vanced may find
it advisable to pass hastily over this chapter, or may
omit it entirely.

=145. Requisites.=--The same laws of accuracy and interest hold for the
sentence as for the story as a whole. But in the sentence they are more
rigid,--due in the main to the fact that the sentence is briefer and
more readily analyzable. And while one sympathizes with the overworked
reporter who served notice upon critical college professors that "when
the hands of the clock are near on to press time, and I have a million
things to write in a few minutes, I don't give a whoop if I do end a few
sentences with prepositions," and concluded by saying, "If I had as much
time as the average college professor has, I probably could write good
grammar, too";--while one sympathizes with the time-driven newspaper man
who never has sufficient leisure to polish a story as he would like, the
fact still remains that the reader cannot tell from looking at a story,
nor should he be allowed to tell, how much rushed the reporter was. The
only thing the reader is interested in is the story, whether it is good
or not; and if he does not regard it as worth while, if the sentences
are faulty, ungrammatical, weak, he will read another story or another
paper.

=146. Grammar.=--The first point to regard in seeking accuracy in the
sentence is good grammar. This may seem a trivial injunction to offer a
coming star reporter on a great metropolitan daily; but the city
editor's assistants have to correct more grammatical errors in cub copy
than any other kind of mistake except spelling and punctuation. The main
violations of grammar may be classified conveniently under four heads:
faulty reference, incorrect verb forms, failures in cooerdinating and
subordinating different parts of a sentence, and poor ellipsis.

=147. Pronouns Referring to Ideas.=--Probably the most prolific cause of
bad grammar and of obscurity of meaning in news writing may be found in
the use of unclear pronouns. One or more instances may be found in
almost every paper a reader examines. A reporter should assure himself
that every pronoun he uses refers to a particular word in the sentence
and that it agrees with that word in gender and number. The use of a
pronoun to refer to a general idea not expressed in a particular word is
one of the commonest causes of ambiguity and obscurity in newspaper
work. In the following sentence note what a ludicrous turn is given the
sent