phrases, unless the writer has accustomed himself to think clearly and accurately in concrete, specific terms. The only way that the newspaper writer can make his work rise above the level of the average is by seeing more in persons and events than does the ordinary reporter and by expressing what he sees with greater freshness and individuality. The classic bit of advice given by Flaubert to De Maupassant, the French master of the short story, is of the greatest value to the newspaper reporter who would cultivate in his style both conciseness and originality. It is in part as follows:
Everything which one desires to express must be looked
at with sufficient attention, and during a sufficiently long time,
to discover in it some aspect no one has as yet seen or described.
The smallest object contains something unknown.
Find it.
Whatever one wishes to say, there is only one noun to express it, only one verb to give it life, only one adjective to qualify it. Search, then, till that noun, that verb, that adjective are discovered; never be content with "very nearly"; never have recourse to tricks, however happy; or to buffooneries of language, to avoid a difficulty.
This is the way to become original.
Typographical "Style." For such details of typographical
"style" as capitalization, abbreviation, hyphenation,
and use of numerical figures, every newspaper
has a set of special rules, generally printed in a
so-called "style book," that are invariably followed by
copy-readers and compositors. When a reporter begins
work on a newspaper, he should study carefully all these
peculiarities, so that he may follow them in preparing
his copy. He also should learn as quickly as possible
the paper's printed style rules, or, if there are no printed
rules, he should study the news stories as examples of
the practice followed in the office. Some newspapers
have an "index expurgatorius," or list of words and
