in the directory. In
university towns the appearance of a new university catalog or bulletin
of any sort is the occasion for a story which points out the new
features or compares the new bulletin with a previous one. Reporters and
correspondents in political centers, like state capitals, get out
stories on committee and legislative reports and on new bills that are
proposed or passed by the legislature. The writing of these stories is
very much like the reporting of a speech, which will be discussed later.
The newest or most interesting feature in the report or bill is played
up in the lead as the feature of the story, followed by the source of
the story, the printed bulletin upon which the story is based; thus:

| A new plan for placing the control of |
|all water power in the state in the hands|
|of the legislature was proposed in the |
|minority report of Senators J. B. Smith |
|and L. C. Blake, of the special |
|legislative committee on drainage, issued|
|today. |

These eight classes of news stories do not include all the news stories
that a newspaper prints, but they are in a way typical of all the others
that are not mentioned. It will be noted from these that all news
stories, just like the fire story, are usually written in about the same
way. Each one has a lead which begins with the feature of the
story--i.e., the fact or incident in the story which gives it news value
and makes it of interest--and concludes by answering the reader's
questions, when, where, who, how, why, concerning the feature. Each
story begins again after the lead, and in one or more paragraphs
explains, describes, or narrates the incident in detail and in logical
order. This body of the story which follows the lead, while following in
general the logical order, is so written that its most interesting facts
are near the beginning and its interest dwindles away toward the end.
This is to enable the editor in making up his paper, to take away from
the end of any story, as we have seen before, a paragraph or more
without spoiling the story's continuity or depriving it of any of its
essential facts. The form of the conventional fire story may be used as
a model in the writing of any news story.

In writing the body of a story to explain, describe, or narrate the
incident mentioned in the lead, every effo