e believes that a
better story can be written with the same facts as a basis, to suggest
to the city editor that the story be rewritten by the reporter, by
another reporter or by the copy reader himself. Because a man is reading
copy, he should not imagine that he is not to write a story or rewrite
one when occasion demands.

Charles G. Ross writes: "His [the copy reader's] work is critical rather
than creative. It is destructive so far as errors of grammar, violations
of news style and libel are concerned. But if his sense of news is keen,
as that of every copy reader should be, he will find abundant
opportunity for something more than mechanical deletion and
interlineation. He may insert a terse bit of explanation to clear away
obscurity, or may add a piquant touch that will redeem a story from
dullness. To the degree that he edits news with sympathy and
understanding, with a clear perception of news values, his work may be
regarded as creative. If, on the other hand, he conceives it his duty to
reduce all writing to a dead level of mediocrity * * * * he richly
deserves the epithet that is certain to be hurled at the copy reader by
the reporter whose fine phrases have been cut out--he is in truth a
'butcher' of copy."

Dr. Willard G. Bleyer writes: "The reading and editing of copy consists
of (1) correcting all errors whether in expression or in fact; (2)
making the story conform to the style of the newspaper; (3) improving
the story in any respect; (4) eliminating libelous matter; (5) marking
copy for the printer; (6) writing headlines and subheads."

LEARNING THE METIER

Said Robert Louis Stevenson to a painter friend: "You painter chaps make
lots of studies, don't you? And you don't frame them all and send them
to the Salon, do you? You just stick them up on the studio wall for a
bit, and presently you tear them up and make more. And you copy
Velasquez and Rembrandt and Vandyke and Corot; and from each you learn
some little trick of the brush, some obscure little point of technic.
And you know damn well that it is the knowledge thus acquired that will
enable you later on to deliver your own message with a fine and
confident bravado. You are simply learning your metier; and believe me,
mon cher, an artist in any line without the metier is just a blind man
with a stick. Now, in the literary line I am simply doing what you
painter men are doing in the pictorial line--learning the metier."

PREPARING COPY