ing the writing of the story, it has seemed necessary to
devote much attention to the lead, experience showing that the point of
greatest difficulty in handling a story lies in the choice of a proper
and effectively worded lead. Likewise, it has been necessary to discuss
the sentence at great length and to touch the paragraph only lightly,
because the one is so much a matter of individual judgment, the other
subject to such definite laws,--laws of which, however, most cub
reporters are grossly ignorant. In some classes in news writing the
instructor will find it possible and advisable to pass hastily over the
chapter on The Sentence, but as a rule he will find a careful study of
it profitable. In Part III, that dealing with types of stories, emphasis
has been laid on interview, crime, and sports stories, because it is
these that the cub reporter must be most familiar with on taking up his
work in the newspaper office. For the same practical reasons the volume
omits editorial and copy reading, and makes no attempt to teach the
beginner to be a dramatic critic or a city editor. It aims to give him
only those details and that instruction which shall make him a
competent, reliable reporter for the city editor who first employs his
services.

The book is written also with the belief, based on practical experience,
that news writing as a craft can be taught. It is not contended that
schools can produce star reporters. The newspaper office is the only
place where they can be developed. But it is maintained that the college
can send to the city room men and women who have been guided beyond the
discouraging defeats of mere cub reporting, just as schools of law,
medicine, and commerce can graduate lawyers, doctors, and business men
who know the rudiments of their professions. And this contention is
based on experience. During the last four years the studies here offered
have been followed closely in the class room, from which students have
been graduated who are now holding positions of first rank on leading
American dailies. Some too, though not all, had had no previous
experience in newspaper work.

All the illustrations and exercises except two are taken from published
news articles, most of the stories being unchanged. In some, however,
fictitious names and addresses, for obvious reasons, have been
substituted.

For aid in the preparation of this volume my thanks are due to Mr. C. O.
Skinrood of _The Milwaukee Journal_, M