Colo., Ind., Id., Kan., Ariz., Okla., Me. Do not abbreviate
Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, Utah, Alaska, or Texas.
Abbreviate thus: Madison, Dane County, Wis.: but Dane County,
Wisconsin.
Use the abbreviations U. S. N. and U. S. A. after a proper name.
Y. M. C. A., W. C. T. U., M. E. are good abbreviations.
Abbreviate names of months when preceding date only when the month
contains more than five letters: Jan. 20; but April 20. When the
date precedes the month in reading matter spell it out: the 13th
of January; the 26th inst.
Abbreviate "Number" before figures: No. 10.
Abbreviate contract, article, section, question, answer, after the
first in bills, by-laws, testimony, etc.: Section 1., Sec. 2.;
Question--, Answer--, Q.--, A.--.
Do not abbreviate railway, company, the names of streets, wards,
avenues, districts, etc.: Madison Street Railway Company; State
street, Monona avenue.
Street and avenue are sometimes abbreviated in want-ads:
State-st, Monona-av.
Spell out numbered streets and avenues up to 100th:
Thirty-fourth street, 134th street.
Use & in names of firms, but use the long "and" in names of
railroads. Use Etc. and not &c.; use Brothers and not Bros.
(except in ads); use & only when necessary to abbreviate in
stocks.
Do not abbreviate the names of political parties except in election
returns, then: Dem., Rep., Soc., Lab., Ind., Pro., Un. Cit.
Put in necessary commas in abbreviating railroad names: C., M. & St.
P. Ry. (Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway); C., C., C. & St.
L. R. R. (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad).
Abbreviate without periods in market review and quotations: 25c, bu,
brls, tcs, pkgs, f o b, p t, etc. Spell out centimes except when
given thus: 10f 20c.
Do not abbreviate Fort and Mount: Fort Wayne, Mount Vernon.
=12. Preparation of Copy:=
Use a typewriter or write legibly; some one must read your copy.
If you write with a typewriter, double or triple space your copy;
never use single space.
Don't write on more than one side of the paper.
Leave sufficient margin for corrections and leave a space at the top
of the first page for headlines; leave an inch at the top of each
page.
Don't put more than one story on a single sheet of paper.
Don't trust the copy-reader to fill in blanks or to correct
misspelled names. If you write by hand print out proper names as
legibly as possible; underscore _u_ and overscore _n_.
Don't assume that the copy-reader, the proofreader, or the editor
will punctuate for you, or eliminate all superfluous punctuation.
Remember that uniformity is more to be desired than a strict
following of style.
Don't turn in copy without re-reading carefully and verifying all
names and addresses.
Use short paragraphs; always paragraph the lead separately; indent
paragraphs distinctly.
Don't write over figures or words; scratch out and rewrite.
Number your pages; when pages are inserted use letters: pages 2, 3a,
3b, 4, 5.
A circle around an abbreviation or a figure indicates that the word
or number is to be spelled out. A circle around a spelled-out word
or number indicates that it is to be abbreviated or run in
figures.
Mark the end of your story, thus: # # #
=13. Don'ts:=
Don't use "Honorable" or abbreviations thereof, except in extracts
from speeches or documents, in editorials, or before foreign
names.
Don't add final s to afterward, toward, upward, downward, backward,
earthward, etc.
Don't use "signed" before the signature of a letter or document; run
signature in caps.
Don't begin a sentence or paragraph with figures; insert a word
before the figures or spell out.
Don't use commas in dates or in figures which denote the number of a
thing, as A. D. 1908, 2324 State street, Policy 33815; in other
cases use the comma, as $5,289; 1,236,400 people.
Don't forget that the following are singular and require singular
verbs: sums of money, as $23 was invested; United States; anybody,
everybody, somebody, neither, either, none; whereabouts, as "His
whereabouts is known."
Don't forget that things OCCUR by chance or accident, and that
things TAKE PLACE by arrangement.
Don't "sustain" broken legs and other injuries.
Don't "administer" punishment.
Don't confound "audiences," "spectators," and casual "witnesses."
Don't say "party" for "person."
Don't use "suicide," "loan," "scare," as verbs.
Don't use "gotten"; it is questionable; use "got."
Don't use "burglarize."
Don't use "transpire" for "occur."
Don't use "locate" for "find"; to locate a thing is to place it.
Don't use "stopped" for "stayed": He stayed at the Central Hotel.
Don't "tender" receptions nor "render" songs; use simply "give" and
"sing."
Don't "put in an appearance"; just appear.
Don't use "don't" for "doesn't."
Don't use "stated" for "said."
Don't say "per day" or "per year," but "a day," "a year"; per is a
Latin word and can be used only before a Latin noun, as "per diem"
or "per annum."
Don't say "the meeting convened"; members might convene but a single
body cannot.
Don't "claim that" anything is so; you can "claim" a thing,
however.
Don't say "Mrs. Dr. Smith," just "Mrs. Smith."
Don't say "between" when more than two are mentioned.
Don't use "proven" for "proved."
Don't confound "staid" with "stayed."
Don't say "different than," but "different from."
Don't split infinitives or other verbs.
Don't use "onto."
Don't use "babe" or "tot" for "baby" or "child."
Don't use superlatives when you can help it.
Don't use trite expressions or foreign words and phrases.
Don't use "corner of" in designating street location.
Don't say "died from operation," but "died after operation"--to
avoid danger of libel.
Don't get the _very_ habit.
Don't use "couple of" instead of "two."
Don't use Mr. before a man's full name.
Don't use slang unless it is fitting--which is seldom.
Don't mention the reporters, singly or collectively, unless it is
necessary. It rarely is.
Don't qualify the word "unique"; a thing may be "unique," but it
cannot be "very unique," "quite unique," "rather unique," or "more
unique."
Don't use the inverted passive: e. g., "A man was given a dinner,"
"Smith was awarded a medal."
Don't concoct long and improper titles: Justice of the Supreme Court
Smith, Superintendent of the Insurance Department Jones,
Groceryman Brown. If the title is long put it after the man's
name; thus: George Smith, justice of the Supreme Court.
Don't use the verb "occur" with weddings, receptions, etc.; they
take place by design and never unexpectedly.
Don't say "a number of," if you can help it. Be specific.
Don't use the word "lady" for "woman," or "gentleman" for "man."
Don't say "a man by the name of Smith," but "a man named Smith."
Don't use "depot" for "station"--railway passenger station.
APPENDIX I
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
These Suggestions for Study embody the method used in the course in News
Story Writing in the Course in Journalism of the University of
Wisconsin. The text of the several chapters corresponds to the lectures
that are given in preparation for, and in connection with, the study of
the various kinds of news stories. These Suggestions for Study
correspond to the exercises by which the students learn the application
of the principles embodied in the lectures. Hence these suggestions are
given mainly from the instructor's point of view; however, a slight
alteration will adapt them to home or individual study. Although they
give very little practice in news gathering, they enable the student to
gain practice in the writing of news--in accordance with the purpose of
this book. The reporter who is studying the business in a newspaper
office may use them to advantage in connection with his regular work.
EXERCISES FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER
1. Collect clippings of representative news stories, printed in
the daily papers, to be used as models.
2. Keep a book of tips of expected news in your town or city.
3. Study news stories in your local paper and try to determine from
what source the original news tip came. Try to discover from the
story the routine of news gathering which furnished the facts.
4. In the same stories try to determine what persons were
interviewed; frame the questions that the reporter might have
asked to secure the facts. The instructor may impersonate
various persons in a given news story and have the students
interview him for the facts; this is to assist the student in
learning to keep the point of view and to keep him from asking
ridiculous questions.
5. Try to discover what stories in any newspaper are the result of
actual reporting by staff reporters--point out where the others
come from.
6. Notice the date line on stories that come from the outside, and
learn its form.
EXERCISES FOR THE SECOND CHAPTER
1. Watch for local stories that seem to be worth sending out;
determine what element in them makes them worth sending out;
calculate how far from their source they would be worth
printing.
2. Study the news value of stories that are printed in the local
papers; determine why they were printed. Look for the same
things in stories with date lines in the local papers.
3. Determine what class of readers any given news story would
interest.
4. Notice the time element (timeliness) in newspaper stories.
5. Try to determine the radius of your local paper's personal news
sources: how near the printing office one must live to be worth
personal mention.
6. Watch for local stories whose news value depends upon the death
element, upon a prominent name, a significant loss of property,
mere unusualness, human interest, or personal appeal; see what
the local papers do with these stories and whether the local
correspondents send them out.
7. Analyze the nature of the personal appeal in stories that are
printed only for their personal appeal.
8. Notice how local reasons change the news values of local
stories.
9. In any or all of these stories determine what the feature is.
Distinguish between the fundamental incident which the story
reports and the additional significant feature which enhances
the news value of the fundamental incident.
EXERCISES FOR THE THIRD CHAPTER
1. Run over the Style Book at the end of this book; note the
essential points in newspaper style.
2. Give the principal rules for the preparation of copy.
3. Glance over the "Don'ts" in the Style Book.
EXERCISES FOR THE FOURTH CHAPTER
1. Study the form and construction of news stories, especially
simple fire stories.
2. Pick out the feature of each story--the additional incident in
the story which increases the news value of the story
itself--and see if the striking feature has been played up to
best advantage.
3. Notice how the reader's customary questions--what, where, when,
who, how, and why--are answered in the lead. Make a list of the
answers in any given story.
EXERCISES FOR THE FIFTH CHAPTER
1. Collect good fire stories appearing in the newspapers. Study
the construction of the lead and the order in which the facts
are presented in the body of each story.
2. Write the leads of fire stories. The chances are that actual
fires will seldom occur at the time when the student wishes to
study the writing of fire stories, but the instructor may give
his class, orally or in writing, the facts of a fire story. He
may use imaginary facts or he may take the facts from a story
clipped from a newspaper--the latter method is better because it
enables the instructor to show the students, after they have
written their stories, just how the original story was written
in the newspaper office. The facts should be given in the order
in which a reporter would probably secure them in actual
reporting so that the student may learn to sort and arrange the
facts that he wishes to use, and to select the feature. The
instructor may even impersonate different persons connected with
the story and have the class interview him for the facts. This
method is to be followed throughout the whole study of news
story writing. (In individual study, practice may be secured
from writing up imaginary or real facts.)
3. In these first fire stories, use fires that have no interest
beyond the interest in the fire itself--that is, no feature.
Begin the story with "Fire" and devote the lead to answering the
reader's customary questions.
4. Look for newspaper fire stories that are not correctly written
and reconstruct the lead according to the logic of the fire
lead. That is, strive for conciseness and cut out details that
do not properly belong in the lead.
5. Make a list of the reader's customary questions concerning any
fire and write out the briefest possible answers. Then construct
a lead to embody these answers. Determine which answer should
come first and which last, according to importance.
6. Write the bodies of some of these stories. First list the facts
that are to be presented and determine the order of their
importance.
7. Emphasize the separateness and completeness of the two parts of
the story--the lead and the body of the story. Test the leads to
see if they would be clear in themselves without further
explanation.
8. Strive for brevity, conciseness and clearness; wage war on all
attempts at fine writing.
EXERCISES FOR THE SIXTH CHAPTER
1. Study fire stories which have features--an interest beyond the
mere fire itself--and see how the newspapers write them.
2. In a feature fire story of Class I., make a list of the reader's
customary questions concerning the fire, as if it were a simple
fire story, and a list of the answers. See if any answer is more
interesting than the fire itself, or if its presence makes the
story more interesting. Show that such an answer is the feature.
3. Write fire stories with features in some one of the reader's
customary answers. (Class I.)
4. Study a simple fire story and try to imagine what
things--properly answers to the reader's customary
questions--might happen to give the fire greater news value.
This will show the student how to look for the feature of a
story.
5. Write the lead of any fire story in as many different ways as
possible, striving in each one to play up the same feature.
6. Study a simple fire story and try to imagine what unexpected
things might occur in connection with the fire which would be of
greater interest than the fire itself. Show that these would be
features and that they do not fall within the answers to the
reader's customary questions--i. e., they are unexpected.
7. Write fire stories with features in unexpected attendant
circumstances.
8. Make up lists of dead and injured; notice how the newspapers
arrange and punctuate these lists.
9. Study fire stories with more than one feature. Work out the
possibilities in any given fire along these lines.
10. Write fire stories in which there is more than one feature
worth a place in the lead. Try various combinations in the lead
to discover the happiest arrangement. Show how one of many
striking features may be of so much importance as to drive the
other features entirely out of the lead.
EXERCISES FOR THE SEVENTH CHAPTER
1. Count the number of words in the sentences and paragraphs of
representative newspaper stories.
2. Practice writing fire leads that might be printed alone without
the rest of the story.
3. Take a fire lead and experiment with various beginnings to show
the possibilities:
a. Noun--experiment with and without articles.
b. Infinitive--Distinguish infinitives in "to" and
in "-ing."
c. _That_ clause.
d. Prepositional phrase.
e. Temporal clause.
f. Causal clause.
g. Others.
Show that any of these beginnings may be used in the
playing up of any one feature.
4. Study how a name may overshadow an interesting story; determine
when a name is worth first place in a lead. Study the practice
of representative papers in this--do not hesitate to show how a
paper has been illogical in beginning certain stories with an
unknown name, for everything one sees in a newspaper is not
ipso facto good usage in newspaper writing.
5. In students' stories, notice what the principal verb says and
point out any misplaced emphasis.
6. Wage war on "was the unusual experience of" and "was the fate
of" in leads.
7. Try to avoid "broke out" in fire leads. Devote the space to more
interesting action.
8. Cut out all useless words in students' exercises; strive for
brevity. Go through a student's story and weigh the value of
each word, phrase, and sentence; cut out the useless ones or try
to express them more briefly. Do the same to actual newspaper
stories.
9. Weigh the value of every detail introduced into a lead and cut
out the unnecessary ones; relegate them to the rest of the
story.
10. Wage war on all meaningless generalities; demand exactness.
11. Refer the class to the Style Book in this volume and require
them to follow a uniform style. Point out the differences in
style of various papers.
12. See if the bodies of students' stories mean anything without
the presence of the leads. Require the body of the story to be
separate and complete in itself. This need not, of course, be
carried to the point of repeating addresses given in the lead.
13. Try writing a story by simply elaborating and explaining the
details mentioned in the lead of the story. Determine what facts
must be added.
14. See if any story can stand the loss of its last paragraph.
Determine how many paragraphs it can lose without sacrificing
its interest.
15. In writing the body of a fire story, list the facts that are to
be told, in their logical order; thus: origin, discovery,
spread, death of firemen, escapes, injuries, rescues, explosion,
extinguishing of fire. Number them in the order of their
importance. Try to build a story out of these by following the
logical order and at the same time crowding the most interesting
facts to the beginning.
16. Practice getting the facts of a story by means of interviews.
The instructor may have the students determine what persons they
wish to interview for the facts and the instructor may
impersonate these persons in turn. The class may then write the
story from the facts gained in this way without reference to the
interviews. This is for selecting and arranging facts in their
logical order.
17. Practice the use of dialogue in stories. Judge its
effectiveness and show that in most cases it is well to avoid
dialogue.
18. Practice rewriting long stories into short press dispatches of
150 words or less, considering the different news value.
EXERCISES FOR THE EIGHTH CHAPTER
1. Collect clippings of other kinds of news stories.
2. In writing these other stories use the fire story as a model;
the facts may be presented as they were in the fire story.
3. Study the possible features in accident stories; write accident
stories with various features; make lists of dead and injured.
4. Study and write robbery stories with various features;
distinguish between the various names applied to robbery and to
the people who rob.
5. Study and write murder and suicide stories with various
features, striving in each case to give the facts without
shocking the reader. Show how the featureless murder or suicide
story is very much like a featureless fire story.
6. Study and write riot, storm, flood, and other big stories.
7. In the study of police court news have the class go to the local
police courts and report actual cases.
8. Send the students to report meetings. Report conferences,
decisions, etc. Insist that the story begin with the gist of the
report in each case and never with explanations.
9. Write stories on bulletins, catalogues, city directories, etc.
Study them with reference to their timeliness and try to
discover what in them has the most news value. Require the
student to begin with this element of news value and to give the
source (the name and date of the bulletin, etc.) in the lead.
10. Look over the daily papers and pick out news stories which
bury the gist of their news and have the students rewrite the
leads to play up the real news or to give greater emphasis to
buried features.
EXERCISES FOR THE NINTH CHAPTER
1. Collect good examples of the follow-up and the rewrite story;
follow one important story through several days' editions to
see how it is rewritten day by day. Examine an afternoon
paper's version of a story covered in a morning paper.
2. Take any news story and work out the follow-up possibilities;
imagine what the next step in the story will be.
3. On this basis, write follow-up stories and rewrite stories.
4. Write a follow-up story which, while beginning with a new
feature, retells the original story.
5. Study and write follow-up stories involving fires, accidents,
robberies, murders, suicides, storms (present condition), etc.
EXERCISES FOR THE TENTH CHAPTER
1. Collect good examples of speech reports.
2. Take notes on oral speeches and write reports of varying
lengths. Practice taking notes in the proper way and write the
report at once--perhaps as an impromptu in class. The instructor
may send his students to public lectures or read representative
speeches to them in class.
3. Write reports of speeches from printed copies of the speech;
that is, edit them in condensed form.
4. Take one lead and experiment with different beginnings, playing
up the same idea in each case.
5. Discuss speeches to determine the newsiest and timeliest thing
in the speech--the statement to be played up in the lead.
6. In the body of the report try to use as much direct quotation as
possible, use complete sentence quotations, do not mix quotation
and summary in the same paragraph or sentence. Study the rules
regarding the use of quotation marks.
7. Have the students write running reports of speeches--that is,
have them write their report as they listen to the speech and
submit their report in this form. Naturally the lead must be
written later.
EXERCISES FOR THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER
1. Collect representative interview stories.
2. Have students interview various people without the aid of a note
book; have them bring back quoted statements by the use of their
memory. Have them interview some one who will criticize their
manner and method.
3. Have a definite reason or timeliness for every interview--have
the student map out a definite campaign beforehand. Try writing
out the questions beforehand in shape to fill in the answers.
4. Write interview stories from the results of these attempts.
5. Begin the same interview story in various ways.
6. Write an interview story in which the feature is a denial or a
refusal to speak; tell what should have been said and what the
denial or refusal signifies.
7. Study the form of the body of the report (see Speech Reports).
8. Write stories which are the result of several interviews on the
same subject; arrange them informally and formally.
EXERCISES FOR THE TWELFTH CHAPTER
1. Collect examples of good court reports.
2. Attend and report actual cases in the local courts (preferably
civil courts).
3. Determine what is the most interesting thing in each.
4. From this, write court reports--reports of the cases which the
students have heard.
5. Experiment with the various beginnings for the same report.
6. Try summarizing a case in one paragraph.
7. Practice getting down testimony verbatim.
8. Practice summarizing testimony in indirect form.
9. Practice writing out the testimony in full in the various ways.
10. Write testimony with action in it for the sake of human
interest.
11. Show how all of these may be combined into one good court
report.
EXERCISES FOR THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER
1. Notice how various newspapers treat social news; study the
reason in each case; collect examples.
2. List the facts of a wedding story; write short and long wedding
stories.
3. Write wedding announcements, beginning in various ways.
4. Write engagement announcements.
5. Write up receptions, banquets, dinners, etc.; report actual
functions.
6. Write announcements for the same functions.
7. Write up some unusual social story as a news story.
8. Practice writing obituaries and simple death stories with
accompanying obituary. Write sketches of the lives of prominent
people.
9. In these exercises use actual events as subjects.
EXERCISES FOR THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER
1. Study sporting stories for their material and method.
2. Report a football game or some other sporting event.