Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence Part 20

Street and avenue are sometimes abbreviated in want-ads: State-st, Monona-av.

Spell out numbered streets and avenues up to 100th: Thirty-fourth street, 134th street.

Use & in names of firms, but use the long "and" in names of railroads. Use Etc. and not &c.; use Brothers and not Bros.

(except in ads); use & only when necessary to abbreviate in stocks.

Do not abbreviate the names of political parties except in election returns, then: Dem., Rep., Soc., Lab., Ind., Pro., Un. Cit.

Put in necessary commas in abbreviating railroad names: C., M. & St.

P. Ry. (Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway); C., C., C. & St.

L. R. R. (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad).

Abbreviate without periods in market review and quotations: 25c, bu, brls, tcs, pkgs, f o b, p t, etc. Spell out centimes except when given thus: 10f 20c.

Do not abbreviate Fort and Mount: Fort Wayne, Mount Vernon.

=12. Preparation of Copy:=

Use a typewriter or write legibly; some one must read your copy.

If you write with a typewriter, double or triple s.p.a.ce your copy; never use single s.p.a.ce.

Don't write on more than one side of the paper.

Leave sufficient margin for corrections and leave a s.p.a.ce at the top of the first page for headlines; leave an inch at the top of each page.

Don't put more than one story on a single sheet of paper.

Don't trust the copy-reader to fill in blanks or to correct misspelled names. If you write by hand print out proper names as legibly as possible; underscore _u_ and overscore _n_.

Don't a.s.sume that the copy-reader, the proofreader, or the editor will punctuate for you, or eliminate all superfluous punctuation.

Remember that uniformity is more to be desired than a strict following of style.

Don't turn in copy without re-reading carefully and verifying all names and addresses.

Use short paragraphs; always paragraph the lead separately; indent paragraphs distinctly.

Don't write over figures or words; scratch out and rewrite.

Number your pages; when pages are inserted use letters: pages 2, 3a, 3b, 4, 5.

A circle around an abbreviation or a figure indicates that the word or number is to be spelled out. A circle around a spelled-out word or number indicates that it is to be abbreviated or run in figures.

Mark the end of your story, thus: # # #

=13. Don'ts:=

Don't use "Honorable" or abbreviations thereof, except in extracts from speeches or doc.u.ments, in editorials, or before foreign names.

Don't add final s to afterward, toward, upward, downward, backward, earthward, etc.

Don't use "signed" before the signature of a letter or doc.u.ment; run signature in caps.

Don't begin a sentence or paragraph with figures; insert a word before the figures or spell out.

Don't use commas in dates or in figures which denote the number of a thing, as A. D. 1908, 2324 State street, Policy 33815; in other cases use the comma, as $5,289; 1,236,400 people.

Don't forget that the following are singular and require singular verbs: sums of money, as $23 was invested; United States; anybody, everybody, somebody, neither, either, none; whereabouts, as "His whereabouts is known."

Don't forget that things OCCUR by chance or accident, and that things TAKE PLACE by arrangement.

Don't "sustain" broken legs and other injuries.

Don't "administer" punishment.

Don't confound "audiences," "spectators," and casual "witnesses."

Don't say "party" for "person."

Don't use "suicide," "loan," "scare," as verbs.

Don't use "gotten"; it is questionable; use "got."

Don't use "burglarize."

Don't use "transpire" for "occur."

Don't use "locate" for "find"; to locate a thing is to place it.

Don't use "stopped" for "stayed": He stayed at the Central Hotel.

Don't "tender" receptions nor "render" songs; use simply "give" and "sing."

Don't "put in an appearance"; just appear.

Don't use "don't" for "doesn't."

Don't use "stated" for "said."

Don't say "per day" or "per year," but "a day," "a year"; per is a Latin word and can be used only before a Latin noun, as "per diem"

or "per annum."

Don't say "the meeting convened"; members might convene but a single body cannot.

Don't "claim that" anything is so; you can "claim" a thing, however.