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Read Ebook: The Style Book of The Detroit News by Detroit News Weeks A L Albert Loren Editor
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ADJECTIVES
Be sparing in the use of epithets and of adjectives and adverbs generally. Especially avoid the use of superlatives. Superlatives are seldom true. Rarely is a man the most remarkable man in the country in any particular; rarely is an accident the worst in the history of the city. Better understate than overstate; better err on the side of moderation than excess. William Cobbett says: "Some writers deal in expletives to a degree that tires the ear and offends the understanding. With them everything is excessively, or immensely, or extremely, or vastly, or surprisingly, or wonderfully, or abundantly, or the like. The notion of such writers is that these words give strength to what they are saying. This is a great error. Strength must be found in the thought or it will never be found in the words. Big sounding words, without thoughts corresponding, are effort without effect."
Adjectives, if wisely used, give desirable color to a story. A thesaurus will brighten up a reporter's adjectival vocabulary. These are suggestions for possible substitutions of fresh words for more or less hackneyed words:
YOUR AUDIENCE
Says Irvin S. Cobb: I'd rather have my work read by thousands of people throughout the country than be the author of the greatest classic that ever mouldered on a shelf.
In my opinion, the masses are worth our art. If we believe in a democratic form of government we should believe in a democratic attitude toward the art of the short story, and I, for one, frankly admit that I write for the shop girl and business man rather than for the high-brow critic. That does not mean you must necessarily choose between them, but if I had to choose I would let the critic go.
NOTES
PREPOSITIONS
Be careful to use the proper prepositions in all connections.
ARTICLES
NUMBERS
The general rule on The News is that all numbers above nine shall be written in figures, and that all numbers below 10 shall be spelled out. There are, of course, many exceptions to this rule. Figures are always used for degrees of latitude and longitude, degrees of temperature, per cent, prices, racing time, scores, definite sums of money, time, votes, dates , ages, street numbers and tabulated statistics.
ROMAN NUMERALS
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Gunter's chain, 22 yards of 100 links.
A section is 640 acres.
A township is 36 sections, each 1 square mile.
A span is 9 inches.
A hand--horse measurement--is 4 inches.
A knot--nautical--is 6,086 feet.
A fathom--nautical--is 6 feet.
A stone is 14 pounds.
A square acre is 208 7-10 feet on each side.
The metric system is the system of measurement of which the meter is the fundamental unit. It was first adopted in France and is now in general use in most civilized countries except the English-speaking countries. The system is now used throughout the world for scientific measurements. Its use was legalized in the United States in 1866.
The meter, the unit of length, was intended to be one ten-millionth part of the earth's meridian quadrant and is nearly so. Its length is 39.370 inches. The unit of surface is the are, which is 100 square meters. The theoretical unit of volume is the stere, which is a cubic meter. The unit of volume for the purposes of the market is the liter, which is the volume of one kilogram of distilled water at its maximum density and is intended to be one cubic decimeter. For 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times and 10,000 times one of these units, the prefixes, deca-, hecto-, kilo- and myria- are used. For 1-10, 1-100 and 1-1,000 of the units, the prefixes deci-, centi- and milli- are used.
In this table the equivalents are measures common in the United States and are not to be confused with British measures, which in some cases vary slightly.
ABBREVIATION
This is the style of The News on abbreviating the names of states and territories:
Do not abbreviate names of cities, as Kazoo, Frisco, St. Joe.
Do not use state with names of well-known cities, such as Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, etc.
Adrian Ann Arbor Alpena Battle Creek Bay City Calumet Flint Grand Rapids Jackson Kalamazoo Lansing Muskegon Mt. Clemens Marquette Port Huron Saginaw Ypsilanti and places so near Detroit that they are generally known.
Beware of the names of cities in other states identical with those in Michigan. Also watch for the names of cities identical with those in other states, as Portland, Me., and Portland, Ore. A few cities that should carry a state designation because there are places of the same name in Michigan are:
Akron, O. Atlanta, Ga. Augusta, Me., or Ga. Bangor, Me. Birmingham, Ala. Brooklyn, N. Y. Canton, O. Caro, Ill. Chatham, Ont. Concord, N. H. Erie, Pa., or N. Y. Fargo, N. D. Frankfort, Ky. Grand Rapids, Wis., or Minn. Hanover, N. H. Helena, Mont. Jackson, Miss. Lincoln, Neb. Lowell, Mass. Manchester, N. H. Memphis, Tenn. Nashville, Tenn. Phoenix, Ariz. Plymouth, Mass. Pontiac, Ill. Portland, Me., or Ore. Quincy, Ill., or Mass. Rochester, N. Y., or Minn. Richmond, Va. Sandusky, O. St. Louis, Mo. Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Trenton, N. J. Vicksburg, Miss.
Use ampersand in firm name only when the firm uses it.
Spell out United States except in addresses or in army and navy phrases. Military and naval titles should be written thus:
Adjt. Adjt.-Gen. Brig.-Gen. Capt. Col. Corp. First Lieut. Gen. Lieut. Lieut.-Col. Lieut.-Gen. Maj. Maj.-Gen. Private Q. M.-Gen. Q. M.-Sergt. Second Lieut. Second Sergt. Sergt. Sergt.-Maj. Surg.-Gen. Surg.-Maj.
These abbreviations should be used:
Ald. Atty.-Gen. Gov. Lieut.-Gov. Sen. Rep. Cong. Supt.
Do not abbreviate street, avenue, boulevard, place or other designation of a thoroughfare.
Abbreviate the months thus:
Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
NAMES AND TITLES
All proper names should be looked up in the directory, dictionary or encyclopedia unless the reporter or copy reader is sure of the spelling. To misspell a man's name shakes that man's faith in the newspaper; leads him to believe that if the newspaper can't write his name correctly, it is likely to make other mistakes.
Do not quote familiar nicknames, such as Billy Sunday, Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Jim Corbett.
Do not write: Superintendent of Police Marquardt, but Supt. Marquardt, or Ernst Marquardt, superintendent of police.
Never refer to a woman, no matter how lowly her social position, as "the Smith woman." Call her Mrs. Smith or Miss Smith.
Do not write Mrs. Judge Smith, or Mrs. Dr. Jones.
It is the King of the Belgians, not the King of Belgium.
JEW AND HEBREW
The proper use of the words "Hebrew" and "Jew" has been explained by the American Jewish Committee, as follows: "Although no hard and fast rules can be laid down, the word 'Hebrew' has come to have a purely racial connotation. It refers to a race and to the language of that race. Thus we hear of a 'Hebrew Christian,' meaning a person of Hebrew descent who has been raised in or adopted the Christian religion. The word 'Jew,' although often used for denoting a member of the Hebrew race without reference to religion or nationality, has come, in the best usage, to have two restricted meanings--a national and a religious meaning. It used to mean a person who was a subject of the Kingdom of Judah, in the southern part of Palestine, and later it was also applied to those who were subjects of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Under Roman domination Palestine was called 'Judea' and its inhabitants 'Jews.' The word Jew has the same sense now among those who believe that the dispersion of the Jewish people and the fact that they possess no territory of their own has not deprived them of their character as a nation or nationality. The other meaning of 'Jew' is any one who professes the religious principles laid down in the Old Testament as interpreted in the Talmud. Thus, a Gentile who adopts the Jewish faith may be called a Jew, but may not be called a Hebrew, because he does not descend from that sub-class of the Semitic race from which the Hebrews are reputed to come. Up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century the Jews rarely applied the term 'Jew' to themselves, as it was used as a term of opprobrium and as a contemptuous epithet. The Jews preferred to call themselves 'Hebrews' or 'Israelites.' Since about 1880, however, the Jewish people have come to adopt this name more and more generally, and it has begun to lose its derogatory meaning. The word 'Jew' is always a noun, and its use as an adjective in such cases as 'Jew boy' and 'Jew peddler,' etc., is as ungrammatical as it is vulgar."
NOTES
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