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Chapter 13,817 wordsPublic domain

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The Style Book of the Detroit News

_For helpful suggestions the editor is beholden to the style books of the United States Government Printing Office, the Universities of Missouri, Iowa and Montana, the Indianapolis News, the Chicago Herald, and the New York Evening Post; to "Newspaper Writing and Editing," by Willard G. Bleyer; "Newspaper Editing," by Grant M. Hyde; "The Writing of News," by Charles G. Ross; and to the New York Tribune for permission to make applicable to Michigan its digest of the libel laws of New York._

_The inscriptions on the building of The News, reprinted in this book in boxes, were written by Prof. Fred N. Scott, of the University of Michigan._

Founded by James Edmund Scripps August 23, 1873

Absorbed the subscription lists of the Detroit Daily Union July 27, 1876

Established a Sunday edition Nov. 30, 1884

Sunday News and Sunday Tribune combined as Sunday News-Tribune October 15, 1893

Daily Tribune merged with The News and discontinued February 1, 1915

Ground broken for present building November, 1915

Sunday News-Tribune became The Sunday News October 14, 1917

The News entered new building October 15, 1917

_The_ STYLE BOOK OF The Detroit News

Edited by

A. L. WEEKS

Published and Copyrighted 1918 by

The Evening News Association Detroit

This edition consists of 1,000 copies, of which this is No. 625

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Aim of The Detroit News 1

Instructions to Reporters 4

Instructions to Copy Readers 6

Preparing Copy 7

Leads 7

Heads 8

Diction 14

A. P. Style 15

Capitalization 17

Punctuation 22

Quotations 23

Nouns 24

Pronouns 27

Conjunctions 28

Verbs 29

Adverbs 33

Adjectives 34

Prepositions 37

Articles 38

Numbers 38

Roman Numerals 39

Weights and Measures 40

Abbreviation 42

Names and Titles 45

Jew and Hebrew 46

Church Titles 48

Compounds 48

Superfluous Words 49

Vital Statistics 50

Spelling 51

Popular Names of Railroads 52

Do and Don't 54

The Cannery 57

Michigan Institutions 59

Army and Navy Organization 60

Dates Often Called For 62

The Law of Libel 64

First Three Years of the War 72

Index 77

THE AIM OF THE DETROIT NEWS

Formation of a newspaper's ideals comes through a process of years. The best traditions of the past, blending with hopes of the future, should be the writer's guide for the day. Nov. 1, 1916, the editor-in-chief of The Detroit News, in a letter to the managing editor, wrote his interpretation of the principles under which the staff should work, in striving toward those journalistic ideals to which this paper feels itself dedicated. His summary of the best practices of the profession follows:

The Detroit News should be:

Vigorous, but not vicious.

Interesting, but not sensational.

Fearless, but fair.

Accurate as far as human effort can obtain accuracy.

Striving ever to gain and impart information.

As bright as possible, but never sacrificing solid information for brilliancy.

Looking for the uplifting rather than the depraved things of life.

We should work to have the word RELIABLE stamped on every page of the paper.

The place to commence this is with the staff members: First, getting men and women of character to do the writing and editing; and then training them in our way of thinking and handling news and other reading matter.

If you make an error you have two duties to perform--one to the person misrepresented and one to your reading public. Never leave the reader of The News misinformed on any subject. If you wrongfully write that a man has done something that he did not do, or has said something that he did not say, you do him an injustice--that's one. But you also do thousands of readers an injustice, leaving them misinformed as to the character of the man dealt with. Corrections should never be made grudgingly. Always make them cheerfully, fully, and in larger type than the error, if there is any difference.

The American people want to know, to learn, to get information. To quote a writer: "Your opinion is worth no more than your information." Give them your information and let them draw their own conclusions. Comment should enlighten by well marshaled facts, and by telling the readers what relation an act of today has to an act of yesterday. Let them come to their own conclusions as far as possible.

No issue is worth advocating that is not strong enough to withstand all the facts that the opposition to it can throw against it. Our readers should be well informed on both sides of every issue.

Kindly, helpful suggestions will often direct officials in the right, when nagging will make them stay stubbornly on the wrong side. That does not mean that there should be any lack of diligence in watching for, and opposing, intentional criminals.

A staff can be good and strong only by having every part of it strong. The moment it becomes evident that a man, either by force of circumstance or because of his own character, does not fit into our organization, you do him a kindness and do justice to the paper by letting him know, so he can go to a calling in which he can succeed, and will not be in the way of filling the place with a competent man.

No one on the staff should be asked to do anything that will make him think less of himself or the paper.

MAKE THE PAPER GOOD ALL THE WAY THROUGH, so there will not be disappointment on the part of a reporter if his story is not found on the first page, but so he will feel that it must have merit to get into the paper at all. Avoid making it a "front-page paper."

Stories should be brief, but not meager. Tell the story, all of it, in as few words as possible.

Nature makes facts more interesting than any reporter can imagine them. There is an interesting feature in every story, if you will dig it out. If you don't get it, it is because you don't dig deep enough.

The most valuable asset of any paper is its reputation for telling the truth; the only way to have that reputation is to tell the truth. Untruth due to carelessness or excessive imagination injures the paper as much as though intentional.

Everyone with a grievance should be given a respectful and kindly hearing; especial consideration should be given the poor and lowly, who may be less capable of presenting their claims than those more favored in life. A man of prominence and education knows how to get into the office and present his complaint. A washerwoman may come to the door, timidly, haltingly, scarcely knowing what to do, and all the while her complaint may be as just as that of the other complainant, perhaps more so. She should be received kindly and helped to present what she has to say.

Simple, plain language is strongest and best. A man of little education can understand it, while the man of higher education, usually reading a paper in the evening after a day's work, will read it with relish. There is never any need of using big words to show off one's learning. The object of a story or an editorial is to inform or convince; but it is hard to do either if the reader has to study over a big word or an involved sentence. Use plain English all the time. A few readers may understand and appreciate a Latin or French quotation, or one from some other foreign language, but the big mass of our readers are the plain people, and such a quotation would be lost on the majority.

Be fair. Don't let the libel laws be your measure in printing of a story, but let fairness be your measure. If you are fair, you need not worry about libel laws.

Always give the other fellow a hearing. He may be in the wrong, but even that may be a matter of degree. It wouldn't be fair to picture him as all black when there may be mitigating circumstances.

It is not necessary to tell the people that we are honest, or bright, or alert, or that a story appeared exclusively in our paper. If true, the public will find it out. An honest man does not need to advertise his honesty.

Time heals all things but a woman's damaged reputation. Be careful and cautious and fair and decent in dealing with any man's reputation, but be doubly so--and then some--when a woman's name is at stake. Do not by direct statement, jest or careless reference raise a question mark after any woman's name if it can be avoided--and it usually can be. Even if a woman slips, be generous; it may be a crisis in her life. Printing the story may drive her to despair; kindly treatment may leave her with hope. No story is worth ruining a woman's life--or a man's, either.

Keep the paper clean in language and thought. Profane or suggestive words are not necessary. When in doubt, think of a 13-year-old girl reading what you are writing.

Do not look on newspaper work as a "game," of pitilessly printing that on which you are only half informed, for the mere sake of beating some other paper; but take it rather as a serious, constructive work in which you are to use all your energy and diligence to get all the worth-while information for your readers at the earliest possible moment.

INSTRUCTIONS TO REPORTERS

When you go after a story, make sure that you get all of it.

Drill yourself into searching for facts; almost anybody can write a story--it takes real brains and resourcefulness to get one.

You are urged to call the city editor for instructions whenever in doubt, and it is a good idea to call as often as possible to keep the office informed and also to get any information on your story that may have come in from other sources.

Before you write or telephone your story, make sure that you have all your facts marshaled in your own mind. A good reporter usually plans his story, lead and details in his head on his way to the office.

NEVER GUESS.

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT.

When you turn in a story KNOW that everything in that story is true--and if you feel there is a statement you can not prove, call your city editor's attention to it.

To color or fake a story is not newspaper work--it is prostitution of the profession of journalism.

Be sure of your sources of information. Never take anything for granted--find out for yourself. You will discover that many persons talk convincingly about things although they have no actual knowledge of the subject under discussion.

Remember always that a newspaper has to prove what it says--and any decent newspaper is eager to.

If you don't know, tell the city editor you don't know. To guess is criminal because nobody can guess with any consistent degree of accuracy. And accuracy should be your guide.

Reporters should study their stories after they are printed, with the realization that any changes made in them were made to better them. Ask why your stories have been changed so your next story will be better through avoidance of the same mistake.

Never be afraid to ask anybody anything.

The mainspring of a good newspaper man is a wholesome curiosity.

The essentials of newspaper writing are accuracy and simplicity. The newspaper is no place for fine writing. Simplicity means directness and conciseness in telling the story as well as an avoidance of hifalutin phrases, obsolete words and involved sentences.

Walt Whitman wrote: "The art of arts, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity--nothing can make up for excess or the lack of definiteness."

Every worker on a newspaper knows the value of accuracy. Accuracy is the god before whom all newspaper men bow. If one could analyze the effort put forth in one day in this office, one might discover that perhaps a third of that effort was in an attempt to obtain accuracy. The city directory is the newspaper man's Bible because accuracy is his deity.

The hardest lesson the journalist must learn is the development of the impersonal viewpoint. He must learn to write what he sees and hears, clearly and accurately, with never a tinge of bias. His own views, his personal feelings and his friendships should have nothing to do with what he writes in a story.

The ideal reporter would be a man who could give the public facts about his bitterest enemy even though such facts would make the man he personally hated a hero before the public.

In journalism more than in any other profession does the advice hold good: "Beware of your friends; your enemies will take care of themselves." By this is meant: Learn well the code of ethics which governs your profession, and when any man in the guise of friendship asks you to violate that code, you may say to him, "If you were truly my friend, you would not ask me to do this any more than you would ask a physician as a matter of friendship to perform an illegal operation, or a lawyer to stoop to shyster practices."

Supplying his editors with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, is the only mission of the reporter, and any man who asks the reporter to deviate from that principle asks that which is dishonest.

BE TRUE

Thomas Carlyle: To every writer we might say: Be true, if you would be believed. Let a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition of his own heart; and other men, so strangely are we all knit together by the tie of sympathy, must and will give heed to him. In culture, in extent of view, we may stand above the speaker, or below him; but in either case, his words, if they are earnest and sincere, will find some response within us; for in spite of all casual varieties in outward rank or inward, as face answers to face, so does the heart of man to man.

INSTRUCTIONS TO COPY READERS

The copy reader's position carries with it larger responsibilities than the position of any other member of the staff. He can mar or ruin a good story; he can redeem the poor story; he can save the reporter from errors of commission or omission in the matter of his story or in the manner of its writing. No matter how accomplished a writer a reporter may be, the copy reader who handles his story can destroy his product. Then, too, it is the function of the copy reader, if he believes that a better story can be written with the same facts as a basis, to suggest to the city editor that the story be rewritten by the reporter, by another reporter or by the copy reader himself. Because a man is reading copy, he should not imagine that he is not to write a story or rewrite one when occasion demands.

Charles G. Ross writes: "His [the copy reader's] work is critical rather than creative. It is destructive so far as errors of grammar, violations of news style and libel are concerned. But if his sense of news is keen, as that of every copy reader should be, he will find abundant opportunity for something more than mechanical deletion and interlineation. He may insert a terse bit of explanation to clear away obscurity, or may add a piquant touch that will redeem a story from dullness. To the degree that he edits news with sympathy and understanding, with a clear perception of news values, his work may be regarded as creative. If, on the other hand, he conceives it his duty to reduce all writing to a dead level of mediocrity * * * * he richly deserves the epithet that is certain to be hurled at the copy reader by the reporter whose fine phrases have been cut out--he is in truth a 'butcher' of copy."

Dr. Willard G. Bleyer writes: "The reading and editing of copy consists of (1) correcting all errors whether in expression or in fact; (2) making the story conform to the style of the newspaper; (3) improving the story in any respect; (4) eliminating libelous matter; (5) marking copy for the printer; (6) writing headlines and subheads."

LEARNING THE METIER

Said Robert Louis Stevenson to a painter friend: "You painter chaps make lots of studies, don't you? And you don't frame them all and send them to the Salon, do you? You just stick them up on the studio wall for a bit, and presently you tear them up and make more. And you copy Velasquez and Rembrandt and Vandyke and Corot; and from each you learn some little trick of the brush, some obscure little point of technic. And you know damn well that it is the knowledge thus acquired that will enable you later on to deliver your own message with a fine and confident bravado. You are simply learning your metier; and believe me, mon cher, an artist in any line without the metier is just a blind man with a stick. Now, in the literary line I am simply doing what you painter men are doing in the pictorial line--learning the metier."

PREPARING COPY

Use the typewriter. See that the keys are clean. Use triple space. Write on one side of the paper. Do not paste sheets together. Leave wide margins on both sides and at the top. Write your name and a brief description of the story in two or three words at top of first sheet. Number sheets. Never write perpendicularly in the margin. Never divide a word from one page to another, and if possible do not divide a word from one line to the next. Try to make each page end with a completed paragraph to aid the composing room in setting the story in "takes." When necessary to write in long hand, underscore _u_ and overscore _n_, and print proper names and unusual words. Ring periods or write _x_ to stand for them. When there is a chance that a word intentionally misspelled will be changed by the printer, write _Follow Copy_ in the margin. Indent deeply for paragraphs. Use an end-mark to indicate your story is completed. Avoid interlining by crossing out the sentence you desire to correct and writing it again.

Save time for your office by care in writing and editing. A little thought before setting down a sentence will save you the trouble of rewriting and the copy reader the annoyance of reading untidy copy.

LEADS

There is generally a better way to begin a story than with _A_, _An_, _The_, _It is_, _There is_, _There are_.

Avoid beginning a story with figures, but when this must be done, then spell out, as: _Ten thousand men marched away today._

The comprehensive A. P. lead is generally preferable, but in writing some stories, particularly feature stories, a reporter may find a more effective lead than the sentence or sentences that summarize the story.

Remember that your reader's time may be limited and that if your story begins with a striking sentence, arresting either because of what it says or the manner in which it says it, your story will be read.

THE CUTTLEFISH

He that uses many words for the explaining of any subject doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself in his own ink.--Anon.

HEADS

"The head," says Ross, "is an advertisement, and like all good advertisements it should be honest, holding out no promise that the story does not fulfill. It should be based on the facts as set forth in the story and nothing else."

The head should be a bulletin or summary of the important facts, not a mere label.

It is usually best to base the head on the lead of the story. The first deck should tell the most important feature. Every succeeding deck should contribute new information, not merely explain previous statements or repeat them in different language.

The function of the head is to tell the facts, not to give the writer's comment on the facts.

The head for the feature story, the special department, the editorial or the illustration may properly be a title that suggests the material it advertises instead of summarizing it. Indeed, the success of a feature story often depends on its having a head that directs the reader to the story and arouses his curiosity in it without disclosing the most interesting content. Head writers should beware of revealing in the head the surprise of a story, if it has one.

Never turn in a head that you _guess_ will fit. Make sure. Heads that are too long cause delay and confusion.

As a general rule write heads in the present tense.

Principal words should not be repeated. Do not, however, use impossible synonyms, as _canine_ for _dog_ or _inn_ for _hotel_.

Make every deck complete in itself.

Use articles sparingly. Occasionally they are needed. Observe the difference in meaning between _King George Takes Little Liquor_ and _King George Takes a Little Liquor_.

Avoid such overworked and awkward words as _probe_, _rap_, _quiz_, _Russ_.

Never abbreviate _President_ to _Pres._

Avoid ending a line with a preposition, an article or a conjunction, as,

TO MAKE PLANS FOR AMERICAN DEFENSE

Do not divide phrases, as,

CUT IN SCHEDULE "K" IS PROBABLE

CAMP PICKS ALL- AMERICAN TEAM

Try to make each line of the first deck a unit, as,

POSTOFFICE ROBBED BY BAND OF TRAMPS

TARIFF BOARD REPORTS ON ALL WOOL SCHEDULES

STORY OF DYING MAN REOPENS GRAFT CASE

Observe that in reading these heads there is a natural pause that comes at the end of the line. The same principle may govern the writing of three-line heads, as,

ONE GIRL'S ACT PREVENTS 60,000 FROM WORKING

WAYNE MEN WANT CANAL TO CONNECT CITY WITH DETROIT

In the head just written observe that the first line has fewer letters because it contains two W's and an M. Either an M or a W is equal to a letter and a half, and an I and a space are each equal to half a letter. The first line contains 14½ units; the second line contains 15 units; the third line contains 15 units. And yet the first line contains 14 letters and spaces, the second 16, and the third 17.

Every deck should contain a verb, expressed or implied. In this head,

THIEVES BUSY IN NORTH END

the verb _are_ is understood.