The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1913-12-19
NEWSPAPER WRITING PRAISED


Tributes to the quality and utility
of newspaper English rather fea-
tured the recent convention of the
National Council of English Teachers
in Chicago. The newspaper man, es-
pecially the reporter, was praised for
his practicable command of our Ian
guage and for the simplicity, direct
ness and comprehensfvenes of his
style. Incidentally, these style
purists severely raped the tendency
toward the use of slang by persons
of even classic ducation.
Speaking as to the newspaper
mans writing, Prof. Fred N. Scott, of
the University of Michigan, said:
THAT the daily newspaper is the
most powerful and the most persua-
sive influence of our day and nation
will, l think, be conceded. 1t is not
going too far to say that the aims
and ambitions and modes of thought
and expression of the younger gen
Grafton are largely nodded by its
contents.
mot even the Scriptures can COM
pete with it. The Bible, when il
was read at least once. day in ev-
cry Christian family, as an educa-
tional force was of incalculable
value. 1t is the newspaper which
now sinks into the lives of our young
people and, filling their minds with
its phrases and it's pictures, shapes
their characters and supplies the
motives for their conduct.
eve should require that our daily
visitor be not only courteous and
truthful; we should require him 20
be of clean and wholesome mind,
1t is perhaps in this respect that the
newspaper fails most grievously to
live up to its pretensions
However, this sort of tribute is
nothing new, 1t is merely the repeti-
ton of the truth, the reiteration of
a ng-established fact. Newspaper
men have ever been celebrated AS
ready writer's. For instance, read
what that word gnius, Thomas Car
lyle, wrote in 1885,
''To write with such rapidity, in a
passable manner, is indicative not
OF a mans genius, but of it's habits,
it will prove his soundness of nervous
system, his practicability of mind,
and, in fine, that he has the knack of
his trade, But, indeed, the
most unaccountable ready writer of
all is, probably, the common editor
of a daily newspaper. Con-
slider his articles, what they treat of,
how passably they are done n Il
The triumph of ready writing ap-
pears to be even now; everywhere
the ready writer is found Dragging
strangely of his readiness.
So it stands; the genius of
eXtempore irresistibly lording it, ad-
vancing on us like ocean tides"
1t is a fact of general knowledge
that some of Americas most success
full, and some of the ablest, writer's
developed their talent in newspaper
work. Bret Harte is a conspicuous
instance, and scores of lesser lights
may be named, among them George
AIDE, Finley Peter Dunno, the Irwin
brothers, Jacques Futrlle, Richard
Henry Dana, William Winter, Mark
Twain, and so on. Some of the best
present-day writers are men who
literally acquired the trick of writ
ing by doing newspaper work, pick
ing up a style and absorbing a vocab-
ulary even before they knew the
fundamental rules of syntax. These
men, like newspaper writer's In gen
eral, more often use a style that is
understood by even those of only
rudimentary education. 1t is for
that reason, because of it's freedom
from evidences of ornate and confus-
ing culture, that newspaper writing
is so serviceable. 1t concurs with
the average mans way of thinking
and expression. Macon News.