=112. Clearness.=--But the reporter will still fail of his purpose if he

neglects to make his lead clear. He must guard against any construction

or the inclusion of any detail that is liable to blur the absolute

clarity of his initial sentences. In particular, he must be wary of

overloaded leads, those crowded with details. It is better to cut such

leads into two or more short, crisp sentences than to permit them to be

published with the possibility of not being understood. If a reader

cannot grasp readily the lead, the chances are nine out of ten that he

will not read the story. Note the following overloaded lead and its

improvement by being cut into three sentences:

|Barely able to see out of her swollen and discolored|

|eyes, and her face and body covered with cuts and |

|bruises, received, it is alleged, when her father |

|attacked her because of her failure to secure work, |

|Mary Ellis, 15 years old, living at 1864 Brown |

|Street, when placed on the witness stand Monday, |

|told a story which resulted in Peter Ellis, her |

|father, being arrested on a charge of assault with |

|intent to do great bodily harm. |

|Charged with beating unmercifully his daughter, |

|Mary, 15, because she could not obtain work, Peter |

|Ellis, 1864 Brown Street, was arraigned in police |

|court Monday. The girl herself appeared against |

|Ellis. Her body, when she appeared on the witness |

|stand, was covered with cuts and bruises, her face |

|black from the alleged blows, and her eyes so much |

|swollen that she could hardly see. |

The following lead, too, is overloaded and all but impossible

to understand:

|Two letters written by H. M. Boynton, an advertising|

|agent for the Allen-Procter Co., to "Dear Louise," |

|in which he confessed undying love and which are |

|replete with such terms of endearment as "little |

|love," "dear beloved," "sweetheart," "honey," and |

|just plain "love," and which were alleged by him to |

|have been forged by his wife, Mrs. Hannah Benson |

|Boynton, obtained a divorce for her yesterday in |

|district court on the grounds of alienated |

|affections. |

Few readers would wade through this maze of shifted constructions and

heavy, awkward phrasing for the sake of the divorce story following. In

the following form, however, it readily becomes clear:

|Two love letters to "Dear Louise" cost H. M. |

|Boynton, advertising agent for the Allen-Procter |

|Co., a wife yesterday in district court. The letters|

|were produced by Mrs. Hannah Benson Boynton to |

|support her charge of alienated affections, and were|

|replete with such terms of endearment as "undying |

|love," "honey," "sweetheart," "dear beloved," |

|"little love," and just plain "love." Boynton |

|claimed that the letters were forged. |

=113. Boxed Summaries and Features.=--When a story is unusually long and

complicated and the number of details numerous, or when important points

or facts need particular emphasis, it is customary to make a digest of

the principal items and box them in display type before the regular

lead. Boxed summaries at the beginning of a story are really determined

by the city editor and the copy readers, but a grouping of the

outstanding facts for boxing is often a welcome suggestion and a

valuable help to the sub-editors. If the reporter is in doubt about the

need of a boxed summary, he may make it on a separate sheet and place it

on the city editor's desk along with the regular story. Types of stories

that most frequently have boxed summaries are accidents, with lists of

the dead and the injured in bold-face type; important athletic and

sporting events, with summaries of the records, the crowds in

attendance, the gate receipts, etc.; speeches, trials, and executions,

with epigrams and the most important utterances of the judges, lawyers,

witnesses, or defendants; international diplomatic letters, with the

main points of discussion or most threatening statements; lengthy

governmental reports, etc. An illustration of the boxed summary is the

following, featuring the last statement of Charles Becker, the New York

police lieutenant, electrocuted in 1915 for the death of Herman

Rosenthal:

=POLICE OFFICER PAYS PENALTY WITH HIS LIFE=

+----------------------------------------------------+

| |

| "MY DYING STATEMENT." |

| |

| "Gentlemen: I stand before you in my full senses, |

| knowing that no power on earth can save me from the|

| grave that is to receive me. In the face of that, |

| in the face of those who condemn me, and in the |

| presence of my God and your God, I proclaim my |

| absolute innocence of the foul crime for which I |

| must die. |

| |

| "You are now about to witness my destruction by the|

| state which is organized to protect the lives of |

| the innocent. May almighty God pardon everyone who |

| has contributed in any degree to my untimely death.|

| And now on the brink of my grave, I declare to the |

| world that I am proud to have been the husband of |

| the purest, noblest woman that ever lived,--Helen |

| Becker. |

| |

| "This acknowledgment is the only legacy I can leave|

| her. I bid you all good-bye. Father, I am ready to |

| go. Amen." |

| |

| "CHARLES BECKER." |

+----------------------------------------------------+

|Ossining, N. Y., July 30.--At peace with his Maker, |

|a prayer on his lips, but with never a faltering of |

|his iron will, Charles Becker expiated the murder of|

|Herman Rosenthal at 5:55 this morning. Pinned on his|

|shirt above his heart, he carried with him the |

|picture of his devoted wife. In his hand he clutched|

|the crucifix. |

| |

|The death current cut off in his throat the whisper,|

|"Jesus have mercy." It was not the plea of a man |

|shaken and fearful of death, but rather the prayer |

|of one with the conviction that he was innocent. |

| |

|Just before he entered the death chamber he declared|

|to Father Curry, "I am not guilty by deeds, |

|conspiracy or any other way of the death of |

|Rosenthal. I am sacrificed for my friends." |

|Previously at 4 A.M. he issued "My Dying Statement."|

|It was a passionate reiteration of innocence, and is|

|left as his only legacy to his wife: "I declare to |

|the world that I am proud to have been the husband |

|of the purest, noblest woman that ever lived,--Helen|

|Becker." |

| |

|Absolute quiet reigned in the death house at 5.50 |

|A.M. Suddenly the little green door swung open. |

|Becker appeared. He had no air of bravado. Behind |

|him in the procession came Fathers Cashin and Curry.|

|Becker walked unassisted to the death chamber. As he|

|entered he glanced about, seemingly surprised. His |

|face had the expression of a person coming from |

|darkness into sudden light, but there was no hint of|

|hesitancy to meet death in the stride with which he |

|approached the chair which had already claimed the |

|lives of four others in payment for the Rosenthal |

|murder. |

| |

|The doomed man held a black crucifix in his left |

|hand. It was about ten inches long, and as he calmly|

|took his place in the chair, he raised it to his |

|lips. Following the chant of the priests, he |

|entoned, "Oh, Lord, assist me in my last agony. I |

|give you my heart and my soul." |

| |

|When all was ready, the executioner stepped back and|

|in full view of the witnesses calmly shut the |

|switch. As the great current of electricity shot |

|into the frame of the former master of gunmen, the |

|big body straightened out, tugging at the creaking |

|straps. For a few moments it stretched out. A slight|

|sizzling was heard and a slight curl of smoke went |

|up from the right side of Becker's head, rising from|

|under the cap. When the shock was at its height, his|

|grip tightened to the crucifix, but as the |

|electrocutioner snapped the switch off the cross |

|slipped from the relaxed fingers. A guard caught it.|

|The whole body dropped to a position of utter |

|collapse. |

| |

|Becker's shirt was then opened. As the black cloth |

|was turned back to make way for the stethoscope, the|

|picture of Mrs. Becker was revealed. It was pinned |

|inside. The doctors pushed it aside impatiently, |

|evidently not knowing what it was. They held |

|stethoscopes to the heart. Another shock was |

|demanded of the cool young executioner. He stepped |

|back and swung the switch open and shut again. The |

|crumpled body clutched the straps again. Once more |

|the doctors felt his heart. They seemed to argue |

|whether there was still evidence of life. Once again|

|the executioner was appealed to and once again he |

|snapped on and off the switch. The lips then parted |

|in a smile. The stethoscope was applied and it was |

|declared that Becker was dead....[12] |

[12] George R. Holmes, of the United Press

Associations, in _The Appleton Post_,

July 30, 1915.

=114. Informal Lead.=--The opposite of the summarizing lead is the

informal, or suspense, lead. This type begins with a question, a bit of

verse, a startling quotation, or one or two manifestly unimportant

details that tell little and yet whet the appetite of the reader, luring

him to the real point of interest later in the story. Such leads,

sometimes known as "human interest" leads, are admittedly more difficult

than those of the summarizing type, their difficulty being but one

effect of the cause which makes them necessary. An examination of a

large number of these leads shows that their purpose is to make

attractive news that for some cause is lacking in interest. Most

frequently the news is old; often it is merely commonplace; or possibly

it may have come from such a distance that it lacks local interest. In

such cases the aid of the informal lead is invoked for the purpose of

stimulating the reader's interest and inducing him to read the whole

story. And this explains the difficulty of the informal lead. Its

originality must compensate for the poverty of the news it presents. It

must be more attractive, more striking, more piquant than the ordinary

lead. And the only ways of obtaining this attractiveness, this piquancy,

are by novelty of approach and of statement.[13]

[13] For an additional discussion of the informal lead,

see Chapter XIX.

=115. Question Lead.=--A few illustrations of informal leads will make

clearer their exact nature. First may be cited the question lead, two

examples of which are given below, with enough of the story appended in

each case to show the method of enticing the reader into the story.

|How long can the war last? |

| |

|It's a fool question, because there is no certain |

|answer. But when there is an unanswerable question, |

|it is the custom to look up precedents. Here are a |

|few precedents.... |

|If you planned to wed in September and married in |

|July just to suit your own convenience, would you be|

|provoked if your dear neighbors immediately seated |

|themselves and wove a beautiful romance out of it? |

| |

|Grace Elliott Bomarie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. |

|Charles Elliott Bomarie, of 930 Lawrence Avenue, and|

|sister of Bessie Bomarie, former famous champion |

|golf player, was not angry to-day. Instead she |

|laughed the merriest kind of a laugh over the |

|telephone and said: |

| |

|"Call me up in half an hour and I will tell you all |

|about it." |

| |

|But she didn't. On the recall (that's the proper |

|word in this day of equal suffrage), she was not at |

|home. Mrs. Bomarie was, and said: |

| |

|"Please just say that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Elliott |

|Bomarie announce the marriage of their daughter, |

|Grace Elliott, to Mr. Albert Wingate." |

=116. Verse Lead.=--The lead beginning with a bit of verse is more

difficult than the question lead because of the uncertainty with which

most persons write metrical lines. The following may serve as a fairly

successful attempt:

=U. S. JACKIES WANT MAIL=

| Perhaps you've seen a jolly tar |

| A-pushing at the capstan bar |

| Or swabbing off the deck, |

| And figured that a life of ease |

| Attends the jackie on the seas |

| Who draws a U. S. check. |

| His lot, it seems, is not quite so; |

| Just hear this plaintive plea of woe |

| That comes from off the BUFFALO. |

| The sailors rise to raise a wail |

| Because they say they get no mail. |

| |

|Will some Milwaukee misses in their spare moments do|

|Uncle Sam a favor by writing letters to cheer up |

|some of his downhearted nephews in the navy? |

| |

|The boys are just pining away from lonesomeness, |

|owing to the fact that no one writes to them. At |

|least this is the sorrowful plea of G. H. Jones, a |

|sailor aboard the U. S. S. BUFFALO, who writes THE |

|SENTINEL from San Francisco as follows: |

| |

|Girls--Why not use some of your idle moments in |

|writing to us? I have been in the navy five years |

|and have never received any mail. G. H. Jones, |

|U. S. S. Buffalo, San Francisco, Cal.[14] |

[14] _Milwaukee Sentinel_, August 7, 1914.

=117. Extraordinary Statement in Lead.=--An extraordinary statement made

by a person in a speech, an interview, or a trial scene is often used in

the informal lead. If, however, the quoted statement is so long or of

such a nature that it summarizes the whole story, it places the lead, of

course, not in the informal class, but in the normal summarizing group.

The following illustrates well the extraordinary statement:

=FRIEND WIFE WENT TOO FAR=

|Mr. David Elliott, |

| Chicago. |

| |

|Sir: |

| You can go to the d----l, and the quicker the |

|better. |

| |

| Sincerely, |

| Your Wife. |

| |

|This is the letter in which David Elliot thinks his |

|wife "went too far." He produced it before Judge |

|David Matchett Saturday in a suit for divorce. |

=118. Suspense Lead.=--The most difficult to handle of all the informal

leads is the suspense lead, where the writer purposely begins with

unimportant but enticing details and lures the reader on from paragraph

to paragraph, always holding out a half-promise of something worth while

if one will continue a bit further. In this way the reader is tempted to

the middle or end of the story before he is told the real point of the

article. A difficult type of lead, this, but forceful when well handled.

|Pierre L. Corbin, 60 years old, of Eatontown, who |

|runs a dairy and drives his own milk wagon, matched |

|the speed of his horse against that of a New Jersey |

|Central train yesterday morning at 7 o'clock in a |

|race to the crossing at Eatontown. It was a tie. |

|Both got there at the same time.[15] |

[15] _New York Times_, August 27, 1915.

|There are two ways of patching a pair of |

|trousers,--neatly and bluey; and probably no tailor |

|in Manhattan is as certain of it to-day as Sigmund |

|Steinbern. So he stated to the police yesterday when|

|a customer sat him down on his lighted gas stove, |

|and so he insisted last night when friends called to|

|see him at the Washington Heights Hospital. |

|Furthermore, to say nothing of moreover, he is a |

|tailor of standing, or will be for the next couple |

|of weeks, and he knows his place. It is not, he |

|feels, upon a gas stove. |

| |

|To friends who called at the hospital to ask Mr. |

|Steinbern exactly what had happened to him, he said,|

|by way of changing the subject, that he has a sign |

|in his store upon which the following appears: |

| |

|EVERYTHING DONE IN A HURRY |

| |

|There, he contends, lies the seed of the trouble. |

|Regarding the seat of the trouble, more anon....[16]|

[16] _New York Herald_, December 21, 1915.

=119. Tone.=--No matter which of the two types of lead one uses, whether

the summarizing or the informal, one point further needs attention in

the writing,--the value of constructing such a lead as will suggest the

tone of the story. Half the leads that one reads in the daily papers do

not possess this touchstone of superiority, but all the leads to the big

stories have it. If the article is to be pathetic, tragic, humorous,

mildly satirical, the lead should suggest it; and the reporter will find

that in proportion as he is able to imbue his lead with the story-tone

he aims at in his writing, so will be the success of his story. This

topic is discussed further in the next chapter, but the reader may

consider at this point the two following leads, in which one plainly

promises a story of pathos and tragedy; the other, half-serious humor:

|_DIED_--Claus, Santa, in the American Hospital, |

|Christmas morning, aged 11._ |

| |

|Santa Claus, who wasn't such an old fellow after |

|all, overslept on the great morning. He had gone to |

|bed plain Vern Olson--not in a toy shop at the North|

|Pole, but in a little room behind his widowed |

|mother's delicatessen shop at 111 South Robey |

|Street. |

|The cause of the high cost of living has been |

|discovered. It's pie,--plain pie. Teeny Terss, who |

|runs a Greek restaurant on Hodel Street, made the |

|announcement to-day. |

=120. Conclusion.=--Of the two types of lead, the beginner is advised to

attempt at first only the summary lead, relying on the excellence of the

news to carry the story. This kind of lead is definite. A reporter

always can know when his lead answers the questions _who_, _what_,

_when_, _where_, _why_, and _how_. And if he has presented his facts

clearly in the lead, he may feel a certain degree of assurance that he

has been successful. In writing the informal lead, on the contrary, one

can never be positive of anything or of any effect. (And it is a

particular effect for which the reporter always must strive in the

informal lead.) Climax and suspense are such elusive spirits that if a

writer but give evidence he is seeking them, he immediately loses them.

The only safe plan for the novice, therefore, is to confine himself at

first exclusively to the summarizing lead. Then as his hand becomes

sure, he may take ventures with the elusive, informal, or suspense,

lead.

X. THE BODY OF THE STORY

=121. Inaccuracy and Dullness.=--If the reporter has written a strong

lead for his story, he need have small worry about what shall follow,

which usually is little more than a simple narration of events in

chronological order, with interspersions of explanation or description.

If a wise choice and arrangement has been made in the organization of

details, the part of the story following the lead will all but tell

itself. The reporter's care now must be to maintain the interest he has

developed in the lead and to regard the accuracy of succeeding

statements. There are just two crimes of which a newspaper man may be

guilty,--inaccuracy and dullness. And the greater of these is

inaccuracy.

=122. Accuracy.=--When a reporter is publishing a choice bit of scandal

or a remarkable instance of disregarded duty, it is an easy thing, for

the sake of making the story a good one, or for lack of complete

information, to draw on the imagination or to jump too readily at

conclusions, and so present as facts not only what may be untrue, but

what often later proves entirely false. The ease of the thing is argued

by the frequency with which it is done. Such a reporter does a threefold

harm: he compels his paper to humiliate itself later by publishing the

truth; he causes the public to lose confidence in his journal; and he

does irreparable injury to unknown, innocent persons. The day following

the _Eastland_ disaster in 1915, one Chicago paper ran the list of dead

up to eighteen hundred. A week later the same paper was forced to put

the number at less than nine hundred. A rival publication in the same

city kept its estimate consistently in the neighborhood of nine

hundred, with the resultant effect to-day of increased public confidence

in its statements. In another city of the Middle West judgment for

$10,000 has recently been granted a complainant because one of the city

staff made a rash statement about the plaintiff's "illicit love." The

reporter was discharged, of course, but that did not repair the damage

or reimburse the paper.

=123. Law of Libel.=--Every newspaper man, as a matter of business,

should know the law of libel. It varies somewhat in different states,

but the following brief summary may be taken as a working basis until

the reporter can gain an opportunity to study it in his own state. In

the first place, the law holds responsible not only the owners of the

journal, but the publisher, the editor, the writer of the offending

article, and even any persons selling the paper, provided it can be

proved that they were aware of the matter contained in the publication.

What constitutes libel is equally far-reaching. It is any published

matter that tends to disgrace or degrade a person generally, or to

subject him to public distrust, ridicule, or contempt. Any written

article that implies or may be generally understood to imply reproach,

dishonesty, scandal, or ridicule of or against a person, or which tends

to subject such a person to social disgrace, public distrust, hatred,

ridicule, or contempt, is libelous. Even the use in an article of

ironical or sarcastic terms indicating scorn or contempt is libelous,

because such expressions are calculated to injure the persons of whom

they are spoken. And if an article contains several expressions, each of

which is libelous, each may be a separate cause for legal action. Nor is

it a defense to prove that such rumors were current, that such

statements were previously published, or even that the writer did not

intend the remarks to do injury. If it can be proved that the article

has done injury, the writer and his paper are guilty of libel and must

pay damages in accordance with the enormity of the offense.

=124. Avoidance of Libel.=--When it becomes necessary to make a

statement about a person that may be unpleasing to him, the writer

should give the name of the one making the charge or assertion, or else

avoid making a specific charge by inserting _it is alleged_, _it is

rumored_, _it is charged,_ or some such limiting phrase. Note the

following story of the arrest of two shop-girls and how skilfully the

reporter avoids charging them with theft:

| =CHARGE TWO WITH SHOPLIFTING= |

| |

|Edna K. Whitter and Minnie Jensen, saleswomen in a |

|New Haven store, are under arrest charged with |

|shoplifting. |

| |

|The former is said to have confessed after goods |

|valued at more than $1,000 were found in her room. |

|She is said to have implicated Miss Jensen, who |

|denies the charge. |

| |

|Desire to dress elaborately is alleged to have |

|caused the young women to steal. Miss Jensen is the |

|daughter of a farmer. Investigations by detectives, |

|it is said, may result in more arrests.... |

Whenever possible, it is well to avoid _it is said_, _it is rumored_. A

story reads more convincingly when the reporter's authority is given.

And the statement of the authority places the responsibility where it

belongs.

=125. Exaggeration.=--One word further about the _Eastland_ disaster and

loss of public confidence resulting from exaggerated stories. Upon the

news article itself there is a very definite effect of such

exaggeration,--that mere extravagance of statement often defeats its own

end. It is of first importance in writing that one's statements command

the confidence of the reader. If a reporter writes that the wreck he has

just visited was the greatest in the history of railroading, or the

bride the most beautiful ever joined in the bonds of holy wedlock before

a hymeneal altar, or the flames the most lurid that ever lit a midnight

sky, the reader merely snickers and turns to a story he can believe.

The value of understatement cannot be overestimated. Probably the

majority of the people of the United States are suspicious anyway of the

truth of what they read in the newspapers. Hence, if one must sin on the

side of accurate valuation of news, let him err in favor of

understatement rather than exaggeration. Then when he is forced by

actual facts to resort to huge figures, his readers will believe him.

Such a policy, consistently adhered to, will always win favor for a

paper and a reporter. And that the best papers have learned this is

proved by the fact that they no longer tolerate inaccuracy of statement

or unverified information in their columns.

=126. "Editorializing."=--One other caution must be given in the cause

of accuracy, that of the necessity of presenting news from an unbiased

standpoint, of eliminating as far as possible the personal equation,--in

other words, of avoiding "editorializing." The news columns are the

place for the colorless presentation of news. No attempt is, or should

be, made there to influence public opinion. That function is reserved

for the editorial columns, and the reporter must be careful not to let

his personal views color the articles he writes. The following story was

written for a small Wisconsin paper by a rabid political reporter:

| =THOMAS MORRIS IN TOWN= |

| |

|Thomas Morris, lieutenant governor of this state and|

|candidate for the United States senate, was in |

|Appleton this morning and spent the day in Outagamie|

|county shaking hands with those who would. But few |

|would shake. He wanted to speak while here, but the |

|enlightened citizens of this city were right in not |

|letting him. Peter Tubits was his chief pilot |

|through the county. |

Needless to say, this story was not printed.

=127. Newspaper Policies.=--Even though it may seem--and in a measure

is--in contradiction to what has just been said about accuracy and

editorializing, it is nevertheless necessary before passing the subject

to comment on the necessity of a reporter's observing a paper's

editorial policies,--to say, in other words, that all news is not

unbiased. For instance, if a newspaper is undertaking a crusade against

midwives or pawnshops or certain political leaders, it gives those

institutions or those persons little or no credit for the good they

accomplish, nor does it feature impartially in its news articles their

good and bad acts. Yet such institutions or persons must have

accomplished much good to arrive at the rank or position they now hold,

and must continue to be of service to retain their standing. The

following story, which appeared in a paper crusading against pawnshops

and pistol carrying, is an illustration of what is meant by biased news:

| =JILTED, ENDS LIFE WITH A GUN= |

| |

|Israel Weilman was in love. Three months ago the |

|girl told him she would not marry him. Last night |

|Weilman left his quarters at 875 Banker Street and |

|went to the home of Rebecca Schussman, 904 South |

|Pueblo Avenue, where his room-mate and cousin, David|

|Isaacs, was calling. |

| |

|"Here are the keys to the room," he told his cousin,|

|"I will not be home to-night." |

| |

|Then Weilman departed. A few minutes later a shot |

|was heard in the alley back of the Schussman home. |

|They found Weilman dead with a bullet wound through |

|his heart. Beside him was a new "American bulldog" |

|revolver, retailing for $1.50. In his pocket was a |

|ticket of sale from the Angsgewitz pawnshop. The |

|profit on this style of weapon is about 25 cents. |

Illustrations of prejudiced political news may be found daily in any

newspaper.

=128. Observing a Paper's Policies.=--It is necessary, therefore, to

modify the preceding statements about unbiased news. Those assertions

express the millennial dream, colorless news, that American journalism

is always approaching as an ideal, but has not yet reached. From the

same Associated Press dispatch a Georgia and a Pennsylvania daily can

produce stories respectively of success and dissension in the Democratic

party. From the same cable bulletin a Milwaukee and a New York paper can

obtain German victory and English repulse of repeated Teutonic attacks.

Not only _can_, but _do_. It is only fair to the would-be reporter,

therefore, to tell him that at times in his journalistic career he may

be permitted to see snow only through a motorist's yellow goggles. The

modern newspaper is a business organization run for the profit or power

of the owners, with the additional motive in the background of possible

social uplift,--social uplift as the owners see it. They determine a

paper's policies, and a reporter must learn and observe those policies

if he expects to succeed.

=129. Following Commands.=--Observance of this injunction is

particularly valuable in stories relating to political and civic

measures. If one is on a paper with Republican affiliations, one may be

forced to hear and report a G. O. P. governor's speech with an

elephant's ears and trumpet,--or with a moose's ears and voice if the

journal is Progressive. It makes no difference what the reporter's

personal feeling or party preferences may be. On such papers he must

follow precisely the commands of the managing editor or the city editor

and must feature sympathetically or severely what they request. Usually

an intelligent sympathy with the general policy of the paper is

sufficient for a reporter, no matter how conscientious. It is only

rarely that he is trammeled with being forced to write contrary to his

convictions. But at those times when such commands are given, he must

see and write as requested or seek another position.

=130. Consistency of Policy.=--On the other hand, suppose in policies

affecting the official standing of a newspaper every reporter saw and

presented events from his own distorted angle. How consistent would a

modern newspaper be? And how long could it hold the respect or patronage

of its readers?

=131. Clearness.=--Next in importance to accuracy comes interest. A

story must be interesting to be read. Every paragraph must be clear. Its

relation to every other paragraph must be evident, and the story as a

whole must be presented so that it may be understood and enjoyed by the

reader with as small expenditure of mental effort as possible. Ideas

that are connected in thought, either by virtue of their sequence in

time or for other reasons, must be kept together, and ideas that are

separated in thought must be kept apart. If the story is one covering

considerable length of time, care must be taken to keep the different

incidents separated in point of time so that the reader may understand

readily the relation of the different events to each other. The tenses

of the verbs, too, must be kept consistent, logical. One cannot shift at

will from past time to the present, and vice versa. If the story is a

follow-up of an event that occurred before to-day and has been written

up before, the body of the story should contain a sufficient summary of

the preceding events to make the details readily clear to all

readers,--even though the lead may already have included a connecting

link. The summary of events in the lead must necessarily have been

brief; the review in the body of the story may be presented at greater

length.

=132. Coherence.=--A valuable aid in gaining clearness is a proper

regard for coherence, for obtaining which there are four ways within a

story: (1) by arrangement of the facts and statements in a natural

sequence of ideas; (2) by use of pronouns; (3) by repetition; and (4) by

use of relation words, phrases, and clauses. Discussion has already been

given, in Chapter VIII, on the organization of material, of the

necessity of logical arrangement of the story. If one has made a proper

grouping there, one will have taken the first step, and the surest,

toward adequate coherence. Of the three remaining methods, probably the

greatest newspaper men are strongest in their use of pronouns, such as

_these_, _those_, _that_, _them_, etc. They also avail themselves freely

of a skillful repetition of words,--the third method, which stands

almost, but not quite equal to the use of pronouns in effectiveness and

frequency. The following fire story exhibits a happy repetition of words

for holding the ideas in easy sequence. Note in it the skillful

repetition of _firemen_, _fire_, _whiskey_, _building_, _casks_,

_canal_.

| =$750,000 WORTH OF WHISKEY BURNS= |

| |

|Firemen had to fight a canal full of blazing whiskey|

|here to-day when a fire broke out in the building of|

|the Distillery Company, Ltd. Twelve thousand casks |

|of liquor were stored in the building. The |

|conflagration spread rapidly and the explosion of |

|the casks released the whiskey, which made a burning|

|stream of the canal. |

| |

|Firemen pumped water from the bottom of the canal |

|and played it on the blazing surface. The loss is |

|estimated at $750,000. |

=133. Relation Words.=--In other kinds of writing there is a tendency to

use relation words, phrases, and clauses freely between sentences and

paragraphs. But in news writing the paucity of such expressions for

subconnection--_moreover_, _finally_, _on the other hand_, _in the next

place_, _now that we have mentioned the cause of the divorce_--is

noteworthy. Editors and the news-reading public demand that the ideas

follow each other so closely and that the style be so compressed in

thought that there shall be small need of connectives between sentences.

It is this demand, plus a desire for emphasis, that is responsible for the

so-called bing-bing-bing style of writing, of which the following is a

fair illustration:

|After killing Mrs. Benton, Wallace, and the Weston |

|boy, Carlton set fire to the Lewis "love bungalow." |

|The wounded were unable to care for themselves. They|

|narrowly escaped death in the burning building. |

|Arrival of rescuing parties attracted by the fire |

|alone saved their lives. |

| |

|A hatchet was the weapon used by Carlton. |

| |

|The slayer escaped after the wholesale murder. He is|

|thought to be headed for Chicago. A posse under |

|command of Sheriff Bauer of Spring Green is hunting |

|the man. |

| |

|The story of the terrible tragedy enacted in the |

|Lewis "love bungalow," where for some years the |

|celebrated sculptor and the former Mrs. Cross had |

|been living in open defiance of the |

|conventionalities, was a gruesome one as it came to |

|light to-day. |

| |

|Carlton is twenty-eight years old. He is married. |

|His wife lived with him at the Lewis home. He had |

|been employed by Lewis for six months. He was |

|formerly employed by John Z. Hobart, proprietor of |

|Hobart's restaurant. He is five feet eight inches |

|tall, of medium build and light in color. |

| |

|What caused the trouble or the fury of Carlton is |

|not known. |

| |

|Who first fell is not known. |

| |

|What is known of the tragedy is this: |

| |

|Shortly after noon to-day villagers in the little |

|village of Spring Valley, where the Lewis bungalow |

|is and always has been something of a mystery as |

|well as a wonder to the residents, saw smoke coming |

|from the "love bungalow" on the hills. Villagers ran|

|to the place. The fire department responded to the |

|alarm. |

| |

|The bungalow was rapidly being consumed. Some one |

|entered the house. It was a shambles. Mrs. Benton |

|was found dead. Wallace was dead. Both had been |

|literally chopped to pieces by the infuriated negro.|

| |

|The bungalow was barricaded before entrance was |

|forced. After the dead had been discovered the |

|wounded were found. They were dragged out. The |

|conscious told disjointed stories of the tragedy and|

|of the awful fury that seemed to possess Carlton, |

|the cook. |

| |

|The latter was not to be found. He was at first |

|thought to have taken to the hills. Later it was |

|thought he might be hiding in the underground root |

|cellar but no search lights were available. |

| |

|Men with guns surrounded the house. |

| |

|The negro will be lynched if he is found, it was |

|thought this afternoon.[17] |

[17] _Chicago American._

=134. Bing-Bing-Bing Style.=--On the whole, this bing-bing-bing style of

writing cannot be commended. Its value in rapid narrative, where

excitement prevails and the reader's emotions are greatly aroused, is

evident. But the style, indulged in too freely, produces a fitful,

choppy effect that is not good. The sentences should be longer and more

varied in construction. Examination of the preceding illustration shows

that it has only three words or phrases used for subconnection, and only

four complex sentences.

=135. Emphasis.=--Next to clearness in holding the interest of the

reader comes emphasis, which may be had by avoidance of vague literary

phrasing, by a due regard for tone in the story, and by condensation of

expression. The first two overlap, since the whole tone of a story may

easily be destroyed by an affectation of literary phraseology. These

two, therefore, may be considered together.

=136. Vague Literary Phrasing.=--Many cub reporters feel, when they

begin to write, that they must express themselves in a literary style,

and to gain that style they affect sonorous, grandiloquent phrases that

sound well but mean little. In nine cases out of ten these phrases are

the inventions of others and meant much as used in their original

connection. But as adopted now by a novice, they are vague, only hazily

expressive, lacking in that sharp precision necessary for forceful

presentation of news.

=137. Tone.=--It is this vagueness of expression that as often as not

destroys the tone of the story. One may be aiming at portraying the

dignity and simplicity of a wedding or the unmarred happiness of the

occasion, but if one attempts to equal the joy of the event with the

bigness of his words, one will produce upon the reader an effect of

revulsion rather than interest. An ignorant, but well-meaning, reporter

on an Eastern weekly concluded a wedding story with the following

sentences:

|After the union of Miss Petty and Mr. Meydam in the |

|holy bonds of wedlock, the beautiful bride and |

|handsome groom and all the knights and ladies |

|present repaired to the dining-room, where a |

|bounteous supper interspersed with mirth and song |

|awaited them. After which they tripped the light |

|fantastic toe until the wee small hours of the |

|morning, when all repaired to their beds of rest and|

|wrapt themselves in the arms of Morpheus. |

This selection happens to be a conglomeration mainly of worn-out

expressions current in literature for the past two or three centuries.

But any use of phrases too large or too emotional for the thought to be

conveyed will result in an equally dismal failure. All the words,

phrases, and ideas in the following are the writer's own, but the effect

is practically the same as in the preceding story:

|The scene and the occasion were both inspiring. The |

|music was furnished by the birds, which were at |

|their best on this bridal day. A meadowlark called |

|to his mate across the lake, asking if he might come|

|and join her. A brown thrush in a tree on the hill |

|near by sent forth across the water a carol full of |

|love and melody such as a Beethoven or a Chopin |

|would strive in vain to imitate. The hills were |

|dressed in their prettiest robes of green. The water|

|was quiet. Nature was at her best. And the bride and|

|groom, both in tastiness of dress and in spirits, |

|were in harmony with nature. |

The writer, too, in striving after a definite tone must be equally

apprehensive of unintended suggestions caused by an unfortunate

closeness of unrelated ideas. This fault was illustrated in a story by

an Iowa reporter who wrote that "Lon Stegle took Mrs. Humphrey and a

load of hogs to Santo Monday," and of an unwitting Pennsylvania humorist

who said, "Audry Richardson, while visiting his sweetheart in Freedonia

last Sunday sprained his arm severely and won't be able to use it for

ten days or two weeks." If the tone of the story is meant to be

dignified, unintended humor may make the presentation absurd.

=138. Varied Sentence Length.=--The story tone is greatly affected also

by the length of the sentences. If one's sentences are unnecessarily

long, the effect will be heavy and tiresome. If they are markedly short,

the result will be a monotonous, choppy, jolting effect, like a flat

wheel on a street-car. The bing-bing-bing style just discussed is an

illustration of the latter. The writer should aim at a happy medium,

with simple constructions and a tendency toward shorter sentences than

in other kinds of writing. Twenty words make a good average sentence

length. It is necessary to remember that one's stories are read not only

by the literati, but by the uneducated as well. One must make one's

style, therefore, so fluent, so easy, that a man with a speaking

vocabulary of five hundred words can read and enjoy all one writes.

=139. Condensation.=--The value of condensation of expression need not

be discussed at length here as it is taken up fully in the next chapter.

Suffice it to say now, however, that a diffuse style is never forceful.

The reporter must condense his ideas into the smallest space possible.

Often that space is designated by the city editor when the reporter, on

his return to the office, asks for instructions, and nearly always it is

only about half enough. But he must follow directions to the letter. Woe

to the novice who presents a thousand words, or even six hundred, when

the city editor calls for five hundred. Sometimes, however, he will

find that the city editor has allotted him more space than he can

easily fill. In such a case, let him give length by introducing

additional details. Mere words will not suffice. They do not make a

story.

=140. Final Test of a Story.=--The two cares for the reporter, then, in

writing the body of the story are accuracy and interest. Accuracy is

worth most, and is attained by strict adherence to truth, with plenty of

proof for the truth in case it is questioned after publication. Interest

may be had by making all statements clear, coherent, forceful. But there

is no precise form or method by which accuracy and interest may be

obtained. The reporter is given unlimited range in selecting,

organizing, and writing his news. He may follow or disregard at will the

standard types of other newspaper men's stories, which should be taken

as models only, never as laws. For the final test of the goodness of a

story is its effect upon the reader. If it attains the desired result

without conforming to the patterns given by other writers, it will

become a new pattern for itself and for similar stories. Get accuracy

and interest, then, no matter what the method.

XI. THE PARAGRAPH

=141. Paragraph a Mark of Punctuation.=--Discussion of the paragraph

really belongs under the head of punctuation, since its purpose is to

set off the larger divisions of the story in the same way that the

period and the comma mark sentences and phrases. The indention of the

first line catches the eye of the reader and notifies him silently to

stop for a summary of his impressions before starting a somewhat

different phase of the story. Its purpose, like that of the other marks

of punctuation, is clearness and emphasis. Yet since its very lax laws

are much the same as those of the story, it must be noticed

independently.

=142. Clearness.=--The first requirement of the paragraph is that it

shall be clear. Its relation to the paragraphs preceding and following

must be evident at a glance. If transitional phrases and sentences or

relation words are necessary for making the relation clear, use them;

but as a rule, as stated concerning the story as a whole, reliance for

clearness in and between paragraphs is placed mainly on the natural and

close sequence of ideas.

=143. Emphasis.=--Next to clearness, the important thing to strive for

in the news paragraph is emphasis. Proper emphasis is not a virtue; it

is a necessity, because the eye of the rapid reader, as he glances down

the columns of the paper, catches only the first words and phrases at

each paragraph indention. And according as those words and phrases

interest him, so will he take sufficient interest in the paragraph as a

whole to read it. For this reason the beginning of each paragraph

especially should be emphasized by placing there the most important

details. The reporter should guard against putting even dependent

clauses and phrases used for subconnection at the beginning of a

paragraph, but should envelop them, rather, within the sentence. He

should not begin successive paragraphs with the same words or phrases or

with the same construction. It is remarkable how unfavorably such small

details influence readers. All this does not mean that the paragraph

should end lamely. It cannot conclude with the emphasis of the

beginning, it is true, but it may be well rounded at the end and its

lack of emphasis in details may be compensated with vigor and deftness

of expression.

=144. Paragraph Length.=--The length of one's paragraphs should also be

a matter of due consideration. They must be not only brief, but brief

looking. The modern reader will not brook long ones. Single-sentence

paragraphs are frequent, particularly in the lead. Two- or

three-sentence paragraphs are common. Half-column paragraphs are

unendurable. The average newspaper column permits lines of about seven

words each, so that twenty lines, or 140 words, should be the limit of a

paragraph. Eight or ten lines is a good average length. Because of this

necessary brevity, the newspaper paragraph allows no topics and

subtopics within its limited space, but throws every subtopic into an

individual paragraph. This the reporter may follow as a safe rule in

paragraphing: whenever in doubt about the advisability of a new

paragraph, make one.

XII. THE SENTENCE[18]

[18] Teachers having classes sufficiently advanced may find

it advisable to pass hastily over this chapter, or may

omit it entirely.

=145. Requisites.=--The same laws of accuracy and interest hold for the

sentence as for the story as a whole. But in the sentence they are more

rigid,--due in the main to the fact that the sentence is briefer and

more readily analyzable. And while one sympathizes with the overworked

reporter who served notice upon critical college professors that "when

the hands of the clock are near on to press time, and I have a million

things to write in a few minutes, I don't give a whoop if I do end a few

sentences with prepositions," and concluded by saying, "If I had as much

time as the average college professor has, I probably could write good

grammar, too";--while one sympathizes with the time-driven newspaper man

who never has sufficient leisure to polish a story as he would like, the

fact still remains that the reader cannot tell from looking at a story,

nor should he be allowed to tell, how much rushed the reporter was. The

only thing the reader is interested in is the story, whether it is good

or not; and if he does not regard it as worth while, if the sentences

are faulty, ungrammatical, weak, he will read another story or another

paper.

=146. Grammar.=--The first point to regard in seeking accuracy in the

sentence is good grammar. This may seem a trivial injunction to offer a

coming star reporter on a great metropolitan daily; but the city

editor's assistants have to correct more grammatical errors in cub copy

than any other kind of mistake except spelling and punctuation. The main

violations of grammar may be classified conveniently under four heads:

faulty reference, incorrect verb forms, failures in cooerdinating and

subordinating different parts of a sentence, and poor ellipsis.

=147. Pronouns Referring to Ideas.=--Probably the most prolific cause of

bad grammar and of obscurity of meaning in news writing may be found in

the use of unclear pronouns. One or more instances may be found in

almost every paper a reader examines. A reporter should assure himself

that every pronoun he uses refers to a particular word in the sentence

and that it agrees with that word in gender and number. The use of a

pronoun to refer to a general idea not expressed in a particular word is

one of the commonest causes of ambiguity and obscurity in newspaper

work. In the following sentence note what a ludicrous turn is given the

sentence by the use of _which_ referring to an idea:

|A card from C. A. Laird, son of Harry Laird, informs|

|the _Democrat_ that his father is slightly improved |

|and that they now have hopes of his recovery, |

|although he suffers much pain from his fractured |

|jaw, which will be good news to his many Lock Haven |

|friends. |

=148. Agreement of Pronouns in Number.=--A second prime cause of

incorrect reference is found in a writer's failure to make a reference

word agree in number with the noun to which it refers. Such faulty

reference occurs most frequently after collective nouns, such as _mob_,

_crowd_, _council_, _jury_, _assembly_; after distributive pronouns,

such as _everyone_, _anybody_, _nobody_; and after two or more singular

and plural nouns, where the reporter forgets momentarily to which he is

referring. In the following sentences note that each of the italicized

pronouns violates one or more of these principles, thereby polluting the

clearness of the meaning:

|The mob was already surrounding the attorney's home,|

|but _they_ moved so slowly that we got in ahead. |

|We have heard more than one express _themselves_ |

|that next year Merrillan should have the biggest |

|celebration of the century. |

|Everyone who had any interest in the boat was |

|inquiring about _their_ friends and relatives. |

|A peculiar thing about each one was that _they_ |

|chose a husband with a given name that rhymed much |

|the same with _their_ own. Mrs. Baker was Josephine |

|Ramp and secured Joe as her husband; Arnie Hallauer |

|and Annie Ramp, Gust Lumblad and Gusta Ramp, and |

|Eugene Carver and Ella Ramp. The _latter_ is a |

|widow. The given name of each one commences with the|

|same letter in each instance. |

=149. Ambiguous Antecedents.=--Then there is a use of the pronoun with

an unclear antecedent buried somewhere in the sentence, so that the

pronoun seems to refer to an intervening word. Such a misuse really is a

matter of clearness rather than of grammar, and should come under the

next section of this chapter, but it will be discussed here for the sake

of including all misuses of the pronoun at once. The ambiguous use of

pronouns is the most common error of faulty reference. The following are

typical illustrations:

|The Rev. Mr. Tomlinson states that he wants a |

|steady, religious young man to look after his garden|

|and care for his cow who has a good voice and is |

|accustomed to singing in the choir. |

|Atkinson telephoned that he was at Zeibski's corners|

|in his machine and had his wife with him. She had |

|died on him and he wanted the garage company to come|

|out and pull her in. |

=150. Split Infinitive.=--Next to faulty reference in frequency comes

the use of incorrect verb forms. Of these probably the most common error

among cub reporters is the employment of the split infinitive,--_to

quickly run_ instead of _to run quickly_. The split infinitive is not

necessarily an error. There are times when one's precise meaning can be

expressed only by the use of an adverb between _to_ and its infinitive.

But as a rule one should avoid the construction. Certainly there was no

excuse for the following in a Chicago paper:

|President Yuan Shi Kai declared he was willing to |

|permit Professor Frank Johnson Goodnow of Brooklyn, |

|legal adviser to the Chinese government, to in |

|August accept the presidency of Johns Hopkins |

|University. |

=151. Infinitive and Participle with Verbs.=--The use of the infinitive

and the participle with the past tense of verbs is also a cause of

frequent error. Our English rule regarding these parts of the verb is

mainly a matter of usage, accuracy in which may be attained only by

habits of correct speech. But if the reporter will bear in mind that the

infinitive and the participle have no finite tense of their own, that

they always express time relative to the time of the main verb, he will

have taken a real precaution toward preventing confusion. For example,

the newspaper man who wrote,

|Detective McGuire had intended to have arrested him |

|when he began blowing the safe, |

did not say what he meant, because the past infinitive here makes the

writer say that Detective McGuire had intended to have the yeggman

already under arrest when he began blowing the safe. What the writer

meant to say was:

|Detective McGuire had intended to arrest him when he|

|began blowing the safe. |

Likewise the reporter was inaccurate who wrote:

|Going into the basement, they found the cocaine |

|stored beneath a heap of rags. |

He was not accurate, unless he meant that they found the cocaine while

on the way to the basement. The cause of his inaccuracy lies in the fact

that the time expressed by the participle _going_ varies from that of

the main verb. What he should have said was,

Having gone into the basement, ...

or better,

|After going into the basement, they found the |

|cocaine stored beneath a heap of rags. |

=152. Dangling Participles.=--Another detail for careful attention in

the use of the participle is the necessity of having a definite noun or

pronoun in the sentence for the participle to modify. It is wrong to

write,

|Having arrived at the county jail, the door was |

|forced open, |

because the sentence seems to say that the door did the arriving. The

sentence should be written,

|Having arrived at the county jail, the mob forced |

|open the door. |

=153. Agreement of Verbs.=--One should watch one's verbs carefully, too,

to see that they agree in number with their subjects. One is sometimes

tempted to make the verb agree with the predicate, as in the following:

|The weakest section of the course are the ninth, |

|tenth, and eleventh holes. |

But English usage requires agreement of the verb with the subject. If

the subject is a collective noun, one may regard it as either singular

or plural. But when the writer has made his choice, he must maintain a

consistent point of view. One may say,

|The mob were now gathering in the northeast corner |

|of the yard and yelling themselves hoarse, |

or

|The mob was now gathering in the northeast corner of|

|the yard and yelling itself hoarse. |

But the two points of view may not be mixed in the same sentence or the

same paragraph. That the following sentence is wrong should be evident

at a glance:

|The Kellog-Haines Singing Party has been on the |

|lyceum and chautauqua platform for eight years and |

|have toured together the entire United States. |

Confusion is often caused also by qualifying phrases intervening between

subjects and their verbs. Thus:

|The number of the strikers and of the members of the |

|employment associations do not agree with the report |

|made by the commission. |

And sometimes one finds a plural verb wrongly used after the correlative

terms _either ... or_ and _neither ... nor_, as in the following:

|Neither the mother of the children nor the aunt were|

|held responsible for the accident. |

Finally, one often finds reporters consistently using a singular verb

after the expletive _there_. In fifty per cent of the cases the writers

are wrong. Thus:

|The briefest glance at the yard and premises would |

|have shown that there was more than one in the |

|conspiracy. |

Here _was_ should be _were_.

=154. Cooerdination and Subordination.=--The third error in grammatical

construction, failure to cooerdinate or subordinate sentences and parts

of sentences properly, cannot be treated with so much sureness as the

two preceding faults; yet certain definite instruction may be given.

_And_, _but_, _for_, _or_, and _nor_ are called cooerdinating

conjunctions; that is, they are used to connect words, phrases, and

clauses of equal rank. If one uses _and_ to connect a noun with a verb,

or a past participle with a present participle, or a verb in the

indicative mood with one in the subjunctive, he perverts the conjunction

and produces a consequent effect of awkwardness or lack of clearness in

the sentence. Look at the following:

|The sister residing in Albany, and who is said to |

|have struck one of the visiting sisters, followed |

|them into the sick room. |

In this sentence _and_ is used to connect the participle _residing_ with

the pronoun _who_, and the consequent awkwardness results. This is the

much condemned _and who_ construction. Likewise, in the next sentence:

|Five hundred persons saw two boys washed from the |

|end of Winter's pier and drowning in twenty feet of |

|water at noon to-day. |

_And_ is here used to connect the past participle _washed_ with the

present participle _drowning_, and the sentence is thereby rendered

clumsy.

=155. Clauses Unequal in Thought.=--An equally great inaccuracy is the

attempt to connect with a cooerdinate conjunction clauses equivalent in

grammatical construction, but unequal in thought value. Other things

being equal, the ideas of greatest value should be put into independent

clauses, the ideas of least value into dependent clauses or phrases.

_Other things being equal_, be it understood, for by a too strict

observance of this rule one may easily make the sentence ludicrous. Take

the following as an illustration:

|We were to raid the hall precisely at midnight, and |

|we set our watches to the second. |

Here the thought-value of the two clauses is not equal, no matter how

the writer may attempt to make it seem so by expressing the ideas in

clauses grammatically equal. The second clause contains the main idea;

so the first should be subservient. Thus:

|As we were to raid the hall precisely at midnight, |

|we set our watches to the second. |

In the corrected form the sentence is given greater force by having the

reader's attention directed specifically to the thought of prime

importance, the setting of the watches. And so with the following

sentences. Note that the second in each case is made more forceful by

centering the attention on what is most important in thought.

|The saloons were not allowed after January 1 to keep|

|open on Sunday, and half of them gave up their |

|licenses. |

|As the saloons were not allowed after January 1 to |

|keep open on Sunday, half of them gave up their |

|licenses. |

* * * * *

|He fell from the sixth story and was able to walk |

|away without assistance. |

|Though he fell from the sixth story, he was able to |

|walk away without assistance. |

=156. Ellipsis.=--Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase necessary

to the meaning of a sentence. An ellipsis is poor when the words omitted

cannot readily be understood from the context. Pope's line,

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

is an illustration of good ellipsis because the word _is_ can readily be

substituted from the context. The following ellipses, however, are not

good:

|Louis Flanagan is helping his brother Silas cut wood|

|and numerous other things. |

|He shadowed Laux longer than O'Rourke. |

|Standing on each side of the door, a fat and tall |

|man looked suspiciously at them. |

Ellipsis is often desirable for the sake of brevity, but one must be

sure never to omit a word or phrase unless precisely that word or phrase

may be readily supplied from the context.

=157. Clearness in the Sentence.=--After correct grammar, the next

points to seek in writing the sentence are clearness and force, which

together give a sentence its interest. Of the two, clearness is the more

important. A reporter should never write a sentence that must be read

twice to be understood. As has been said once or twice already, but may

be repeated for emphasis, news stories to-day are read rapidly, and

rapid reading is possible only when sentences yield their ideas with

small effort on the part of the reader. Consider the following:

|The Assembly on Thursday refused to pass the Grell |

|Bill, permitting the sale of intoxicating liquors, |

|after the close of the polls on election days, over |

|the governor's veto. |

This sentence is clear if one will stop to read it twice; but there is

the trouble: one must read it twice--a task few will perform.

=158. Grammatically Connected Phrases.=--The lack of entire clearness in

the sentence just quoted is due to a difficulty over which the best

writers often stumble,--failure to keep grammatically connected words,

phrases, and clauses as close together as possible. In the sentence

quoted, for instance, if the phrase _over the governor's veto_ were

placed immediately after _pass_, the whole sentence would be clear at

once to the reader. The same fault exists in the following:

|The witness said she had a furnished bedroom for a |

|gentleman 22 feet long by 11 feet wide. |

=159. Correlative Conjunctions.=--The correlative conjunctions, _either

... or_, _neither ... nor_, _whether ... or_, and _not only ... but

also_, are also particularly liable to trip a writer. Each should come

immediately before the word or phrase it modifies. For example:

|Either the prisoner will be hanged or sentenced to |

|life imprisonment. |

This sentence obviously is wrong. _Either_ here should come immediately

before _hanged_, making the sentence read:

|The prisoner will be either hanged or sentenced to |

|life imprisonment. |

=160. "Only" and "Alone."=--_Only_ and _alone_ belong in the same class

of modifiers that demand close watching. _Only_ comes immediately before

the word or phrase it modifies, _alone_ immediately after. One should

avoid using _only_ when _alone_ may be used instead, and should not

place either of the two words between emphatic words or phrases. The

following illustrates an inaccurate placing of _only_:

|The evidence seemed to show that a man could only |

|obtain advancement in the Hall by submitting wholly |

|to the dictates of the leaders. |

_Only_ here should come immediately before the phrase by _submitting_.

=161. Parenthetic Expressions.=--The use of long parenthetic expressions

within a sentence is also a frequent cause of lack of clearness. In

general, sentences within parentheses should be avoided in news

articles. Two short terse sentences are clearer--hence far more

effective--than one long one containing a doubtfully clear parenthetic

phrase or clause. The prime fault with the following sentence, for

instance, is the inclusion of the two parenthetic clauses, necessitating

a close reading to get the meaning:

|Even if the allies shall be able to force the |

|Dardanelles, and present indications are that they |

|will, the wheat crop in Russia will not be up to the|

|average from that country on account of the |

|withdrawal of so many millions of men for purely |

|military purposes, either in the fields of battle or|

|in the factories getting munitions of war ready. |

Put into two sentences, the illustration becomes:

|Even if the allies shall be able to fulfil their |

|present expectations of forcing the Dardanelles, the|

|Russian wheat will not be up to the average. Too |

|many millions of men have been withdrawn from the |

|field to the trenches and the munition factories to |

|enable the country to produce a full crop. |

=162. Shifted Subject.=--A shifted subject within a sentence is also

usually a hindrance to clearness. Indeed, one can aid clearness in

successive sentences by retaining as far as possible the same subject.

Certainly one should not shift subjects within the sentence without good

reason. The two following sentences exhibit the weakness of the shifted

subject:

|The British ambassador to Norway has offered $25,000|

|reward for his capture, and he bears a special |

|passport from the Kaiser. |

|Witter was standing near the curb, but the death-car|

|passed without his seeing it. |

Improved, these sentences become:

|The British ambassador to Norway has offered $25,000|

|reward for the capture of Benson, who bears a |

|special passport from the Kaiser. |

|Witter was standing near the curb, but failed to see|

|the death-car pass. |

=163. Coherence.=--Clearness frequently is destroyed or greatly lessened

through lack of proper coherence. Writers often forget that every

sentence has a double purpose: to convey a meaning itself and to make

clearer the meaning of preceding and succeeding sentences. The reporter

should watch closely to see not only that the phrases of his sentences

follow each other in natural sequence, but also that the relation of

those phrases to adjacent ones in the same or other sentences is clearly

shown. Here is a notice made ludicrous because the reporter used a

connective indicating a wrong relation between two clauses:

|Mrs. Alpheus White is on the sick list this week. |

|Dr. Anderson has been with her, but we hope she may |

|soon recover. |

The connective that the writer should have used, of course, was _and_,

or else none at all. Substitute the _and_ or merely omit the _but_ and

the coherence is perfect.

=164. Coherence and Unity.=--Many sentences that appear to lack unity

are really wanting in proper coherence. For instance,

|Dr. Alvers was called as soon as the accident was |

|discovered, and it is feared now she will not |

|recover, |

is a sentence lacking in unity, but one that may be unified properly if

the coherence is made good. Thus:

|Dr. Alvers was called as soon as the accident was |

|discovered, and though he gave all the aid that |

|medical science could render, it is feared now she |

|will not recover. |

=165. Sentence Emphasis.=--Sentence emphasis is gained in five ways: by

form, position, proportion, repetition, and delicacy of expression.

Sentence form--putting into an independent clause what is most

important--has already been discussed under clearness. The use of

position for emphasis is the placing at the beginning or end of the

sentence the ideas that are most important and the enclosure within of

the less important thoughts. The following sentence illustrates a

writer's failure to avail himself of position for emphasis:

|This afternoon reports that she was still missing |

|from home were being circulated. |

But _this afternoon_ and _circulated_ are not the important concepts.

_Reports_ and _still missing from home_ are the emphatic ideas and

should be put first and last respectively. Thus:

|Reports were being circulated this afternoon that |

|she was still missing from home. |

So with the following:

|This morning fifty convicts of the Kansas State |

|penitentiary were placed in solitary confinement, |

|accused of being leaders in a mutiny yesterday in |

|the coal mines operated by the penitentiary. |

_This morning_ and _mines operated by the penitentiary_ are not,

however, the important ideas. A better arrangement of the sentence

reads:

|Accused of being leaders in a mutiny yesterday in |

|the penitentiary coal mines, fifty convicts of the |

|Kansas State penitentiary were placed this morning |

|in solitary confinement. |

Similarly, a phrase or clause transferred from its normal position in

the sentence will attract attention to itself. Note the increased

emphasis upon _the matter was purely political_ in the following

sentence by transference of it from its normal position at the end:

|Simpson, who was in the uniform of a lieutenant when|

|arrested at New Orleans, said the matter was purely |

|political. |

|That the matter was purely political was the |

|statement made by Simpson, who was in the uniform of|

|a lieutenant when arrested at New Orleans. |

=166. Proportion for Emphasis.=--The emphasis of a sentence in a news

story varies in inverse proportion to its length. Emphasis is gained by

brevity. A prolix style tires the reader; and newspaper space is

valuable. The reporter, therefore, must make his sentences short and

pointed. He must condense, must reduce predication to a minimum. As few

verbs as possible and all verbs active is a slogan in the news room. It

is an error from a newspaper standpoint to include in a sentence any

word that may be omitted without altering or obscuring the sense. One

of the first requisites for success in journalism is ability to present

facts with a minimum of words. Note the added emphasis given the

following sentences by mere reduction in the number of words:

|It is well to understand that a high temperature of |

|heat, boiling or more, destroys the germs of |

|disease. |

|It is well understood that a high temperature, |

|boiling or more, destroys germs. |

* * * * *

|A pioneer living west of Solon blew his head off |

|to-day with a shotgun. Death followed the deed |

|instantly. |

|A pioneer living west of Solon killed himself |

|instantly to-day by blowing his head off with a |

|shotgun. |

* * * * *

|Miss Helen Goodrich, who is an aviatrix of note, was|

|arrested in Bremen this morning charged with |

|kidnapping. |

|Miss Helen Goodrich, an aviatrix of note, was |

|arrested in Bremen this morning charged with |

|kidnapping. |

Note that in the last illustration, in particular, the condensation

consists in reducing predication, in merely removing a verb and a

pronoun from the sentence.

=167. Repetition.=--The worth of repetition as a means of obtaining

coherence has been discussed in a preceding chapter. Its value as an

effective means of gaining emphasis is also noteworthy. Consider the

effect of the repetition of the word _blithe_ in the following two

sentences:

|A blithe young man met a blithe young woman at State|

|and Adams Streets Friday. Michael Hurley, a blithe |

|plain-clothes policeman, met them both. |

Great care must be exercised, however, in repeating a word for emphasis.

The usage may easily be a handicap rather than a help. More often than

not, repetition of the same word or phrase is the result of laziness or

paucity of vocabulary, and destroys the force of the sentence. An

instance of too frequent use of the same word--the adjective

_beautiful_--appears in the following:

|The bride was elaborately gowned in a beautiful |

|sky-blue messaline dress, with silk over lace, and |

|carried a beautiful bouquet of gladiolis, besides |

|having a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the waist. |

|The groom wore the usual blue worsted suit, with a |

|beautiful buttonhole bouquet, while the bridesmaid |

|was beautifully gowned in a white French serge |

|trimmed with a light blue silk girdle and a blue |

|silk tango cord at the throat, and also had a |

|beautiful bouquet at the waist. The best man wore a |

|rich dark gray suit and also had a beautiful |

|buttonhole bouquet. The room was beautifully |

|decorated with green foliage and roses, formed into |

|a beautiful arch, under which the couple stood |

|during the ceremony, which was performed by Rev. |

|Wells of this city. |

=168. Delicacy of Expression.=--Delicacy of expression is that quality

in news writing which distinguishes the star reporter from the cub. It

may be learned, but never taught. It is this elusive element in writing

and the inability of instructors to impart it that make many journalists

say news writing cannot be taught. Delicacy of expression is not

effeminacy. It is originality; it is cleverness; it is nimbleness of wit

and beauty of phrase; it is grace; it is simplicity; it is restraint; it

is tact. It is all these, and more. It is that intuition in a star man

which forbids his beginning the same kind of story day after day with a

fixed, hackneyed type of sentence, which makes him avoid triteness of

expression. It is that something in him which compels him to avoid

affectation, to love beauty and grace, born of simplicity,

unadornedness. It is that inborn sense of good taste that restrains the

writer from indelicate, personal allusions so offensive to men and

women of refinement. All this and more is delicacy of expression, and

blest is the journalist who has it. The reporter who wrote the following

had not yet learned the art:

| =THE HAVENS-MERRILL WEDDING= |

| |

|At 7:30 the sounds of the wedding march scintillated|

|through the Havens house like tired waves laving the|

|shores of a mighty lake. Seldom if ever has such a |

|scene been witnessed in this place. The smell of |

|spring flowers was everywhere coming to all |

|nostrils. Presently there was a slight disturbance |

|at the right hand entrance, and then the bride |

|entered on the arm of her father, William Havens, |

|the well-known merchant. Simultaneous at the |

|opposite door was another disturbance, and the |

|bridegroom entered attended by Henry Merrill of Des |

|Moines. Then the two parties proceeded down the |

|middle aisles, meeting under a beautiful marriage |

|bell where the two hearts were beautifully made as |

|one, which was followed by congratulations all along|

|the aisles. |

| =MR. CRAIG WEDS MISS SCHELL= |

| |

|Mr. Joe Craig and Miss Cora Schell, both of Mena, |

|were quietly married at the Hotel Main, Durant, |

|Okla., Monday, and are boarding at this hotel. Mr. |

|Craig is well known as a skilful bricklayer, honest |

|and industrious. The bride is well known in this |

|city and proved her worth by the years she served |

|the Lochridge Dry Goods Company as cashier. She is a|

|member of the Woodmen Circle and carries a large |

|insurance. We regret that she must leave, but like |

|Rebekah of old, she leaves home, family, and friends|

|to travel the journey of life with her "Isaac" (Joe)|

|in a distant land. We feel that the expression of |

|all her friends is that the best this world affords |

|will be theirs to the end of their journey and that |

|a new life awaits them in another and higher sphere.|

=169. Essentials of the Sentence.=--If a reporter can write

grammatically correct sentences,--if he can cooerdinate and subordinate

accurately the different parts; if he can give all the pronouns definite

antecedents; if he can keep his verbs consistent, having them agree in

person and number with their subjects; if he can make effective use of

ellipsis,--his sentences will possess the first essentials of a good

sentence,--accuracy. If he can make his sentences clear and

forceful,--if he can keep grammatically connected words, phrases, and

clauses close together; if he can eliminate lengthy parenthetic

expressions; if he can avoid unnecessary shifts of subjects within

sentences; if he can make readily clear the relation of every phrase in

a sentence to every other phrase in it and adjoining sentences; if he

can put important ideas at the beginning and the end of the sentence; if

he can make his sentences short and concise; if he can acquire delicacy

of expression,--his sentences will possess the second requisite of a

good sentence,--interest. Accuracy and interest, these are the elements

that make a sentence good. And the greater of these is accuracy.

XIII. WORDS

=170. Accuracy and Interest.=--For words, as for sentences and stories,

the same law holds,--accuracy and interest. If one's words are accurate

and stimulate interest in the reader, they are good.

=171. Accuracy.=--Accuracy comes first. It is necessary always to write

with a nice regard for exact shades of meaning. As Flaubert declared,

"Whatever one wishes to say, there is only one noun to express it, only

one verb to give it life, only one adjective to qualify it. Search then

till that noun, that verb, that adjective is discovered. Never be

content with very nearly; never have recourse to tricks, however happy,

or to buffoonery of language to avoid a difficulty. This is the way to

become original." An accurate writer avoids looseness of thinking and

inexactness of expression as he avoids libel. The adjective _lurid_ is

an illustration of a word over which careless reporters have stumbled

for generations. When the casualties of the war against inaccuracy are

recorded, _lurid_ will be among the missing. As used by ignorant

scribblers, the word means something like bright or brilliant, or

perhaps towering; yet its precise meaning is pale yellow, wan, ghastly.

Journalists of the last quarter of the nineteenth century will remember

a long list of such sins against precision, recorded by Charles A. Dana,

editor of the _New York Sun_. A few additions have been made to his

list, and the whole is given below. The reader should distinguish keenly

between each pair of words and should be careful never to misuse one of

them. Do not use:

above _or_ over _for_ more than

administered _for_ dealt

affect _for_ effect

aggravate _for_ irritate

allude _for_ refer

and _for_ to

audience _for_ spectators

avocation _for_ vocation

awfully _for_ very _or_ exceedingly

balance _for_ remainder

banquet _for_ dinner

beside _for_ besides

call attention _for_ direct attention

can _for_ may

claim _for_ assert

conscious _for_ aware

couple _for_ two

date back to _for_ date from

deceased _for_ died

dock _for_ pier _or_ wharf

dove _for_ dived

emigrate _for_ immigrate

endorse _for_ approve

exposition _for_ exhibition

farther _for_ further

favor _for_ resemble

groom _for_ bridegroom

happen _for_ occur

hung _for_ hanged

infinite _for_ great, vast

in our midst _for_ among us

in spite of _for_ despite

last _for_ latest

less _for_ fewer

like _for_ as if

materially _for_ largely

notice _for_ observe

murderous _for_ dangerous

onto _for_ on _or_ upon

partially _for_ partly

pants _for_ trousers

past two years _for_ last two years

perform _for_ play

posted _for_ informed

practically _for_ virtually

prior to _for_ before

propose _for_ purpose

proven _for_ proved

raise _for_ rear

quite _for_ very

section _for_ region

spend _for_ pass

standpoint _for_ point of view

suicide _as_ a verb

suspicion _for_ suspect

sustain _for_ receive

transpire _for_ occur

universal _for_ general

vest _for_ waistcoat

vicinity _for_ neighborhood

viewpoint _for_ point of view

witness _for_ see

would seem _for_ seems

=172. Clearness.=--To secure interest, a word must be clear and

forceful. It should not be technical or big, but simple. The biggest

words in the average newspapers are the handiwork and pride of the cub

reporters. Yet clearness, force, brevity all demand little

words,--simplicity. And the simplest words are those of everyday

speech,--Anglo-Saxon words generally,--such as _home_ rather than

_residence_, _begin_ rather than _commence_, _coffin_ rather than

_casket_. The reporter who uses ornate, technical, or little-known words

does so at his own peril and to the injury of his story; for the average

newspaper reader, without the benefits of a college education and having

a limited vocabulary of one to two thousand words, does not know and has

no time to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. This is

why many city editors prefer to employ high-school students and break

them in as cubs rather than take college graduates who, proud of their

education and vocabularies, attempt to display their learning in every

story they write. Simple, familiar, everyday words, those that every

reader knows, are always the most forceful and clear, and hence the most

fitting. The following is a list of words which young writers are most

commonly tempted to use:

accord _for_ give

aggregate _for_ total

appertains _for_ pertains

apprehend _for_ arrest

calculate _for_ think, expect

canine _for_ dog

casket _for_ coffin

commence _for_ begin

conflagration _for_ fire

construction _for_ building

contribute _for_ give

cortege _for_ procession

destroyed by fire _for_ burned

donate _for_ give

elicit _for_ draw

hymeneal altar _for_ chancel

inaugurate _for_ begin

individual _for_ person

obsequies _for_ funeral

participate _for_ take part

per diem _for_ a day

perform _for_ play

purchase _for_ buy

recuperate _for_ recover

remains _for_ body, corpse

render _for_ sing

reside _for_ live

retire _for_ go to bed

rodent _for_ rat

subsequently _for_ later

tonsorial artist _for_ barber

via _for_ by way of

=173. Force.=--Force demands that one's words be emphatic. Unfortunately

a reporter cannot have readers always eager to read what he writes. If

he had, his readers would be satisfied with having his words merely

accurate and clear. Instead, they demand that their attention be

attracted, compelled. The words must be fitting, apt, fresh,

unhackneyed, specific rather than general. The spectators gathered in

the field must not be _a vast concourse_, but _ten thousand persons_.

Nor must it be _about_ ten thousand. The _about_ should be omitted. A

specific _ten thousand persons present_ is much more effective and,

being a round number, is a sufficient indication that no actual count

has been made. In all cases where there is a choice between a specific

and a general term, the specific one should be used.

=174. Trite Phrases.=--Interest requires one also to seek originality of

expression, to avoid trite phrases and hackneyed words. Embalmed meats

and kyanized sentences are never good. Yet one of the most difficult

acquirements in reporting is the ability to find day after day a new way

to tell of some obscure person dying of pneumonia or heart disease. Only

reporters who have fought and overcome the arctic drowsiness of trite

phraseology know the difficulty of fighting on day after day, seeking a

new, a different way to tell the same old story of suicide or marriage

or theft or drowning. Yet one is no longer permitted to say that the

bridegroom wore the conventional black, or the bride was elegantly

gowned, or the bride's mother presided at the punch bowl, or the

assembled guests tripped the light fantastic. The reporter must find new

words for everything and must tell all with the same zest and the same

sparkling freshness of expression with which he wrote on his first day

in the news office.

=175. Figures of Speech.=--In his search for freshness, variety of

expression, the reporter often may avail himself of figures of speech.

These add suggestiveness to writing and increase its meaning by

interpretation in a figurative rather than a literal sense. To say,

"Oldfield flew round the bowl like a ruined soul on the rim of Hades,"

is more effective than "Oldfield ran his car round the course at a

110-mile rate of speed." But the writer must be careful not to mix his

figures, or he may easily make himself ridiculous. An apt illustration

of such mixing of figures is the following:

|It seemed as if the governor were hurling his glove |

|into the teeth of the advancing wave that was |

|sounding the clarion call of equal suffrage. |

In particular, one must not personify names of ships, cities, states,

and countries. Note, for example, the incongruity in the following:

|Especially does the man of discriminating taste |

|appreciate her when he compares her with the |

|ordinary tubs sailing the Great Lakes. |

=176. Elegance.=--Force also requires that one heed what may sometimes

seem trivialities of good usage. For instance, a minister may not be

referred to as _Rev. Anderson_, but as _the Rev. Mr. Anderson_. Coinage

of titles, too, is not permitted: as _Railway Inspector Brown_ for _John

Brown, a railway inspector_. And the overused "editorial we" has now

passed entirely from the news article. In an unsigned story, even the

pronoun _I_ should not be used, nor such circumlocutions as _the

writer_, _the reporter_, or _the correspondent_. In a signed story,

however, the pronoun _I_ is used somewhat freely, while such stilted

phrases as _the scribe_, _your humble servant_, etc., are absolutely

taboo.

=177. Slang.=--Finally, mention must be made of slang, the uncouth

relative in every respectable household. It is used freely on the

sporting page, but is barred from other columns, its debarment being due

to its lack of elegance and clearness. On the sporting page slang has

been accepted because there one is writing to a narrow circle of

masculine Goths who understand the patois of the gridiron, the diamond,

and the padded ropes and prefer it to the language of civilization. But

such diction is always limited in its range of acquaintances and

followers. A current bit of slang in Memphis may be unintelligible in

Pittsburg. A colloquial ephemeralism in a city may be undecipherable in

the country districts twenty-five miles away. A large percentage of the

athletic jargon of the sporting club and field is enigmatical to the

uninitiated. And since a newspaper man writes for the world at large

rather than for any specific class or group, he cannot afford to take

chances on muddying his sentences by the use of slang. The best test of

a good journalist is the instinct for writing for heterogeneous masses

of people. That word is not a good one which is clear only to select

readers, whether select in ignorance or select in intelligence. The news

story permits no such selection. It is written, not for the few, not for

the many as distinct from the few, but for all. No other kind of reading

matter is so cosmopolitan in its freedom from class or provincial

limitations as is the news story, and none is more unwavering in its

elimination of slang. Newly coined words, it is true, are admitted more

readily into news stories than into magazine articles, but slang itself

is barred. One may not write of the "glad rags" of the debutante, or the

"bagging" of the criminal, or the "swiping" of the messenger boy's

"bike." One may not even employ such colloquialisms as "enthuse,"

"swell" (delightful), "bunch" (group). But one may use such new coinages

as _burglarize_, _home-run_, and _diner_ rather freely. When in doubt

about the reputability of a word, however, one should consult a standard

dictionary, which should be kept continually on one's desk.