ation on your story that may
have come in from other sources.

Before you write or telephone your story, make sure that you have all
your facts marshaled in your own mind. A good reporter usually plans his
story, lead and details in his head on his way to the office.

NEVER GUESS.

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT.

When you turn in a story KNOW that everything in that story is true--and
if you feel there is a statement you can not prove, call your city
editor's attention to it.

To color or fake a story is not newspaper work--it is prostitution of
the profession of journalism.

Be sure of your sources of information. Never take anything for
granted--find out for yourself. You will discover that many persons talk
convincingly about things although they have no actual knowledge of the
subject under discussion.

Remember always that a newspaper has to prove what it says--and any
decent newspaper is eager to.

If you don't know, tell the city editor you don't know. To guess is
criminal because nobody can guess with any consistent degree of
accuracy. And accuracy should be your guide.

Reporters should study their stories after they are printed, with the
realization that any changes made in them were made to better them. Ask
why your stories have been changed so your next story will be better
through avoidance of the same mistake.

Never be afraid to ask anybody anything.

The mainspring of a good newspaper man is a wholesome curiosity.

The essentials of newspaper writing are accuracy and simplicity. The
newspaper is no place for fine writing. Simplicity means directness and
conciseness in telling the story as well as an avoidance of hifalutin
phrases, obsolete words and involved sentences.

Walt Whitman wrote: "The art of arts, the glory of expression, and the
sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Nothing is better than
simplicity--nothing can make up for excess or the lack of definiteness."

Every worker on a newspaper knows the value of accuracy. Accuracy is the
god before whom all newspaper men bow. If one could analyze the effort
put forth in one day in this office, one might discover that perhaps a
third of that effort was in an attempt to obtain accuracy. The city
directory is the newspaper man's Bible because accuracy is his deity.

The hardest lesson the journalist must learn is the development of the
impersonal viewpoint. He must learn to write what he sees and hears,
clearly and accu