A DICTIONARY

Wrote Sir Clifford Allbutt: "A dictionary 'sanctions' nothing of its contents, but it enables us by consultation of its stores to compare and choose for ourselves. In using this liberty we shall neither be subservient to the prescriptions of age, nor scornful of modern freedom; in every use we shall be guided by historical growth, the example of the best authors, and our present necessities."

SCOURGE OF EVIL DOERS . . . EXPOSER OF SECRET INIQUITIES . . . UNRELENTING FOE OF PRIVILEGE AND CORRUPTION.

SPELLING

LOOK IT UP IF YOU ARE NOT SURE.

BETTER LOOK IT UP ANYWAY.

If two spellings are given in the dictionary, the first cited is preferable.

Follow these spellings:

Write: Parcel post, not parcels post.

Be sure that proper names are spelled uniformly throughout a story.

Use the form in instead of en in such words as indorse, inclose.

Write it: Trade unions, not trades unions.

Use no diphthongs when they can be avoided. Write: anesthetic, esthetic, medieval, maneuver, subpena, homeopathic.

Follow the American spelling on checks, tires, curb, pajamas, disregarding the British cheques, tyres, kerb, pyjamas.

Make the plural of Knight Templar, Knights Templar.

Don't add s to: afterward, backward, forward, toward.

As a general rule change -re to -er when it is the last syllable, as in theater, caliber, timber.

Beware of effect and affect, and use them carefully.

A long way, not a long ways.

Distinguish between: depository and depositary; between insanitary and unsanitary; between immoral and unmoral; between councilor, consular and counselor; between council and counsel and consul; between capitol and capital; between clamant and claimant; between sear and seer and sere; between emigrant and immigrant; between faker and fakir; between breech and breach; between auger and augur; between hoard and horde; between lessen and lesson; between principle and principal; between prophecy and prophesy; between advice and advise; between maize and maze; between site and sight.

The people of Panama are Panamans, not Panamanians, just as we are Americans, not Americanians.

Two cities in the United States take final gh. They are Pittsburgh, Pa., and Newburgh, N. Y. Also write it Edinburgh.

Drop the unsounded final letters in such words as program, catalog, suffraget, dialog, cigaret, decalog. Similarly, write armor, favor, color, and Savior.

Some words have lost prefix or suffix, and if they are in good use in their curtailed form, they should be written without apostrophes, as, cello and varsity.

POPULAR NAMES OF RAILROADS

Big FourCincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis.
Burlington Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.
Clover Leaf Toledo, St. Louis & Western.
Cotton Belt St. Louis Southwestern.
Katy Missouri, Kansas & Texas.
Lackawanna Delaware, Lackawanna & Western.
Lake Shore Lake Shore & Michigan Southern.
Lookout Mountain Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis.
Monon Chicago, Indiana & Louisville.
Nickel Plate New York, Chicago & St. Louis.
Pan Handle Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago & St. Louis.
Queen & Crescent Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas.
Rock Island Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific.
Soo Milwaukee & Sault Ste. Marie.
St. Paul, or Milwaukee Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul.

NOTES

DO AND DON'T

Don't use the words suicide and murder in heads on stories recounting the details of specific crimes or their prosecution. However, should a story of the sociological type appear, dealing with, for example, the increase in the number of suicides or the attempts of the police to reduce the number of murders, the use of either word in the headline is allowed. In the body of the story the most natural expression and good taste must guide the writer, and the use of these words is permissible if they most clearly and effectively express the information in hand.

Names of girls or women who are the victims of actual or attempted indecent attack are not to be published under ordinary circumstances. Authority for exceptions will be granted by the editor when there is sufficient reason.

Use the names of POISONS only when essential to the story.

Never call a policeman a cop.

Keep the reporter or a representative of The News out of the story. It is understood that a reporter and a reporter for The News writes a story that appears in The News.

Write the English language. For sine qua non, write essentials; for de riguer, coup d'etat, coup de grace, Sturm und Drang, au fait and similar phrases use English equivalents. Some exceptions are decollete, fiancee and fiance, and other words which have been taken over into the language. Don't mix languages. Write a day, not per day. As a general rule use per only in the phrase per cent.

Comatose means in a state of profound insensibility, not merely dazed as some writers believe.

Et al. stands for the Latin et alii, et aliae, or et alia, meaning and others. Of course it should never be written et als. to form a fancied plural.

Prone means lying flat and face downward. One can not lie prone on the back. Supine means lying on the back.

Use pseudonym, a good English word, or pen name, and not nom de plume, which isn't even good French. Says L'Intermediaire, a French journal: "We do not know in our language the expression nom de plume. We have the phrase nom de guerre."

Don't use most for almost, as, I am most as tall as you.

Never write kiddies or tots. Write kids when referring to young goats or to children in stories written in a spirit of levity, as, This is the big day for the kids on Belle Isle. Don't try to arouse sympathy for children in unfortunate circumstances by calling them poor little tots, or poor kiddies.

Avoid words borrowed from the yellow-backs, such as, The bullet crashed through his brain, She tripped down the steps. Try such sentences as this on your hisser: "I will not go," he hissed.

In news stories don't use thieves' slang, as, dick, frisk, dip, gat.

Don't use the editorial we. It is old-fashioned. Say The Detroit News.

Don't refer to the Darwinian theory or to Dr. Osler's theory without knowing what they mean.

Don't call a revolver a gun or a pistol a revolver. It is automatic pistol.

Reporters frequently quote Kipling to the effect that west is west, east is east, and never the twain shall meet. But if they knew the poem, they would be aware of the fact that the next line qualifies the quoted lines and vitiates the observation.

The exception proves the rule is a phrase that arises from ignorance, though common to good writers. The original word was preuves, which did not mean proves but tests.

Say in bad condition, not in bad shape.

A toga was a garment worn by a Roman citizen. The word is persistently misused to refer to senatorial honors.

Avoid newspaper slang. To all but a few of our readers the word story means not an item of news in the paper but a piece of fiction. To speak of a story meaning a piece for the paper is to confuse them. Say article or item.

Don't write alright. There is no such word in the language.

Avoid poetic forms. Do not use amongst for among. Thither and whither have a bookish sound. Prefer the simple while to the fancy whilst.

There are no degrees of certainty. Don't write a thing seems more certain.

Amateur means non-professional, not necessarily unskilled. Novice implies lack of skill.

Spectators see; an audience is a collection of auditors. Spectators go to ball games and motion picture theaters.

Use render in speaking of lard and not of songs.

Don't use complected for complexioned.

Don't write better half for wife.

Do not write that a thing grows smaller.

We write wages are. The biblical phrase is, The wages of sin is death.

Don't write the three first. You mean the first three.

A justice presides in police court, in justice court and in the supreme court. A judge presides in other courts except the recorder's court, which is presided over by the recorder and his associate. Justices of the supreme court of the states and the nation are referred to as Mr. Justice Jones or Chief Justice White.

Avoid the hackneyed phrase, a miraculous escape.

It is almost an unbreakable rule that reporters and copy readers shall verify all quotations. Many of the most familiar phrases are popularly misquoted.

Don't write the above statement or the statement given above. It may not be above when it gets into the paper. Write the foregoing statement.

Don't use about meaning approximately except with round numbers. Do not write about 27 cents or about 12 minutes after 8 o'clock, but write about $10 or about 10,000 persons.

Don't confuse O and Oh. The former is the formal spelling of the interjection and is used usually in poetry, as, Sail on, O Ship of State! It is used in supplication, as, O God, hear our prayer! The Oh spelling is that commonly used, as, Oh, dear; Oh, what shall I do? It is usually written with a comma.