17. Practice the use of dialogue in stories. Judge its
effectiveness and show that in most cases it is well to avoid
dialogue.

18. Practice rewriting long stories into short press dispatches of
150 words or less, considering the different news value.

EXERCISES FOR THE EIGHTH CHAPTER

1. Collect clippings of other kinds of news stories.

2. In writing these other stories use the fire story as a model;
the facts may be presented as they were in the fire story.

3. Study the possible features in accident stories; write accident
stories with various features; make lists of dead and injured.

4. Study and write robbery stories with various features;
distinguish between the various names applied to robbery and to
the people who rob.

5. Study and write murder and suicide stories with various
features, striving in each case to give the facts without
shocking the reader. Show how the featureless murder or suicide
story is very much like a featureless fire story.

6. Study and write riot, storm, flood, and other big stories.

7. In the study of police court news have the class go to the local
police courts and report actual cases.

8. Send the students to report meetings. Report conferences,
decisions, etc. Insist that the story begin with the gist of the
report in each case and never with explanations.

9. Write stories on bulletins, catalogues, city directories, etc.
Study them with reference to their timeliness and try to
discover what in them has the most news value. Require the
student to begin with this element of news value and to give the
source (the name and date of the bulletin, etc.) in the lead.

10. Look over the daily papers and pick out news stories which
bury the gist of their news and have the students rewrite the
leads to play up the real news or to give greater emphasis to
buried features.

EXERCISES FOR THE NINTH CHAPTER

1. Collect good examples of the follow-up and the rewrite story;
follow one important story through several days' editions to
see how it is rewritten day by day. Examine an afternoon
paper's version of a story covered in a morning paper.

2. Take any news story and work out the follow-up possibilities;
imagine what th