INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this book is to instruct the prospective
newspaper reporter in the way to write those
stories which his future paper will call upon him to
write, and to help the young cub reporter and the
struggling correspondent past the perils of the copyreader's
pencil by telling them how to write clean
copy that requires a minimum of editing. It is not
concerned with the why of the newspaper business—the
editor may attend to that—but with the how
of the reporter's work. And an ability to write is
believed to be the reporter's chief asset. There is
no space in this book to dilate upon newspaper organization,
the work of the business office, the writing
of advertisements, the principles of editorial
writing, or the how and why of newspaper policy
and practice, as it is. These things do not concern
the reporter during the first few months of his work,
and he will learn them from experience when he
needs them. Until then, his usefulness depends
solely upon his ability to get news and to write it.
There are two phases of the work which every
reporter must learn: how to get the news and how
to write it. The first he can pick up easily by actual
newspaper experience—if nature has endowed him
with "a nose for news." The writing of the news
he can learn only by hard practice—a year's hard
practice on some papers—and it is generally conceded
that practice in writing news stories can be
secured at home or in the classroom as effectively as
practice in writing short stories, plays, business letters,
or any other special form of composition.
Newspaper experience may aid the reporter in learning
how to write his stories, but a newspaper apprenticeship
is not absolutely necessary. However,
whether he is studying the trade of newspaper writing
in his home, in a classroom, or in the city room
of a daily paper, he needs positive instruction in the
English composition of the newspaper office—rather
than haphazard criticism and a deluge of "don'ts."
Hence this book is concerned primarily with the
writing of the news.
|
