  | CHAPTER | | PAGE | | I. | Newspaper Copy
Terminology—Directions for Preparing Copy | 1 | | II. | The English of the Newspapers
Clearness—Conciseness—Force | 7 | | III. | The Writer’s Viewpoint
Fairness—Impersonality—Good Taste—Originality | 17 | | IV. | The Importance of Accuracy
In Observation—In Names—In Street Addresses—In Spelling | 30 | | V. | News Values
The Reporter—What Is News?—The Newspaper’s Problem—Kinds of Stories | 41 | | VI. | Writing the Lead
What the Lead Is—What the Lead Should Contain—Observance of Style—Leads to Be Avoided—Sentence Structure—Leads That Begin With Names—The General Rule—Study of 100 Typical Stories | 57 | | VII. | The Story Proper
Compression and Expansion—The Mechanics of the Story | 79 | | VIII. | The Feature Story
What the Feature Story Is Not—Stories for Entertainment—The Human-Interest Story—The Editor’s Problem—Sunday Magazine Stories | 98 | | IX. | The Interview
When the Interview Is Incidental—When the Interview Is the Story | 113 | | X. | Special Types of Stories
Stories of Fires—Deaths—Weddings—Crimes—Business—Second-Day Stories—Rewriting | 129 | | XI. | The Correspondent
Writing for the Wire—Some Pitfalls to Be Avoided—What Not to Send—What to Send—Sporting News—How to Send—Handling the Big Story—Sending by Mail—General Instructions—Payment | 150 | | XII. | Copy Reading
Qualifications for the Work—Organization of Copy Readers—Editing the Story—Rules About Libel—The Guide Line—Marks Used in Editing—Additions and Insertions—The Lighter Side—The Copy Reader’s Schedule | 171 | | XIII. | Writing the Head
First Requisites of the Head—Definiteness—The Question of Tense—The Mechanics of the Head—Some Things to Avoid—Symmetry and Sense—Special Kinds of Heads—Capitalization | 193 | | XIV. | Don’ts for the News Writer | 211 | | XV. | Newspaper Bromides | 224 | | Index | 231 | THE WRITING OF NEWS ... But however great a gift, if news instinct as born were turned loose in any newspaper office in New York without the control of sound judgment bred by considerable experience and training, the results would be much more pleasing to the lawyers than to the editor. One of the chief difficulties in journalism now is to keep the news from running rampant over the restraints of accuracy and conscience. And if a “nose for news” is born in the cradle, does not the instinct, like other great qualities, need development by teaching, by training, by practical object-lessons illustrating the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the popular and the unpopular, the things that succeed and the things that fail, and above all the things that deserve to succeed, and the things that do not—not the things only that make circulation for to-day, but the things that make character and influence and public confidence?—From an article by Joseph Pulitzer in the North American Review. THE WRITING OF NEWS
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