SUGGESTIONS

  1. Always have at hand several soft black pencils.
  2. Take notes on folded copy paper rather than in a notebook.
  3. Keep a pocket date-book for all future events and news possibilities.
  4. Get all the news; don’t stop with half of it.
  5. Run down every clue whenever the character of the news warrants it.
  6. Work rapidly; don’t putter.
  7. Don’t make the necessity for speed an excuse for carelessness or inaccuracy.
  8. Be especially careful about names, initials, and addresses.
  9. Don’t take rumors for facts.
  10. Persevere until you get what you were sent for; don’t come back empty-handed.
  11. Be resourceful in devising ways and means of getting news.
  12. Study your paper to see to what kind of news it gives greatest space and prominence.
  13. Familiarize yourself thoroughly with the whole city, and especially with every place on your own run.
  14. Never neglect even for a day a news source on your regular run.
  15. Make acquaintances among all classes of people with whom your work brings you in contact.
  16. Interest your friends and acquaintances in your work so that they will coöperate with you in getting news.
  17. Gather all news quietly and unobtrusively.
  18. Be tactful with every one; never make an enemy.
  19. Never betray a confidence no matter how big the “scoop” would be if you did.
  20. Remember that you can always be both a gentleman and a good reporter.
  21. Don’t take notes in interviewing.
  22. Always know exactly what information you desire before beginning to interview a person.
  23. Get advance copies of anything to be quoted directly or indirectly in a news story.
  24. Mark the release date plainly at the beginning of all advance copies or stories.
  25. Get photographs of persons and events if possible, and write a description on the back of the photographs.
  26. File telegraph stories at the earliest possible moment.
  27. Always follow instructions.
  28. Mail stories, either by regular or special delivery, whenever they will surely reach the newspaper in time for the edition for which they are intended.
  29. Never put off till to-morrow sending news that is new to-day.

CHAPTER IV

STRUCTURE AND STYLE IN NEWS STORIES

Writing the News. After the reporter has found the news and has collected all the important details concerning it, he must write it up for publication. To present the news effectively is as important as to get it. Many a good piece of news has been spoiled in the writing. The raw material of fact must be transformed skillfully into the finished product of the news story. The reporter is supposed to be able to write an adequate report. When he does not, the copy-reader or the “rewrite man” is called upon to make good the reporter’s failure. Ordinarily the copy-reader needs only to polish off the rough edges. The work of the good reporter ought to require little or no editing. The careless, slovenly writer is not a welcome addition to the staff of any paper. The less editing a reporter’s copy requires the more satisfactory will he be.

Essentials of Good Copy. The first essential of good copy is legibility. Typewritten copy, double or triple spaced, is always preferred. In long-hand writing, likewise, liberal space should be left between the lines and for margins. In such copy the “u’s” should be underscored and the “n’s” overscored in order to differentiate them. Proper names in long-hand copy should be printed to avoid errors in spelling. If the story is begun halfway down the first page, the copy-reader will have enough space on that sheet to write the headline. Quotation marks, or “quotes” as they are called, should be enclosed in half-circles, thus, “⁾stunt,⁽” to indicate whether they are beginning or end marks. A small cross may be used to advantage for a period. Numerical figures and abbreviations that are to be spelled out should be enclosed in a circle. Each paragraph should be indented, and the first word of it should be preceded by an inverted “L,” thus ⅃; if a new paragraph is desired where there was none in the copy as first written, the paragraph sign (¶) should be used. At the end of every complete story should be placed the end mark (#); if the story is incomplete, the word “more” is written beneath the last sentence. Additions to follow the last sentence of the story are marked with the name of the story and the abbreviation for additions; thus, “Add 2 Hotel Fire” means that the piece of copy is the second addition to the hotel fire story; “Add 1 Wilkins Suicide” means the first addition to the story of Wilkins’ suicide. Additions to be inserted in the story are marked “Insert A—Johnson Will Case” for the first insert in the “Will Case” story; “Insert B—Trolley Collision” for the second insert in the collision story. The place at which the new piece of copy is to be inserted is often indicated thus: “Insert after first paragraph of lead—Murder Trial.” Copy must never be written on both sides of the paper.

Style and Structure. In the writing of the news story two elements must be considered: (1) the style; and (2) the structure. The first has to do with the expression; the second with the arrangement of material.

Clearness. Clearness is the first requisite of newspaper style as it is of all writing. Newspapers are read rapidly, and rapid reading is possible only when the words yield their ideas with little effort on the part of the reader. The less the effort required to get the meaning, the more easily and rapidly can he read. Clearness is most readily obtained by comparative simplicity of style. However effective elaborate sentence construction, learned diction, and carefully wrought figures of speech may be in other kinds of writing, they ordinarily have no place in the news story. This does not mean that literary devices must be abandoned in newspaper writing or that newspaper style is bald and unattractive. News stories demand all the literary ability that the reporter possesses, for besides presenting the news clearly they must be interesting and attractive. Effectiveness in a simple style lies in that choice and arrangement of words which enables the reader to get the meaning with the least effort and the greatest interest.

Conciseness. Conciseness is the second essential of the style of the news story. This, again, does not mean that only the bare skeleton of news is required, for good news stories are clothed with flesh and blood to make them real and to give them human interest. Conciseness demands that not a single needless word shall be used, that every detail shall be necessary for the effectiveness of presentation, and that the length of the story shall be exactly proportionate to its interest and to its news value. If the reporter tests the value of each detail and can give a good reason for using it, he will not go far wrong as to the length of his story. If he can give an equally good reason for every word that he uses, his style is likely to have the desired conciseness.