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THE
WRITING OF NEWS
A HANDBOOK
WITH CHAPTERS ON NEWSPAPER
CORRESPONDENCE AND COPY READING
BY
CHARLES G. ROSS
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
_Published November, 1911_
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
TO
MY MOTHER
PREFACE
In preparing this volume the author has had in mind the needs not only
of students in schools of journalism, but of others who may desire a
concise statement of the principles that govern the art of news writing
as practiced by the American newspaper. It is hoped the book will prove
helpful either as a laboratory guide in the school room or as a text
book for home use.
As the title indicates, the book deals with one phase of journalism,
the presentation of the news story, more especially with the writing
of the story--the reporter’s part in the day’s work. No attempt has
been made to go into other aspects of journalism--the writing of
editorials, the administrative features of the work, the delicate
adjustment that every newspaper must make between its business and news
departments--except in so far as they bear directly upon the subject in
hand.
The term journalism is broadly used here to mean all branches of
newspaper endeavor. In common with other newspaper men, the author
admits an aversion to the word as restricted to the working field
of the men who get and write the news. They call themselves not
journalists, but reporters or newspaper men. It is for newspaper men
and women in the making that the book is primarily designed.
The nature of newspaper work makes it impossible to formulate an
all-sufficing series of rules by which the news writer shall invariably
be guided. But there are certain well-defined principles, largely
technical, that set apart the news story as a distinct form of
composition, and these the author has tried to put down simply and
concisely--after the fashion of the news story itself. Going beyond
the common practice, there is wide divergence among newspapers in the
details of “office style.” Methods peculiar to the individual paper can
readily be acquired by one grounded in the essentials of the craft;
hence only the more significant points of departure from the generally
accepted practice have been noted.
Practically all the examples in the book are from published news
stories, reproduced in most cases exactly as they appeared in print.
In some, for obvious reasons, fictitious names and addresses have been
substituted for the real. With one or two exceptions the examples
illustrating right methods of news presentation have been chosen not
for special brilliancy, but as fairly showing the everyday output of
the trained news writer.
University of Missouri,
Columbia,
July, 1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. NEWSPAPER COPY
Terminology--Directions for Preparing
Copy 1
II. THE ENGLISH OF THE NEWSPAPERS
Clearness--Conciseness--Force 7
III. THE WRITER’S VIEWPOINT
Fairness--Impersonality--Good Taste--Originality 17
IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY
In Observation--In Names--In Street
Addresses--In Spelling 30
V. NEWS VALUES
The Reporter--What Is News?--The
Newspaper’s Problem--Kinds of Stories 41
VI. WRITING THE LEAD
What the Lead Is--What the Lead Should
Contain--Observance of Style--Leads to
Be Avoided--Sentence Structure--Leads
That Begin With Names--The General
Rule--Study of 100 Typical Stories 57
VII. THE STORY PROPER
Compression and Expansion--The Mechanics
of the Story 79
VIII. THE FEATURE STORY
What the Feature Story Is Not--Stories
for Entertainment--The Human-Interest
Story--The Editor’s Problem--Sunday
Magazine Stories 98
IX. THE INTERVIEW
When the Interview Is Incidental--When
the Interview Is the Story 113
X. SPECIAL TYPES OF STORIES
Stories of Fires--Deaths--Weddings--Crimes--
Business--Second-Day Stories--Rewriting 129
XI. THE CORRESPONDENT
Writing for the Wire--Some Pitfalls to
Be Avoided--What Not to Send--What
to Send--Sporting News--How to Send--Handling
the Big Story--Sending by
Mail--General Instructions--Payment 150
XII. COPY READING
Qualifications for the Work--Organization
of Copy Readers--Editing the Story--Rules
About Libel--The Guide Line--Marks
Used in Editing--Additions and
Insertions--The Lighter Side--The Copy
Reader’s Schedule 171
XIII. WRITING THE HEAD
First Requisites of the Head--Definiteness--The
Question of Tense--The Mechanics
of the Head--Some Things to Avoid--Symmetry
and Sense--Special Kinds of
Heads--Capitalization 193
XIV. DON’TS FOR THE NEWS WRITER 211
XV. NEWSPAPER BROMIDES 224
INDEX 231
THE WRITING OF NEWS
... But however great a gift, if news instinct as born were
turned loose in any newspaper office in New York without the
control of sound judgment bred by considerable experience
and training, the results would be much more pleasing to the
lawyers than to the editor. One of the chief difficulties in
journalism now is to keep the news from running rampant over
the restraints of accuracy and conscience. And if a “nose for
news” is born in the cradle, does not the instinct, like other
great qualities, need development by teaching, by training, by
practical object-lessons illustrating the good and the bad, the
right and the wrong, the popular and the unpopular, the things
that succeed and the things that fail, and above all the things
that deserve to succeed, and the things that do not--not the
things only that make circulation for to-day, but the things
that make character and influence and public confidence?--From
an article by JOSEPH PULITZER in the _North American Review_.
THE WRITING OF NEWS
CHAPTER I
NEWSPAPER COPY
This is the age of the reporter--the age of news, not views.
We are influencing our public through the presentation of
facts; and the gathering, the assembling and the presentation
of these facts is the work of the reporter. There are two
ideals of news. The first is to give the news colorless, the
absolute truth. The second is to take the best attitude for
the perpetuation of our democracy. The first would be all
right if there were such a thing as absolute truth. When
jesting Pilate asked, “What is truth?” he expressed the eternal
question of modern journals. The best we can do is to follow
the second ideal, which is to point out the truth as seen from
the broadest, the most human and the most interesting point
of view.--From an address by WILL IRWIN at the University of
Missouri.
TERMINOLOGY
All manuscript for the press is _copy_. _Clean copy_ is manuscript
that requires little or no editing. The various steps in the gathering
and writing of news that precede printing are indicated briefly in the
following explanation of newspaper terms:
=Story.=--Any article prepared for a newspaper. A three-line item
and a three-column account of a convention are both, in the newspaper
sense, _stories_. The term is applied also to the happening with which
the story deals. Thus a reporter sent to get the facts about a fire is
said to be _covering_ a fire story. A happening of unusual importance
makes a _big_ news story. Reporters are _assigned_ or _detailed_ by
the city editor to cover certain stories, and the task given each is
his _assignment_. A reporter assigned to visit certain definite places
which are covered regularly in the search for news (as police stations,
hospitals, courts, fire headquarters, city hall, etc.) is said to have
a _run_ or a _beat_. A reporter _scoops_ competing news gatherers when
he gets an exclusive story. The story is called a _scoop_ or a _beat_.
=Stickful.=--A term frequently used in defining the length of a
story. A _stickful_ is about two inches of type--the amount held by a
composing _stick_, a metal frame used by the printer in setting type by
hand.
=Lead.=--Loosely used to indicate the introduction, usually the first
paragraph, of the story. In the ordinary sense the news story has no
such thing as an introduction. The _lead_ goes straight to the point
without preliminaries. Do not confuse this word, pronounced “leed,”
with the word of the same spelling pronounced “led.” The latter word
_lead_, as a verb, is an order to the printer to put thin strips of
metal (_leads_) between the lines of the story in type, thus giving
additional white space and making the story stand out more prominently
on the printed page. Editorials are usually _leaded_.
=Copy Reader.=--A sub-editor who puts the copy into shape for the
printer and writes the headlines. Sometimes called _copy editor_. Do
not confuse _copy reading_ with _proofreading_ (the correction of proof
sheets), which is done in another department.
=Slug.=--A solid line of machine-set type. As used by the copy
reader, the term usually means the identifying name given a story, as
“wedding,” “fire,” “wreck.” A story is _slugged_ when it is so named
for convenience in keeping tab on it.
=Head.=--Abbreviation for _headlines_. A copy reader is said to _build
a head_ on a certain feature of the story.
=Feature.=--Noun: The most interesting part of a story is the
_feature_. Verb: A story is _featured_ or _played up_ when it is
prominently displayed. Adjective: A _feature story_ usually depends for
its interest on some other element than that of immediate news value.
=Make up.=--Verb: To arrange the type in forms for printing. Noun
(_make-up_): The process of arranging the type or the result as
seen in the printed page. A newspaper is said to have an effective
_make-up_ when the disposition of the stories on a page and the general
typographical appearance of the whole contribute toward making the
desired impression on the reader. The _make-up editor_ supervises the
work of making up. A page may be _made over_ to insert late news.
DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING COPY
Most newspapers insist on typewritten copy; all prefer it. It can
be prepared more quickly than long-hand copy after one has mastered
the use of the machine; it makes for accuracy; it is easier to edit,
and, because of its uniform legibility, it saves time and expense in
type-setting.
Adjust your typewriter to leave two or three spaces between lines, so
that legible interlining in long-hand will be possible. Closely written
copy is the abomination of the copy reader, compelling him to cut and
paste in order to make corrections.
Never write on both sides of the paper. Never fasten sheets of copy
together.
Write your name in the upper left-hand corner of the first page. Number
each page.
Begin the story about the middle of the first page, the space at the
top being left for writing in the headlines.
Don’t crowd the page with writing. Leave a margin of an inch to an
inch and a half at each side. Leave an inch at top and bottom for
convenience in pasting sheets together.
Avoid dividing words. Never divide a word from one page to another.
In writing a story in short “takes,” or installments, make each page
end with a sentence.
Indent for a paragraph about a third the width of the page.
In making corrections it is usually safer to cross out and rewrite. Be
particularly careful about names and figures.
Letter inserted pages. For example, between pages 3 and 4, the inserted
pages should be designated 3a, 3b, etc.
Use an end-mark to show the story has been completed. The figures 30 in
a circle may be used.
Use every effort to make long-hand copy easily legible. Overscore
n and o and underscore u and a when there is any possibility of
confusion. Print proper names and unusual words. Draw a small circle
around periods or use a small cross instead.
Draw a circle around an abbreviation to show it is to be spelled out.
To make sure a letter will be set as a capital draw three lines under
it.
If there is a chance that a word intentionally misspelled, as in
dialect, will be changed by the printer or the proofreader, draw a
circle around the word, run a line to the margin and there write
“Follow copy.”
Unless you are pressed for time, read over your story carefully before
turning it in.
Accuracy is the first essential of news writing. Above all, _watch
names_.