4. Begin each paragraph an inch from the margin, or five spaces on the typewriter. This is called indenting. Do not indent where no paragraph is intended.

Write the title so as to occupy the center of the first line. Use capitals for the most important words of the title. The last word of the title is always capitalized. If more than one line is needed for the title, and there is not enough to fill the second line, arrange it so as to leave an equal space on each side. This is called centering. Begin the body of the theme

on the second line below.

5. Except at the end of a paragraph, avoid leaving too much space at the end of a line. Do not divide a word in the middle of a syllable, and do not carry over less than three letters.

6. Count your words. At the end of each page, indicate in parenthesis the number of words. Show the entire number of words, in parenthesis, at the close of your article or story. Count a, an, and the, as words.

7. Keep the sheets flat. Never roll a manuscript. You may arrange the sheets carefully, and fold together once lengthwise, writing the title, your name, the date, and the number of words, each upon one line, in the upper left-hand corner. In writing your name, include your post-office address. 8. Do not be afraid to rewrite your manuscript. Do not mail anything but perfect manuscript.

9. Inclose return postage. Do not fasten this to the sheet, but put it in a small envelope, and clip it to the sheet. With the postage, include your name and post-office address.

CHAPTER IV

EFFECTIVE PARAGRAPHING

There is some one order more effective than any other.

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The Paragraph. A paragraph is a sentence or group. of sentences developing a complete thought. In most writing and speaking the paragraph is the unit of thought. The topic sentence contains the main idea, and this is elaborated in various ways, as by repetition or by giving details.

Suppose you have decided upon the following outline for an account of the wreck mentioned on page 32. It will make three divisions, or paragraphs. The first will give a rapid sketch of the whole story to attract attention and interest. The next paragraph will deal with the points that are suggested in the second item of the outline, carefully avoiding any points that are to be touched upon in the third item. Emphasis will be added by a skillful handling of the third paragraph.

The whole secret of successful paragraphing is to be found in this one thing, that each paragraph deals with one full thought.

EXERCISES ON PARAGRAPHING

(a) Write a paragraph on each topic of the following outline. Test your paragraphs for unity, coherence, and emphasis.

Outline

1. General statement, and cause of wreck; one hundred words.

2. Loss of life, property, and animals; two hundred and fifty words.

3. Excitement caused by escape of wild animals; one hundred and fifty words.

(b) Query in ten words the Chicago Tribune as to the wreck. That is, state in ten words enough about the wreck to let them know whether they want the full story. Refer, if necessary, to the sample queries given heretofore.

(c) Wire one paragraph of one hundred words about the above story. Most newspapers will take an item of not more than one hundred words without querying, that is, without your asking permission to send it. In such case, however, the telegram must come from a regular correspondent. In most newspaper offices, any one may query in an important happening, whether a correspondent or not. The editor will answer if he wants the story. If he does not answer, the story must not be wired.

(d) Wire the above story in two hundred words. Arrange it in two paragraphs.

(e) Prepare in brief memorandum form an outline, such as you think the reporter would prepare while gathering his facts, before writing his story. This sketch, or memorandum, will tell briefly all that he will later expand into the full story, for the morning paper.

(f) Study the outline in (e). Cut out anything that hinders the flow of the story. This will preserve its unity. Then arrange the items remaining, so as to have everything in its time order, after your introductory statement. This will maintain its coherence. The story itself, if well told, will furnish its own emphasis. In a news story, the emphasis often comes in the opening paragraph, so as to fix the attention at once. This reverses the usual order, which requires the most emphatic statement near the close.

(g) Write the story of the wreck, as above given, from your outline. Let it have at least three paragraphs, carefully arranged.

Development of the Paragraph. It frequently happens that the most readable story in the morning paper came

to the telegraph editor the night before in the shape of a few words in a cablegram. His quick sense of what constitutes an interesting news item enabled him to use the fact thus given as the foundation for a story which was the pride of his own paper, and the envy of all his competitors.

In thus working out his story he may have had to draw on many sources of information. He may have used encyclopedias, books of travel, or atlases with descriptive reading matter, telling about the city in which the event occurred. Newspaper offices maintain a file system of photographs of all kinds, both of men and places, and of steamships and war-ships.

At the first suggestion of a great steamship disaster, for instance, everything that can possibly throw any light on the subject is brought within reach of the editor. The editor has to work quickly, when he does begin, after waiting until the last minute for fuller detail. He adapts it all so skillfully that when we come to read it, we cannot tell that any part of it differs from any other part. It all reads as if the whole story "came in over the wire," that is, as if it had all been received by telegraph or cable.

Methods of Paragraph Development. In elaborating the paragraphs the editor usually makes use of three methods: (1) repetition; (2) comparison; or (3) detail. In the first case he repeats the substance of the topic sentence in a variety of ways. In the second, he compares or contrasts the idea of the topic sentence with other ideas. In the third, he enumerates details. These details may be (a) particulars; (b) specific examples; or (c) effects of which the topic sentence is the Owing to his practical skill in writing, the editor does this work subconsciously.

cause.

The "Marseillaise." Here is pictured the birth of a national hymn, the terrible yet glorious cry of a people determined to be free. De Lisle, a young French officer, is singing the Marseillaise for the first time. Some of those who listen are struck by its beauty, some by the terror of it, while some spring to their feet aroused by its call to the French heart. Never since that day has it been heard in France without quickening the hearts of its hearers.

1. Tell the story of the picture, developing your paragraphs in any of the three ways suggested above.

2. The March of the Marseillaise.-Refer to the dictionary or to some encyclopedia and tell how the Marseillaise got its name and became the national song of France at the outset of the French Revolution. 3. The Star Spangled Banner.. Look up the story of how Francis Scott Key, held as a prisoner by the British, wrote The Star Spangled Banner in the bombardment of Baltimore. Tell it. Develop your paragraphs carefully.