Part 2
When it has been determined what the most interesting thing is in the story, this fact must come first, in as vivid and compact a form as possible. It is better if the main facts are gotten into the first two lines of the story, which means usually the first twelve words as a maximum. But the five essentials must also all of them be gotten into the beginning of the story, either in the first sentence or in the first paragraph, at all odds. Not only WHO did WHAT, but also WHEN and WHERE and WHY or HOW. As a matter of fact, of course, the WHY or the HOW may have been the most interesting thing about the story and will then have been “featured” at the beginning of the story. “Having sworn revenge for his dead sister, Tony Wallace yesterday shot Tom Kelly,” or “By jumping from the fourteenth floor of the Hughes Building, Charles Hight committed suicide this morning” are both of them possible beginnings to news-stories, although neither of them begins with the WHO or the WHAT. Two of the five essentials, however, are very rarely used as features in a news-story. These are the WHERE and the WHEN. It stands to reason that people are ordinarily not interested in either WHEN a thing occurred or WHERE it happened until they know what it is. Thus a news-story very rarely begins “On the corner of Third and Ludlow,” or “Late last evening,” except in very primitive newspapers or in a type of story to which reference will be made later.
It can happen that the place or the time are interesting enough in themselves to warrant their being featured. “Exactly at midnight last night the Senate voted in favor of light wines and beer,” is a feasible type of feature. So is “At Death Crossing an A. B. & C. train claimed another victim last night, raising the month’s total to eighteen.” But unless there is something extremely unusual or noteworthy about the place or the time these are not featured.
“The” and “A” are in some offices banned as opening words to a news-story, and generally if the news can be stated without starting off with these words, it is better to do so. But frequently it would be awkward to start in any other way, and in such a case there need be no hesitancy about using the words. “There are,” or “There is,” on the other hand, are hardly ever excusable in opening a news-story. They use up valuable space and valuable time and only retard the statement of the vital facts which constitute the news.
Figures are never used to start off the lead nor are they ever used at the beginning of any sentence in the story. Either some such word as “About” or “Exactly” is used, or the number is written out in words.
“Another” is obviously a bad word, generally, with which to open a news-story. What the people want is news, and ordinarily “another” weakens this sense of the novel. In case of a series of fires or murders or fatal accidents, however, the word may have a power of adding to the forcefulness of the news, and so its use here would be good.
THE FEATURE STORY
There is another type of story, which is built on a totally different principle from what we have been considering. Its main characteristic in starting out is that it does NOT give the five essentials, and that it does not give first the most interesting fact of the story. Manifestly it is not, then, a straight news story. People are not going to read it for the important news that it contains. Because it plays up some story which otherwise would hardly get into the papers at all, or could only be given a very minor treatment and stuck off in some odd corner of the paper, it is known in newspaper offices as a “feature story.” It plays up some feature of an incident. It takes some small happening of the day and gives it a treatment not unlike what we find in short stories. And just as magazine fiction can use any one of a million different openings, so there is no set rule for beginning a newspaper “feature story.” We are setting out not to inform the reader, but to give him pleasure of an artistic sort. It may be a pathetic little story we have to tell, and it may sound odd to say that we set out to give pleasure with it. But an artistic pleasure can, of course, be gained from the deepest tragedy. So it is with the pathetic feature story. Although, as a matter of fact, most feature stories are humorous rather than pathetic.
Say that a reporter in going along the street overhears a little girl playing school with her dolls. The youngster, not over six or seven, uses some terms drawn from psycho-analysis. The reporter stops, judiciously makes friends with her, gets her name, finds out where she goes to school, and if possible ascertains where she got hold of the big words. Of course, this story would not appeal to the average reader of the average newspaper. It obviously has no straight news value. And yet, properly handled, it would make a capital feature story for some better types of newspapers.
Just as the former story would appeal to the child interest which was mentioned earlier, so animal stories also make a good basis for feature treatment. I have seen used an account of a dog who showed his delight over being shorn of his heavy coat one hot June morning, and the contrast with his dejection that evening, owing to the fact that he had got a good heavy case of sunburn. Births of animals at the zoological park can be treated in this way. Signs of intelligence in wild or domestic animals are often treated in this fashion. The first birds in the spring or a flight of wild ducks over a big city can be used. Signs of intelligence or emotions in animals also make good feature stories.
All the interests mentioned earlier can, as a matter of fact, be appealed to in this manner. Prominent men can be used. Stories about them which are too insignificant for actual news treatment can be utilized in this way. When the police-judge is suddenly called upon to judge his own cook on a charge of drunkenness, the story has more value as a feature than as straight news. When a well-known traffic cop is fined on the same charge as the motor cyclist he had just arrested--that of having glaring headlights--the story warrants more than a straight news-lead.
Sports, hobbies, contests of all kinds, can all be drawn on for feature stories. Frequently this type of story is used to bring out the fact that we are all of us just human beings after all, liable to make mistakes, with our little human frailties, ambitions, and prides. “Human-interest stories” is the designation given to this sort of story. Kindly, whimsical, this type of story helps frequently, in the hands of a good writer, to set the tone of a city, just as editorials do. The personality of a newspaper or a reporter can shine out here as nowhere else, perhaps, and editors are always delighted when they can find such a writer.
STYLE
In all news-writing, the main thing is that it shall be easily read, easily understood, and generally, one should come away from a news-story without any remembrance of how it was written, the thing should seem so simply done, so obviously constructed. The art that hides itself is nowhere more needed than in this field where the artist is a man at a typewriter pounding out sheet after sheet of copy, with no time to linger over the choice of words or go back for careful revision. The newspaper writer must have at his instant command all the capabilities and powers within him. That is the reason why it is really useless to talk at great length to a man who will, after all, have no time for meditation on matters of style, on niceties of rhetoric. The newspaper reporter is usually working under stress of great hurry and often under keen excitement and for long stretches of time such as would fray the nerves of any other type of writer or worker. He must get certain principles--or “hints,” if you will,--into the back of his head, where they will guide his work without too much burdening him, and then forget everything but the main essentials. It is the purpose of this section to give some of these bare essentials to good news writing.
Beginning with the simplest element of language, WORDS, it may be said immediately that aside from archaic terminology and words which are dubbed “poetic” by the dictionary, the whole wide field of the English vocabulary lies open to the newspaper writer, and no man need try “writing down to his public.” Good writing in any field means being clear and vivid and forceful, and these same three terms apply here as elsewhere. A newspaper account should be written in such language that if it is read aloud it will immediately be clear what the writer means. If ever, in your writing, you come to a place where the conditions are complex and will not straighten themselves out for you readily, so that it seems impossible to state them clearly and vividly, try asking yourself the question, “How would I say it if I were trying to tell somebody about it?” That will frequently straighten the whole matter out for you and give you instantly the point at which you wish to begin the explanation. And it will generally make for good news-writing, as it will generally make for clearness, vividness, and forcefulness.
“Use concrete terms” is another good bit of advice in the choice of words, and applies from the simple matter of being specific up to the matter of attempting artistically to depict the fine shades of a man’s manner. “Six men” is better for news purposes than “A number of men,” because it is more specific. “Harvard trampled over Yale yesterday” is better news-writing than “Harvard won from Yale yesterday,” because it is more vivid, it gives more of an image, it is thus more concrete. When fire “shoots out across the street,” it gives us something to see, and is vivid. “The first puff of flame” is good for the same reason. In general, descriptive verbs are better than descriptive nouns, however, for they are more active, and thus make for greater life in a piece of writing. The difference between a good writer and a weak and ineffective writer can, as a matter of fact, most often be traced to this matter of the comparative number of nouns and verbs. Take a news-story that grips you from beginning to end, say some account of a fire or an accident. Count the number of verbs, in comparison with the number of nouns and the total number of words used. Do the same for some humdrum account that does not hold your attention. From the first you felt that there was a difference, without knowing why. It will most likely be found that the vivid writer, the man who could hold your attention, has used a far higher percentage of verbs than the other. Beginners very often break the back of every verb with an adverb, and weaken every noun with an attendant adjective. The master of writing shows himself to be such by the comparative absence of these two parts of speech. He gets his effects by using colorful verbs. A good exercise consists in watching the people one meets in daily life on the sidewalks, and trying to find the one verb which will distinguish their way of walking from that of everybody else you have seen that day. There are a thousand and one different ways of saying “He went across the street,” just as there are of stating the fact of “She said,” and an excellent start toward a vivid style lies in these two suggestions.
In the matter of slang, good taste alone must dictate. In certain types of stories, slang is permissible. Sports particularly have indulged in this language. On the other hand there are stories where it would be distinctly bad taste and out of place. In an obituary, for instance, we rarely wish to see slang used. On the whole, it may be safely said that a writer weakens his real command over language if he allows himself to become dependent on slang for forcefulness. Most reputable papers do not like slang in their general news-columns, as it tends to lower the tone of their paper.
SENTENCES are generally shorter in newspapers than in ordinary writing. Especially the first sentence must be short, in the estimation of many editors, who like a “short lead.” This does not mean, however, that a short choppy succession of bullet-like sentences is good newspaper writing. As has been said before, the best news-writing is that which attracts least attention to itself. So it is best to vary the form of one’s sentences, both in length and structure. A whole succession of very short or very long sentences would be monotonous, and hence bad. Several sentences all starting out with the same word or group of words would tire us. It is best to train one’s ear for this sort of thing in writing and to try to be sensitive to this sort of repetition so that if the typewriter begins to tap out automatically a series of monotonous sentences, the subconscious will step in and sound a warning. Another hint as to the forcefulness of sentences lies in the fact that in general a sentence sounds stronger if it ends with a noun or at least a verb. Not only is “a preposition bad to end a sentence with,” but the same is also true of adverbs and, to a less degree, of adjectives. Take some news-story that strikes you as being strongly written, and look at the closing words of the sentences. The results will bear me out, I am pretty sure.
In both sentences and paragraphs the most forceful arrangement is generally that in which the principal elements are placed first. Just as in the story as a whole it was seen that the lead gives the principal facts, so also at the beginning of each paragraph there should be some indication of the matter contained in it. In a fire story, if we are dealing with the insurance involved, the paragraph might open with the words: “Insurance covered most of the buildings, it was learned today.” Or if the damages are being dealt with, they might be organized under the paragraph beginning, “Total damages will amount to $50,000.” The sentence can be treated in the same manner, thus indicating to the reader its bearing on the story as a whole and making for greater coherence.
For this reason, such expressions as “It is said,” or “Mr. Smith remarked,” or “She declared,” are generally not placed either at the beginning of a sentence or of a paragraph, but are “buried” in the body of the sentence or the paragraph. The important position at the beginning is thus reserved for really important matter. Situations may arise where this general rule will best be neglected, but on the whole it embodies a good principle of news-writing.
PARAGRAPHS as a whole are shorter in newspapers than elsewhere, and this is one of the most marked differences encountered by the young writer taking up newspaper work. Because of the narrowness of the average newspaper column, allowing only about six or seven words to the line, an ordinary paragraph taken from a novel or an essay would take on a length that would discourage the reader. Newspapers differ in this respect, but fifty words may be taken as the common length of paragraphs in news-stories. This means that the thought is divided into smaller sections, and the reporter must early begin to learn to organize his material accordingly.
ORGANIZING THE STORY
The news-story as a whole is generally very simply organized. In the lead, as has been said, are given all the principal facts of the story, including in the first sentence or the first paragraph at latest the five essentials. If there are other facts so interesting that they ought to be brought before the reader in this first account, they may be added, before the “body” of the story is reached. If the editor has asked for a longer story than is made by these facts, the reporter can go back to the beginning of the happening and give an account of the whole thing, following the time sequence and being careful not to repeat the material already incorporated in the lead.
In the story of a FIRE, for instance, the lead would include, besides the most interesting fact in the whole story, the five essentials as to WHAT burned, WHERE, WHEN, and HOW. If there were other interesting circumstances, these would now be given, together with the total damages, insurance, etc. In the body of the story would be given the origin of the fire, who discovered the fire, who gave the alarm, what companies responded, narrow escapes, other houses threatened, what was saved, etc. If there are deaths in the fire, that fact will generally be made the feature of the story and the same is true of rescues.
In the case of an ACCIDENT, the names of the dead or seriously wounded will generally be featured, unless there are too many of them, in which case the number itself would be placed first. In a story like this, the names of the dead and wounded are often placed in a “box” at the head of the story, with the addresses, ages, occupations, of the people so that they can be quickly identified by the reading public. The five essentials are given, with particular stress laid on the WHO, so that, as has been pointed out, a full identification can readily be made by those interested. If more is needed, a detailed account of the accident can be given, with verbatim account from the people themselves if possible, or from witnesses. The names of those who rendered assistance are given, the attending physician, and to what hospital the wounded were taken. This last is naturally very important, as friends or relatives who have not previously heard of the accident will wish to know this fact immediately.
In the account of a MEETING, after the lead, which will tell where and when the meeting took place and for what purpose, besides bringing out the most interesting feature of the whole story, will come the chronological story of the meeting, with at least the main parts of the various speeches. Direct quotation is generally most desirable for at least a part of the speech. As was pointed out before, the specific is what the public wants; and when the reader sees quotation marks, he feels that he is getting real news from the meeting. For the same reason, these direct quotations are placed at the beginning of a paragraph. They tend to liven a story and should be placed where the reader’s eye will easily light on them. Expressions such as “he said,” “continued the speaker,” “demanded Mr. Jones,” etc., should be buried in the body of the paragraph, as being less important.
SPORTS stories always give the results of a game first, with the WHY or HOW element played up if possible. The five essentials are given, and in the lead are also given any particularly interesting facts which the reader would want to know first before going on with the rest of the story. Then the account is taken up round by round, inning by inning, quarter by quarter, etc., and a more or less detailed statement of each play is given. Finally the line-up on each side is given, with names of officials, etc.
Accounts of TRIALS are generally begun with the final decision, with the five essentials, as in other stories, and with especial care manifested once more in the matter of the WHO.
The reporter must be very careful in this matter of identification in such cases, as in case he says it was Charles D. Mazuma of the X.Y.Z. railroad office who is on trial, whereas in fact it was a Charles L. Mazuma of the D.E.F. Interurban lines, he lays his paper open to heavy damages. Direct or indirect quotation of evidence is frequently given, in cases which particularly interest the public.
Another type of story in which the reporter must exercise great care is the CRIME story. The five essentials are all most important here and the most interesting element will be featured as usual. The HOW and the WHY are always interesting in cases of this kind, or in case they are unknown, statements of opinion may be quoted or given as the general belief. In case of murder, the name of the victim will generally be featured, although in case the murderer is a prominent figure in the community, his name would very likely be put first. But the thing that must be borne in mind all the time while writing a crime news-story is the fact that the man has not yet been convicted of the crime, and consequently we must be careful not to try him in the columns of our newspaper, or convict him in our news-accounts. This means that we must not say that So-and-So stole a watch, for that fact is not yet proven before a court of law. If he has confessed to it, all right. But otherwise all that we know is that he has been CHARGED with that offense, and we must be careful to go no further. This is the reason why you will find newspaper stories of crimes so hedged about with such expressions as “it is alleged” and “is said to have.” Until he has been tried, a man is an alleged thief only, and the reporter must remember that fact, else his paper may find itself with a pretty libel suit on its hands, with damages in the tens of thousands.
If the WHO is not known in a crime story, that very fact is interesting, and possible clues and suspects may be given in the lead. In the body of the story, an account may be given of the discovery of the crime, the calling of the police, their investigations. Quotations from police or victims may be given, or from people arrested in connection with the affair. Witnesses of crimes may be quoted verbatim or indirectly. It is not necessary to make the story more sensational than it is. Here, as elsewhere, good reporting consists in the clear statement of facts, set down in terms of specific observations. The reporter should at all times remain what his name implies, one that brings reports of things seen and heard. His own opinions should be kept in the background at all times, and nowhere more so than in this type of story.