ere as it is taken up fully in the next chapter.
Suffice it to say now, however, that a diffuse style is never forceful.
The reporter must condense his ideas into the smallest space possible.
Often that space is designated by the city editor when the reporter, on
his return to the office, asks for instructions, and nearly always it is
only about half enough. But he must follow directions to the letter. Woe
to the novice who presents a thousand words, or even six hundred, when
the city editor calls for five hundred. Sometimes, however, he will
find that the city editor has allotted him more space than he can
easily fill. In such a case, let him give length by introducing
additional details. Mere words will not suffice. They do not make a
story.

=140. Final Test of a Story.=--The two cares for the reporter, then, in
writing the body of the story are accuracy and interest. Accuracy is
worth most, and is attained by strict adherence to truth, with plenty of
proof for the truth in case it is questioned after publication. Interest
may be had by making all statements clear, coherent, forceful. But there
is no precise form or method by which accuracy and interest may be
obtained. The reporter is given unlimited range in selecting,
organizing, and writing his news. He may follow or disregard at will the
standard types of other newspaper men's stories, which should be taken
as models only, never as laws. For the final test of the goodness of a
story is its effect upon the reader. If it attains the desired result
without conforming to the patterns given by other writers, it will
become a new pattern for itself and for similar stories. Get accuracy
and interest, then, no matter what the method.

XI. THE PARAGRAPH

=141. Paragraph a Mark of Punctuation.=--Discussion of the paragraph
really belongs under the head of punctuation, since its purpose is to
set off the larger divisions of the story in the same way that the
period and the comma mark sentences and phrases. The indention of the
first line catches the eye of the reader and notifies him silently to
stop for a summary of his impressions before starting a somewhat
different phase of the story. Its purpose, like that of the other marks
of punctuation, is clearness and emphasis. Yet since its very lax laws
are much the same as those of the story, it must be noticed
independently.

=142. Clearness.=--The first requirement of the paragraph is that it
shall be clear. Its rela