Press._|
It is to be noted that the statement quoted in the lead is never split
into two parts, separated by explanation. The quotation is always
gathered together at the beginning and followed by the explanation.
=3. Indirect Quotation Beginning.=--This method is best adapted to the
playing up of a brief resumé of the content of the speech. It is
sometimes called the "_that_-clause beginning" because it always begins
with a _that_-clause which is the subject of the principal verb of the
sentence--"was the statement of," "was the declaration of," etc. The
_that_-clause may contain a resumé of the entire speech or only the most
striking statement in it. Here is one of the latter:
| That the cruise of the battleship fleet|
|around the world has taught the citizens |
|of the United States that a powerful |
|fleet is needed in the Pacific was the |
|statement of Rear Admiral R. C. Hollyday,|
|chief of the bureau of yards and docks of|
|the navy, at a luncheon given to him by |
|the board of trustees of the Chamber of |
|Commerce at the Fairmont Hotel |
|yesterday.--_San Francisco Examiner._ |
It is not always necessary to use the phrase "was the statement of." A
variation from it is often very good:
| That it is the urgent mission of the |
|white people of America, through their |
|churches and Sunday-schools, to educate |
|the American negro morally and |
|religiously, was the sentiment of the |
|twelfth session of the International |
|Sunday-school Convention last night, |
|voiced with special power and eloquence |
|by Dr. Booker T. Washington, the chief |
|speaker of the evening.--_Louisville |
|Courier-Journal._ |
| That the Irish race has a great destiny|
|to fulfill, one greater than it has |
|achieved in its glorious past, was the |
|prophecy of Prof. Charles Johnston of |
|Dublin university in his lecture at the |
|city library Sunday |
|afternoon.--_Wisconsin State Journal._ |
It is perfectly good usage to begin such a lead with two _that_-clauses
or even with three. The two clauses in this case are of course treated
as a singular subject and take a singular verb. It is usually best not
to have more than three clauses at the beginning and even three must be
handled with great care. Three clauses at the beginning, if at all long,
bury the speaker's name too deeply and may become too complicated.
Unless the clauses are very closely related in idea, it is usually
better not to use more than two. Naturally when more than one
_that_-clause is used in the lead, all of the clauses must be gathered
together at the beginning; never should one precede and one follow the
principal verb. Here is an example of good usage:
| NEW YORK, Feb. 25.--That America is |
|entering upon a new era of civic and |
|business rectitude and that this is due |
|to the awakening of the moral conscience |
|of the whole people was the prophecy made|
|here tonight by Governor Joseph W. Folk |
|of Missouri.--_Chicago Record-Herald._ |
=4. Summary Beginning.=--This is a less formal way of treating the
indirect quotation beginning. It is simply a different grammatical
construction. Whereas in the _that_-clause beginning the principal verb
of the sentence is outside the summary (e. g., "That ... was the
statement of"), in the summary beginning the principal verb of the
sentence is the verb of the summary and the speaker is brought in by
means of a modifying phrase; thus:
| MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 1.--Both the free |
|trader and the stand-patter are back |
|numbers, according to Senator Albert J. |
|Beveridge of Indiana, who delivered a |
|tariff speech here tonight.--_Milwaukee |
|Free Press._ |
| Federal control of the capitalization |
|of railroads is the solution of the |
|railroad problem suggested by E. L. |
|Phillipp, the well-known Milwaukee |
|railroad expert, in the course of a |
|speech at the third annual banquet of, |
|etc.--_Milwaukee Free Press._ |
The summary beginning may be handled in many different ways and allows
perhaps more grammatical liberty than any other beginning. The summary
may even be given a sentence by itself as in the following. This kind of
treatment may easily be overdone and should be handled with great
caution:
| If you have acute mania, it is the |
|proper thing to take the music cure. Miss|
|Jessie A. Fowler says so, and she knows. |
|Miss Fowler discussed "Music |
|Hygienically" before the "Rainy Daisies" |
|at the Hotel Astor yesterday and |
|prescribed musical treatment for various |
|brands of mania.--_New York World._ |
=5. Keynote Beginning.=--Very closely related to the summary beginning
is the keynote beginning, in which the subject of the main verb is an
indirect presentation of the content of the speech. Whereas the summary
beginning displays its resumé in a complete sentence, the keynote
beginning puts the content of the speech in a single noun and its
modifiers. Thus:
| The ideal state university was the |
|theme of a speech delivered by, etc. |
| The mission of the newspaper to tell |
|the truth, to stand for high ideals, and |
|to strive to have those ideals adopted by|
|the public was the keynote of an address |
|delivered by, etc. |
=6. Participial Beginning.=--This is less common than the other kinds of
indirect quotation beginnings but it is often very effective. The
summary of the speech or the most striking statement is put into a
participial phrase at the beginning and is made to modify the subject of
the sentence (the speaker). It must of course be remembered that such a
participial phrase can be used only to modify a noun, as an adjective
modifies a noun, and can never be made the subject of a verb. Here is an
example of good use of this beginning:
| Upholding the right of public criticism|
|of the courts on the theory that there |
|can be no impropriety in investigating |
|any act of a public official, Judge |
|Kennesaw M. Landis last night addressed |
|the students of Marquette College of Law |
|and many members of the Milwaukee |
|bar.--_Milwaukee Free Press._ |
Just as it is perfectly possible to begin an indirect quotation lead
with two _that_-clauses instead of one, it is also possible to use two
participial phrases in the participial beginning; as:
| Pleading for justice and human |
|affection in dealing with the delinquent |
|child, and urging the vital need of |
|legislation which shall enforce parental |
|responsibility, Mrs. Nellie Duncan made |
|an address yesterday which stirred the |
|sympathies of an attentive audience in |
|the First Presbyterian Church.--_San |
|Francisco Examiner._ |
Although the participial phrase usually gives the summary of the speech,
not infrequently the participial construction is used to play up the
name of the speech or some other fact and the summary comes after the
principal verb of the lead; thus:
| Paying tribute to the memory of |
|President William McKinley last night at |
|the Metropolitan Temple, where exercises |
|were held to dedicate the McKinley |
|memorial organ, Judge Taft told in detail|
|of his commission to the Philippine |
|service and his subsequent intimate |
|connection with the President.--_New York|
|Tribune._ |
=7. Title Beginning.=--There are two reasons for beginning the report of
a public utterance with the speaker's subject or title. The title itself
may be so broad that it makes a good summary of the speech, or it may be
so striking in itself that it attracts interest at once. In the
following examples the title is really a summary of the speech:
| NEW YORK, Dec. 15.--"The Compensation |
|of Employes for Injuries Received While |
|at Work" was taken by J. D. Beck, |
|commissioner of labor of Wisconsin, as |
|the theme of his address before the |
|National Civic Federation here |
|today.--_Milwaukee Free Press._ |
| "The Emmanuel Movement" was the subject|
|of an address by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of|
|the Free Synagogue yesterday |
|morning.--_New York Evening Post._ |
In the following stories the reporter began with the title evidently
because it was so strikingly unusual and also because it was the title
of a strikingly unusual speech by an unusual man. This kind of title
beginning is always very effective:
| "Booze, or Get on the Water Wagon," was|
|the subject on which Rev. Billy Sunday, |
|the baseball evangelist, addressed an |
|audience of over 4,000 persons at the |
|Midland Chautauqua yesterday afternoon. |
|For two hours Sunday fired volley after |
|volley at the liquor traffic.--_Des |
|Moines Capital._ |
| "If Christ Came to Milwaukee" was the |
|subject of the Rev. Paul B. Jenkin's |
|Sunday night in Immanuel Presbyterian |
|Church.--_Milwaukee Sentinel._ |
=8. Speaker Beginning.=--It is obvious that this is the easiest
beginning that may be used in the report of a speech. But just as
obviously it is the beginning that should be least used. Just as in
writing news stories a green reporter always attempts to begin every
lead with the name of some person involved, in reporting a public
discourse he has a strong desire to put the name of the speaker before
what the speaker said. But the same tests may be applied to both cases.
Are our readers more interested in what a man does than in the man
himself; do our readers go to hear a given speaker because they wish to
hear what he has to say or because they wish to hear _him_? Whenever the
public is so interested in a man that it does not care what he says,
then you may feel safe in beginning the report of what he says with his
name. This test may be altered, especially in smaller cities, by
previous interest in the speech; if the speech has been expected and
looked forward to with interest, then, no matter if the speaker is the
President himself, his name is not as good news as what he has to say.
Even if the lead does begin with the speaker's name, the reporter
usually tries to bring a summary of the speech or the most striking
statement into the first sentence after the name. For example:
| Speaker Joseph G. Cannon placed himself|
|on record last night in favor of a |
|revision of the tariff in accordance with|
|the promise of the Republican party |
|platform and declared that so far as his |
|vote was concerned he would see to it |
|that the announced policy of revision |
|would be written in the national laws as |
|soon as possible. The words of the |
|speaker came at a luncheon given to six |
|rear admirals of the United States navy |
|by Alexander H. Revell of Chicago in the |
|Union League Club, at which the need of |
|more battleships and increased efficiency|
|of the fighting forces of the republic |
|were the principal themes of discussion. |
This example was chosen because, while it is written in accordance with
the rules of the speaker beginning, it is obviously too long and
complicated--over 110 words. It would be better to gather it together
and condense it as in the following:
| Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot opened |
|the second day's session of the national |
|conservation congress yesterday by an |
|address in which he expressed his entire |
|satisfaction and his confidence in the |
|attitude of President Taft toward |
|conservating the national |
|resources.--_Milwaukee Sentinel._ |
| ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 10.--Booker T. |
|Washington of Tuskegee, Ala., in an |
|address at the People's Church tonight |
|predicted that within two years the |
|liquor traffic would be driven out of all|
|the southern states but two.--_Milwaukee |
|Sentinel._ |
There are obviously other beginnings that cannot be classed under any of
the above heads. Some of them, much like the "freak" leads that may be
seen in many newspapers of the present day, may be called free
beginnings for want of a better name. These free beginnings are quite
effective when properly handled but the novice must use them with fear
and trembling. They may be witty or they may be sarcastic, but they are
usually dangerous. The difference in the eight beginnings discussed
above is mainly one of grammatical construction; the same fundamental
ideas govern them all. Their purpose is always to play up a striking
statement or a summary of the speech report and to give at the very
outset the necessary explanation concerning the speech.
THE BODY OF THE REPORT
The body of the report of a speech is not so distinct from the lead as
the body of an ordinary news story. In the news story it is safe to
assume that many readers will not go beyond the lead, but in the report
of a speech this is not so true. It is less possible to give the main
facts in the lead of a speech report and the rest of the story is more
necessary. Hence it must be written with as great care as the lead.
The body of the report should consist of direct quotation in so far as
possible. The reader is interested in what the speaker said and it is
impossible to make a summary in indirect discourse as convincing as the
actual quotation of his words. Be sure that the quotations are the
speaker's exact words or very nearly his exact words, so that he cannot
accuse you of misquoting him. The spirit of his words must be in the
quotation, anyway.
In these quotations nothing less than a complete sentence should be
quoted. Do not patch together sentences of indirect and direct
quotation, like the following--He said that some of us are prone to let
things be as they are, "because the philanthropic rich help in our times
of trouble and in sickness." Such quotation is worse than no direct
quotation at all. Of course, this does not mean that one cannot add
"said the speaker" to a direct quotation, but it means that "said the
speaker" can be added only to quotations that are complete sentences.
Furthermore whenever it is necessary to bring in "said the speaker," or
similar expressions, they should be added at the end of the quoted
sentence--the least emphatic part of a newspaper sentence.
Obviously a condensed report of a speech can only quote sentences here
and there throughout the speech--the high spots of interest, as we
called them before. These must not be quoted promiscuously and
disconnectedly. The original speech had a logical order and set forth a
logical train of thought. These should be followed as far as possible in
the report. Bring in the quotations in their true order and fill the
gaps between them with indirect discourse to knit them together and to
give the report the coherence of the original speech. But do not carry
this indirect explanation to the extent of making your copy a report of
the speech in indirect discourse with occasional bits of direct
quotation to illustrate. Remember that, after all, the direct quotation
is the truly effective part of the speech.
Whenever a paragraph contains both direct and indirect quotation, the
direct quotation should always precede the indirect. But it is much
better to paragraph the two kinds of quotation separately, making each
paragraph entirely of direct, or entirely of indirect, quotation. If a
paragraph must contain both, begin it with the direct so that as the
reader glances down the column he will see a quotation mark at the
beginnings of most, if not all, of the paragraphs. By the same sign,
when your notes are lacking in direct quotations, bring in as many of
the quotations as possible at the beginning of the report and let the
indirect summary occupy the end where it may be cut off by the editor if
he does not wish to run it.
Here is a good illustration of a part of the body of a good speech
report--it is the second paragraph of one of the stories quoted under
the "Speaker" beginning above:
| "I can not account for the moral |
|revolution that is sweeping over the |
|South," he continued. "The sentiment |
|against whisky is deeper than the mere |
|desire to get it away from the black man.|
|That same sentiment is found in counties |
|that contain no negro population. People |
|who say that the law will not be enforced|
|have not been in the South.--B. T. |
|Washington's speech, _Milwaukee |
|Sentinel._ |
You will notice that although the above paragraph is composed entirely
of direct quotation it has no quotation mark at the end. This is, of
course, in accordance with the old rule of rhetoric which says that in a
continuous quotation each paragraph shall begin with a quotation mark
but only the last shall be closed by a quotation mark.
To illustrate the errors that may be made in reporting speeches we might
write the above paragraph as follows:
| Mr. Washington continued by saying that|
|he could not account for the revolution |
|that is sweeping over the South. "The |
|sentiment against whisky is deeper than |
|the mere desire to get it away from the |
|black man." He says that "the same |
|sentiment is found in counties that |
|contain no negro population." People who |
|say that the law will not be enforced |
|"have not been in the South," according |
|to Booker T. Washington. |
The clumsiness of this mingling of direct and indirect quotation is very
clear, as is the weakness of beginning with an explanation that is
really subordinate.
Much more could be said about the reporting of speeches. Very few things
will make a man so angry as the misquoting of his words. Therefore,
whatever other faults your report of a speech may have, let it be
accurate and truthful.
XI
INTERVIEWS
If you compare any interview story with any speech report in any
representative newspaper, you will readily see how a discussion of
interviews easily becomes an explanation of the differences between
interview stories and speech-reports; that is, how the report of an
interview differs from the report of a public utterance of a more formal
kind. There are few differences in the written reports. Each usually
begins with a summary or a striking statement and consists largely of
direct quotation. Were it not for the line or two of explanation at the
end of the introduction, it would be practically impossible to tell the
one from the other, to tell which of the reports sets forth statements
made in a public discourse and which gives statements made in a more
private way to a reporter.
The difference lies behind the report, in the way the reporter obtained
the statements and quotations. And the whole difference depends upon the
attitude of the man who made the statements--whether his words were a
conscious or an unconscious public utterance. When a man speaks from a
platform he utters every sentence and every word with an idea of
possible quotation--he is not only willing to be quoted but he wants to
be quoted. But when he speaks privately to a reporter he usually dreads
quotation. Of course, he expects that you will print a few of his
remarks but he is constantly hoping that you will not remember and print
them all. He speaks more guardedly, too, since he is not sure of the
interpretation that may be given to his words. Hence it is a very
different matter to report what a man says in public and to get
statements for the press from him in private. Any one can report a
speech but great skill is required to get a good interview--especially
if the victim is unwilling to talk.
The first matter that a reporter has to consider is the means of
retaining the statements until he is able to write his story. It is a
simple matter to get quotations from a speech because it is possible to
sit anywhere in the audience and write down the speaker's words in a
notebook as they are uttered. But the notebook must be left behind when
you try to interview. When a man is not used to being interviewed
nothing will make him reticent so quickly as the appearance of a
notebook and pencil; he realizes that his words are to appear in print
just as he utters them and he immediately becomes frightened. Ordinarily
so long as he feels that what he says is going into the confidential ear
of the reporter--and out of the other ear just as quickly--he is willing
to talk more freely and openly and to say exactly what he thinks. This,
of course, does not apply to prominent men who are used to being
interviewed and prefer to have their remarks taken down verbatim. Such
an interview, however, is little more than a call to secure a statement
for publication.