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applies to all newspaper writing.

Much of the effectiveness of the human interest story depends upon the
reporter's style. When we try to write human interest stories we are no
longer interested in facts, as much as in words. Our readers are not
following us to be informed, but to be entertained. And we can please
them only by our style and the fineness of our perception. Although we
have been told to write news stories in the common every-day words of
conversation, we are not so limited in the human interest story. The
elegance of our style depends very largely upon the size of our
vocabulary, and elegance is not out of place in this kind of story.
Although we have been told to use dialogue sparingly in news stories,
our human interest story may be composed entirely of dialogue. In fact,
we are hampered by no restrictions except the restrictions of English
grammar and literary composition. Although we have sought simplicity of
expression before, we may now strive for subtlety and for effect; we may
write suggestively and even obscurely. We are dealing with the only part
of the newspaper that makes any effort toward literary excellence and
only our originality and cleverness can guide us.

It is hardly necessary to repeat that one cannot write human interest
stories in a cynical tone. They are a reaction against cynicism. They
require one to feel keenly, as a human being, and to write
sympathetically, as a human being. The reporter must see behind the
facts and get the personal side of the matter--and feel it. Then he must
tell the story just as he sees and feels it. Absolute truthfulness in
the telling is as necessary as keen perception in the seeing. Humor must
be sought through the simple, truthful presentation of an incongruous or
humorous idea or situation; pathos must be sought by the truthful
presentation of a pathetic picture. Just as soon as the reporter tries
to be funny or to be pathetic he fails, for the reader is not looking to
the reporter for fun or pathos--but to the story that the reporter is
telling. That is, the story must be written objectively; the writer must
forget himself in his attempt to impress the story upon his reader's
mind. If the story itself is fundamentally humorous or sad and the story
is clearly and truthfully told with all the details that make it
humorous or sad, it cannot help being effective.

The best way to learn how to write human interest stories is to study
human intere