then to write for himself the proposed letter. A committee of three will correct these letters. After correction, these letters are to be copied into the English notebook.

(h) Making an Outline. — Keeping in mind all the points that have been brought out in class in dealing with this chapter, make an outline that shall omit no important point. Prepare to recite from it.

Important Cautions. The permanent editorial committee heretofore suggested, which is to watch all class or individual work with reference to the seven points already mentioned (page 5) should note the following important items1 in addition.

VIII. Do not write parts of sentences, such as clauses or phrases, with a period as though they were complete sentences.

IX. Do not suffer gross disagreement between a verb and its subject. As, for instance, He don't (does not or doesn't) know any better.

X. Do not misspell any of the following twenty words: to, too, two, their, there, all right, already, until, develop, separate, lose, loose, chose, choose, which, dining, whether, together, quite, quiet.

Spelling List. The editorial committee may by this time have a second list of fifty words misspelled by pupils in their daily exercise. If so, let it be used for a drill in spelling.

Summary of the Principles of Effective English. - Get these points clearly in mind.

1. To attain unity, you must eliminate everything that is not subordinate to the main thought.

2. To get coherence, you must see that all the parts follow in proper order of time, thought, or logical arrangement. Coherence is best obtained by following an outline.

3. To secure emphasis, you must call attention to the emphatic part by position, proportion, or repetition.

1 From Requirements in Form, the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.

Freshmen versus Seniors. - Did ever anybody have as hard a time as freshmen have? At least that is the way it looks to a freshman. Sophomores, juniors and seniors tell it another way. In this picture, two seniors are evidently planning some mischief against the freshmen, and they have the freshmen puzzled. The battle, however, is not always to the strong.

1. Tell this story to suit yourself, according to your grade in school.

2. Surely as a freshman you can think of a good story where the freshmen beat the seniors at their own game. What the seniors write will be another story, as Kipling says. Juniors and sophomores may take whichever side they please; there is room for a good high school story here. It is probably in a high school camp, on the seashore, or on the lakes, or by the riverside. Place it where you choose. Tell it in as few words as possible.

CHAPTER III

ENGLISH TO SELL

Say what you have to say in the simplest, the most direct and

exact manner.

WALTER PATER.

Writing a News Story. In an article in The Saturday Evening Post, Mr. James Keeley, formerly publisher of the Chicago Tribune, now editor of the Chicago Herald, tells how a great daily newspaper "covers" a wreck occurring during the night, so as to present the story to its readers the next morning. He quotes the startling headlines that announce the wreck and notes the fact that two columns of telegraphic news in the most prominent part of the first page gives the details of what proves to be the worst wreck that has occurred in the West for years.

This wreck is supposed to occur at 6:30 P.M., although the Chicago newspaper does not hear of it until 8:30, when the boy who handles the Associated Press dispatches, as they come in through the pneumatic tube, comes across the following, dated from the point where the C., B. & Q. Ry. has its headquarters.

A passenger train is reported wrecked at Smithville and twenty passengers killed. A special train has been sent out to the scene.

The boy is quick to see the importance of the news item, and he calls out the contents of the telegram. Two men jump for the dispatch, the night editor and the telegraph

editor. On the importance of this wreck as a news story depends the whole make-up of the next morning's paper. If important, it will have first place, and items that would otherwise be quite important will have to stand aside. With the map before him, the telegraph editor studies his list of correspondents and their locations, but no one is available. He now bombards the telegraph offices near the wreck with this message:

Rush thousand words wreck C., B. & Q. Ry. Smithville. Query this office. Tribune. Miller.

In requiring them to "query," he can choose the best man out of those who reply. In this case, however, there is no response and he now turns to the telephone and keeps the long-distance lines hot for a while, but as "Central" aptly expresses it, "Smithville is ten miles from nowhere," and unless some one should unexpectedly volunteer, there is but one thing left to do.

Meanwhile the city editor has been talking over the telephone to the superintendent of the Road in the Chicago office. Of course, the latter claims to know nothing of any loss of life. He admits a little shaking up, with several injured, mostly trainmen, none severely. Part of a railroad man's training is to keep his mouth shut, especially to newspaper men. All that is gained in this instance is the admission that there was a wreck.

Correspondents at varying distances now begin to send. in queries as to the disaster. The following are samples:

QUERIES

Headon collision on C., B. & Q. at Smithville. Thirty killed. How much? 1

1

1 The question "How much?" refers to the number of words the newspaper wants. The words head on are written as one word, headon,

to save telegraph expense.

Frightful loss of life at Smithville.

Headon collision.

Forty killed. Hundred injured. How much?
Collision Smithville.

How much?

Both trains burning. Heavy loss.

Headon at Smithville. Fifty killed. How much?

It has been an anxious time at the office and it is now evident that the story is a big one, and just as evident that there is only one thing to do and that is to send out a "special," who in this case happens to be Brown, an old hand, and one who knows his business. He takes with him a telegraph operator, who carries the necessary equipment for establishing a quick service station at the scene of the wreck. Brown is furnished the necessary transportation and expense money, for which he will account later.

Brown hurries to the train. He is to reach his point at 10:50. But his train happens to stop for water at a station twenty miles from the scene of the wreck, so he jumps off and begins to "dig" for news. He finds enough to show him that he is on the track of a good story, from the newspaper point of view, and wires a preliminary message as follows:

Good yarn.
Three cars burned.

Twelve to fifteen dead, twenty-five injured. Headon collision between Pacific Coast flyer and East-bound freight.

Brown.

When that message reaches the Tribune office, the air is cleared. The two editors concerned now know what to do. The night editor arranges his other work, assigning two columns for Brown's report, while the telegraph editor puts in his time profitably on other work until Brown begins to wire in his story.

Brown will start to write at 11:15, and has at the very latest until 12:15. He will write about fifteen hundred