The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1895-06-28
Newspaper
English.
Franklin Matthews. in the June Chau.
tauquan.

OtLen the EnSllSn IN our news
papers is deplorable. 1t is worse,
l think, than the English used ia
the pulpit and IN literature but
it is better than that used ia other
professions. 1t is far better than
that used in the business world
and vastly superior to that used
in ordinary conversation bysnine
tenths of the people. The critics
of newspaper English usually
overlook one important fact. Ii
is that newspapers are not print.
ed primarily for the sake of set.
ting forth good English to their
readers. They are printed usu-
ally for the sole purpose of cir-
culating the news. After that
comes the matter of good Eng.
lish. Newspaper publishers and
editors think. and they are justi-
ned in so doing by the enormous
demand for newspapers ofevery
kind by the American people,
that it is better to have papers
with poor English than no papers
at all.
There are three good reasons
why better English is not used
in most of our newspapers. The.
first is that publishers are com.
PEELED by competition in most
cases, and by the desire TO
squeeze every cent of possible
profit out of their enterprisesiu
many other cases. to use labor
that is cheap. They must EN-
ploy meu who are simply affair
sample Of the plain people and
who use in their writing the
everyday speech of their lives.
This. as every one knows who
has studied the matter, means
that slang, inelegant phrases,
stock expressions, are the rule
and not The exception. 1t may
not be known generally that even
among trained reporters notmore
than one in five writes a story
that does not have to be edited
carefully because of these very
faults. The second of the rea.
sons why poor English is printed
so frequently is because many OF
the readers rather like ii than
otherwise, and hence puElispS
are not as careful about it in thes
smaller cities and towns as they
should be.
A third reason for the use Of
poor English, and this applies
especially to the papers of large
cities. is that frequently the need
of haste is such in preparing
pews capitalization that express
sions which are of doubtful taste
are ignored. The news is the
essential thing at such times,
whether the language that tells
it is good or Dad. Quick writing
is necessary in all daily newspa-
pers. There is no time to be
overnlce in preparing3matter for
publication. The matter of us
Ing good English must be one of
second nature rather than one of
SLOW writing and spainsta5ing
care, The critics of newspaper
writing neverseem to understand
this. The constant tendency of
newspapers is to improve their
English. donot know of d large
newspaper which does not have
a series Of rules against the use
OF certain words and expressions
that are used even IN so.called
polite society. There is also a
tendency to stick more closely TO
the literal meaningof words than
there used to be. The dictionary
plays an important part in the
making of our newspapers. /
am therefore inclined to think
that much of the criticism of
newspaper English, so far as it
relates to It's tendencies, is unde.
served. With the exception of
the common schools 1 think the
newspapers are doing the most
effective work in preserving and
in adding TO the tlexibility of the
English tongue.