“Facts are stubborn things.”

Le Sage.

I.Assignment

Find and report some unusual and interesting thing that has been made or done by boys or girls. Do not get your information from literature. Get it from life. Above all, don’t make it up. It must be fact, not fiction.

When the city editor gives a reporter an assignment, he does not expect to answer questions. The reporter’s business is to give the city editor copy, not to rely on him for information. The reporter who does not promptly learn this fact soon ceases to be a reporter.

II.Getting the Facts

In all writing the gathering of material is more important than any other one thing. In reportorial work it is almost all-important. Almost anybody can tell a story if he has the facts. Energy, persistent politeness, and a pair of stout legs are more essential in reporting than is a large vocabulary. The pursuit of news is always a fascinating and sometimes a dangerous game. If you do not believe this, read Fighting in Flanders, by E. Alexander Powell; or The Events Man, by Richard Barry. Above everything else, remember that the most uncompromising adherence to facts is essential.

Do not make the mistake of supposing that newspaper men fail to recognize the importance of telling the exact truth. They strive constantly and strenuously to do so. In the office of the New York World there used to be, and probably still is, a placard on which Joseph Pulitzer had printed these three words: “Accuracy, Accuracy, ACCURACY.” All reporters strive constantly to be accurate. If they do not always succeed, it is due to the difficulty of the task. They have to work fast lest the news grow cold. Usually they write in the midst of an uproar. When you are disposed to find fault with them by reason of their carelessness, remember that Sir Walter Raleigh, unable to determine the facts concerning a quarrel that occurred under his own window, concluded that his chance of telling the truth about events that happened centuries previous was small.

III.Writing

In preparing manuscript the typewriter in these days is almost indispensable. The value to a reporter of a course in typewriting is therefore obvious. It is also obvious that copy must be letter-perfect. Before it can be printed, it must be entirely free from mistakes in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and the other essentials of good usage.

IV.Model

The following article is clipped from a New York daily. In what it says and leaves unsaid it is an excellent model.

FARTHEST NORTH IS RIGHT HERE IN TOWN

Hundreds of persons were attracted yesterday to Brook Avenue, near One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, to inspect the handiwork in snow of three fourteen-year-old boys.

They had built a thick-walled cottage, 25feet high and with 15×16feet ground dimensions. Roof and walls, inside and out, had been smoothed; and a coat of water had turned the snow house into a shimmering glaze.

The interior was divided into four rooms, all bearing out the truthfulness of the sign tacked up without, which read: “House to let, three rooms and bath.” Even the bath, modeled in snow, was there. Rugs, tables, chairs, and sofas made the Esquimau edifice cozy within; and an oil stove kept eggs and coffee sizzling merrily at dinner time.

The builders were three days at their task. They are Tom Brown, of No.516 East One Hundred and Forty-seventh Street; Arthur Carraher, of No.430 Brook Avenue; and Walter Waller, of No.525 East One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street.

V.Notes and Queries

1. State the reason for the use of each capital letter and each mark of punctuation in the model.
2. Tell whether each sentence is simple, complex, or compound.
3. Explain the syntax of each adverb in the model.
4. Point out three words or phrases that have color, character, or distinction.
5. What is the subject of each paragraph?
6. Are the “Four W’s” sufficiently indicated? Point them out.
7. Study the heading. The art of writing good headings is almost as difficult as that of writing good poetry, which it resembles in that, as the poet is limited to a certain number of syllables, the writer of headlines is limited to a fixed number of letters.

VI.Suggested Time Schedule

Monday

Discuss Sections I, II, and III of this chapter. Send the class to the board and dictate the model as an exercise in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Review last week’s work.

Tuesday

Recitation on Notes and Queries.

Wednesday

Oral Composition: i.e., each pupil will bring to class his news article—not written but in his head—and be prepared to deliver it to the class as if he were a reporter dictating to a stenographer or telephoning his report to his paper.

Thursday

Profiting by Wednesday’s discussion, the pupils will write their articles and hand them to the teacher, who will proof-read them and return them on Monday.

Friday

Public Speaking—Organize the class as a club. Let the officers arrange a program consisting of declamations, debates, essays, dialogues, etc. This day may also be used for the reading of the best articles that members of the class have written.

VII.Organization of Material

After you get your story, you must decide on a plan for its discussion. This will depend largely on its nature. Indeed, the plan and the style of any piece of writing are to the material as are the clothes to the body. They must fit the body. The body determines their shape.

The model in SectionIV is a bit of exposition composed partly of description and partly of narration. Its framework is as follows:

1. Par.1. The “Four W’s”:
   • Who=hundreds of people;
   • What=handiwork in snow;
   • When=yesterday;
   • Where=Brook Avenue near One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street.
2. Par.2. The Exterior of the House.
3. Par.3. The Interior.
4. Par.4. The Architects.

VIII.Some Possible Subjects

1. The Gas Engine that Jack built.
2. A Profitable Garden.
3. How a Boy earned his Education.
4. A Cabinet.
5. How to bind Books.
6. Stocking and keeping an Aquarium.
7. How to build a Flatboat.
8. How to make Dolls from Corn-Husks.
9. Metallic Band Work.
10. A Sled made of Ice.
11. Silk Culture.
12. Chickens.
13. A Good Notebook.
14. A Sketch-Book.
15. A Successful Composition.
16. Skees.
17. A Paper Boat.
18. Toys made in the Manual Training Rooms.
19. A Hat.
20. A Dress.
21. The best subject of all, however, is none of these, but one that the pupil finds himself.

IX.Suggested Reading

Elbert Hubbard’s A Message to Garcia.

X.Memorize

A PSALM OF LIFE (continued from Page7)

Trust no future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

To Teachers. At this point a review of ChapterV, “Proof-Reading” and ChapterVI, “The Correction of Themes,” of Practical English Composition, BookI, will be found an invaluable exercise.
Contents