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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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Ebook has 534 lines and 27537 words, and 11 pages
NOTES
CHURCH TITLES
In the Methodist church an episcopal division is denominated, Area; in the Catholic and Anglican communions, Diocese.
COMPOUNDS
SUPERFLUOUS WORDS
VITAL STATISTICS
In writing obituaries the reporter must use the greatest care, for it is very easy to offend the family of the subject of the obituary. Avoid the conventional euphemisms.
Prefer:
Avoid:
A DICTIONARY
Wrote Sir Clifford Allbutt: "A dictionary 'sanctions' nothing of its contents, but it enables us by consultation of its stores to compare and choose for ourselves. In using this liberty we shall neither be subservient to the prescriptions of age, nor scornful of modern freedom; in every use we shall be guided by historical growth, the example of the best authors, and our present necessities."
SPELLING
LOOK IT UP IF YOU ARE NOT SURE.
BETTER LOOK IT UP ANYWAY.
If two spellings are given in the dictionary, the first cited is preferable.
Follow these spellings:
Be sure that proper names are spelled uniformly throughout a story.
The people of Panama are Panamans, not Panamanians, just as we are Americans, not Americanians.
POPULAR NAMES OF RAILROADS
Big Four Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis. Burlington Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. Clover Leaf Toledo, St. Louis & Western. Cotton Belt St. Louis Southwestern. Katy Missouri, Kansas & Texas. Lackawanna Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. Lake Shore Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. Lookout Mountain Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis. Monon Chicago, Indiana & Louisville. Nickel Plate New York, Chicago & St. Louis. Pan Handle Pittsburg, Cleveland, Chicago & St. Louis. Queen & Crescent Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas. Rock Island Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. Soo Milwaukee & Sault Ste. Marie. St. Paul, or Milwaukee Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul.
NOTES
DO AND DON'T
Names of girls or women who are the victims of actual or attempted indecent attack are not to be published under ordinary circumstances. Authority for exceptions will be granted by the editor when there is sufficient reason.
Use the names of POISONS only when essential to the story.
Keep the reporter or a representative of The News out of the story. It is understood that a reporter and a reporter for The News writes a story that appears in The News.
Don't refer to the Darwinian theory or to Dr. Osler's theory without knowing what they mean.
Reporters frequently quote Kipling to the effect that west is west, east is east, and never the twain shall meet. But if they knew the poem, they would be aware of the fact that the next line qualifies the quoted lines and vitiates the observation.
A toga was a garment worn by a Roman citizen. The word is persistently misused to refer to senatorial honors.
It is almost an unbreakable rule that reporters and copy readers shall verify all quotations. Many of the most familiar phrases are popularly misquoted.
DANA'S EIGHT RULES
Charles A. Dana's eight rules for the guidance of a newspaper man are:
THE CANNERY
Dean Alford says: "Be simple, be unaffected, be honest in your speaking and writing. Call a spade a spade, not a well known oblong instrument of manual husbandry. Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us, but simplicity and straightforwardness are."
So many phrases have become hackneyed in newspapers that the comic magazines make jokes about them. This is from Puck:
A NEWSPAPER DICTIONARY
Avoid such phrases as:
burly Negro smoking revolver cheered to the echo in durance vile herculean efforts it goes without saying limps into port daring robber bolt from a clear sky facile pen breathless silence crisp bill grim reaper dusky damsel tonsorial parlor vale of tears denizens of the deep finny tribe knights of the grip like rats in a trap speculation is rife for 10 long years severed his connection solon probe city father leave no stone unturned whipped out a gun old Sol fair Luna Dan Cupid Dame Fashion milady Jupiter Pluvius affixed his signature vast concourse edifice was consumed infuriated animal summoned a physician busy marts of trade breakneck speed high dudgeon fragrant Havana divine passion city bastile immaculate linen minions of the law rash act never in the history of sad rites tidy sum light collation pale as death totally destroyed news leaked out rooted to the spot war to the knife fair sex white as a sheet to the bitter end well-known clubman pillar of the church large and enthusiastic audience natty suit giant pachyderm swathed in bandages tiny tots checkered career angry mob dull, sickening thud foeman worthy of his steel great beyond downy couch toothsome viands
Study of a thesaurus--there is one in the library--will enlarge the vocabulary and help the writer to rid himself of these trite phrases. How fresh words may give life to a piece of writing is shown in the chapter in this book on the use of adjectives.
CLARITY, FORCE, GRACE
"Of the three generally recognized qualities of good style--clarity, force and grace--it is the last and the last alone in which critics of newspaper English find their material," reads an editorial in the New York Evening Post. "Beauty, grace, suggestion of that final touch which confers on its object the immortality of perfect art, are nearly always conspicuously absent."
MICHIGAN INSTITUTIONS
There are no convicts in Michigan except men who have escaped or who have been discharged from institutions in other states. The Michigan State Prison at Jackson houses inmates. The same is true of the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia and the State House of Correction at Marquette. Industrial schools, homes, hospitals and a state public school have succeeded reform schools in Michigan. The humanizing movement has led the state to declare that persons detained in such institutions shall be designated pupils, patients or inmates. There are no prisoners in Michigan juvenile institutions.
The practice of printing the prison record of a man arrested in connection with the commission of a crime but not convicted of that crime is discouraged on The News. Often, former inmates of prisons, striving to lead decent lives, are brought in by the police on suspicion. To print their names may be to injure them needlessly without imparting valuable information to our readers.
The correct names of state institutions as given in the Michigan Official Directory and Legislative Manual are:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Michigan Agricultural College, East Lansing. State Normal College, Ypsilanti. Central Michigan Normal School, Mt. Pleasant. Northern State Normal School, Marquette. Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo. Michigan College of Mines, Houghton. Michigan School for the Deaf, Flint. Michigan School for the Blind, Lansing. Michigan Employment Institution for the Blind, Saginaw. State Public School, Coldwater. Industrial School for Boys, Lansing. Industrial Home for Girls, Adrian. Michigan Soldiers' Home, Grand Rapids. State Psychopathic Hospital, Ann Arbor. Kalamazoo State Hospital. Pontiac State Hospital. Traverse City State Hospital. Newberry State Hospital. Michigan Home and Training School, Lapeer. Michigan Farm Colony for Epileptics, Wahjamega. Ionia State Hospital. Michigan State Prison, Jackson. State House of Correction, Marquette. Michigan Reformatory, Ionia. Detroit House of Correction. State Sanitorium, Howell.
ARMY AND NAVY ORGANIZATION
The United States Army consists of officers, non-commissioned officers and privates. Officers hold commissions. Non-commissioned officers hold warrants. Officers in the regular army engage to serve the United States for life and may leave the service only on the acceptance of their resignations, on retirement or on dismissal imposed by sentence of a general court martial. Enlisted men in time of peace engage to serve for a definite term of years and at the expiration of this term, return to civil life or re-enlist as they may elect. Non-commissioned officers are enlisted men and the duration of their service is governed by the same rules that apply to privates.
The grades of commissioned officers, given in accordance with their relative rank are: General, lieutenant-general, major-general, brigadier-general, colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, captain, first lieutenant, second lieutenant. The grades of enlisted men are sergeant, corporal and private. There are numerous special grades in each of these general classes. Master sergeants, master electricians, etc., are the highest paid enlisted men and rank all others. Every commissioned officer ranks every enlisted man regardless of the length of their respective services. All officers are of equal social rank. Officers and enlisted men are forbidden to associate socially.
Cadets at the United States Military Academy are neither enlisted nor commissioned but have a status of their own. Socially they rank with officers. They are required to salute all officers but are not entitled to the salutes of enlisted men. Flying cadets in the Signal Corps, who are candidates for commissions as aviators or aeronauts, also have a status of their own. They are required to salute officers but do not receive the salutes of enlisted men. Officers salute one another, the juniors saluting the seniors, who acknowledge the courtesy.
The infantry organization is based on the company. Under war conditions, the company consists of 250 men. Four companies form a battalion, and three battalions a regiment. A headquarters company, a supply company and a machine gun company also are attached to each regiment. These three are smaller than the other companies. The band is part of the headquarters company.
The cavalry organization includes the troop, squadron of four troops, and regiment of three squadrons, with headquarters, machine gun and supply organizations. The field artillery regiment is made up of six batteries, divided into two battalions. It also has headquarters and supply companies.
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