Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-04
WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS.
Tell Story In First Paragraph and
Withhold Personal Opinion.

paper article is written on a plan just
ton. Comparatively few ministers have
analyzed the subject sufficiently to
lno,ice this fact, and their Ignorance
of 1t will often account for the re-
lluctance of newspapers to accept mat
ter contributed by them. 1t Is worth
the while of every man and woman to
know the general plan on which
newspaper articles are written, for
lalmost everybody desires at times to
Announce something through the
press. The mere knowledge of the
theory will not make successful
writer in this or any other depart
ment, but it is the first step.
The skillful preacher or orator US
ually reserves his most important
points until toward the end Of his dis
course. closing with a climax. The
skillful newspaper reporter puts his
climax into his first sentence and
ends with the most nom essential de-
TAIL While the novelist secures his
dramatic effect by keeping the secret
of his story as long as possible, the
reporter atlains success by revealing
his secret as quickly as words will let
him. Both are working on principles
as clearly defined as that on which
sonnet is constructed, but the mod
ern newspaper article Is Of so much
more recent date that few critics have
analyzed It and even many of the
best newspaper writer's work daily
upon the foregoing principle without
knowing 1t. No man can work many
days under a metropolitan city editor
without learning it. If he does not
pick up the knack promptly he is
given a chance to learn some other
| business.
The reasons for this method Of con-
struction are plain. The object Of a
newspaper STORY" is to tell the news
for its own sake. The majority of
| readers do not have time to read the
whole Of an article. What they want
Is compact statement of the essen
| tial facts Of an incident or a crime or
a public meeting. The best newspaper
Is the one that gives them the pith
of the whole matter in the first para
graph, following this with the more
important details and closing with
the least important. The reader then
| glances down the column far enough
| to get the vital facts and does not
waste time on the rest He can gee
fair knowledge Of the whole worlds
news for the day by merely reading
the headlines and opening paragraphs
OF the paper, while perhaps but one
every line.
There is also another important
cause which has contributed to this
method Of presenting the news with
the cream always on top. AS startling
events do not occur in this world with
any regularity, though the paper must
always be issued at the same hour, 1t
naturally follows that there Is an
ever-varying pressure on the columns.
The reporters begin work on a morn
ing paper at / o'clock on the preceding
day. At the time when they do their
afternoon assignment" there may be
space in abundance, and their articles
may be written in considerable de-
tail. Late in the evening there may
be great fire or some important VIC
tory on the battlefield that will sud-
denly demaud a dozen or score Of
columns. 1t becomes necessary to
"cut" everything of ordinary i'm
portance. BY that time the earlier
stories" are in type and cannot be
rewritten. The condensing is done
by dropping off the latter part Of the
article, which can be done without in
juring its essential parts IL 1t Is con-
structed on the proper plan. Every
large newspaper nightly kills" many
columns of matter in this way either
before it is in type or afterward. If
the article there would be no alterna-
tive but to leave 1t all out.
Here is where the would-be cores
pondent so often meets his Water
loo. The young and ambitious editor
of a country weekly gets commits
sion to represent his town as tele-
graphic correspondent Of a large city
daily. Perhaps there is bad fire In
the village and several lives are lost
To al Nho
1t in detail telling 1t in such way
that one must read 1000 words to
discover how many persons were kill
ed or injured and what Is the total
value Of the property destroyed. The
STORY" reaches the telegraph editor
at a time when he Is working under
high pressure to cut down all news
Ito the marrow" in order to make
room for some event Of worldwide
import. The country correspondents
matter is useless unless printed en-
tire or rewritten. There is neither
the space for the one or the time for
the other. The result is that the ar
ticle goes into the waste basket and
the aspiring correspondent receives
notice that his services are no longer
desired.
Nearly every reporter learns this
lesson by hard experience and much
wasted labor. Every editor has had
his patience tried to the boiling point
by contributions that might be used
II they did not violate the first COM
mandnent Of the newspaper dialogue
tell the news in the first sentence.
/ should not like to compute how
many columns l wrote for the waste
basket before I discovered this sim
pie rule Of journalism, or how many
have blue penciled or rewritten for
II. he ntf n ntfna
to the dignity Of desk work" f
the public had better realization OF
the hard drill on such points that
must precede all success in newspaper
work there would be a less general
impression that any man who has fail-
ed in other lines can be an editor inn
promptu.
Briefly stated, the chief rules for
an ordinary news article are these:
Tell the whole story in your first SEN
tence, or at least in your first para
graph, and the briefer the paragraph
the better Pc sure to give in your
opening lines the time, place and
chief actors concerned, along with
the scope and nature of the event
chronicled Avoid exclamations, fine
writing, flaming adjectives or edito-
rial comment. If 1t is piece of news
in which timeliness Is an important
element. get IL 10 your paper dS quich-
ly as your lucky stars will let you,
Tell your story in the fewest words
possible without omitting essential
details. II you cannot shake off the
hallucination that an Introduction Is
needed. put it at the end. where the
editor can cut 1t off.
There are a hundred other details,
such as writing on but one side of the
pa per, leaving margins on the sheets,
never rolling the copy, writing plain
ly, putting the name and address at
the top Of the manuscript, and the
like. which are generally known. But
without the knowledge that news
article is not written like an Grafton,
all these are comparatively useless.
The tendency to preach, which news
paper men call "editorializing, also
causes many an otherwise news item
from outside contributors to go upon
the floor. 1t would be as great an ad-
vantage to the press as to the clergy
and the laymen If the chief rules for
writing a newspaper article were
more accurately and widely under
stood.-Christian Advocate.