DO AND DON'T

Don't use the words suicide and murder in heads on stories recounting the details of specific crimes or their prosecution. However, should a story of the sociological type appear, dealing with, for example, the increase in the number of suicides or the attempts of the police to reduce the number of murders, the use of either word in the headline is allowed. In the body of the story the most natural expression and good taste must guide the writer, and the use of these words is permissible if they most clearly and effectively express the information in hand.

Names of girls or women who are the victims of actual or attempted indecent attack are not to be published under ordinary circumstances. Authority for exceptions will be granted by the editor when there is sufficient reason.

Use the names of POISONS only when essential to the story.

Never call a policeman a cop.

Keep the reporter or a representative of The News out of the story. It is understood that a reporter and a reporter for The News writes a story that appears in The News.

Write the English language. For sine qua non, write essentials; for de riguer, coup d'etat, coup de grace, Sturm und Drang, au fait and similar phrases use English equivalents. Some exceptions are decollete, fiancee and fiance, and other words which have been taken over into the language. Don't mix languages. Write a day, not per day. As a general rule use per only in the phrase per cent.

Comatose means in a state of profound insensibility, not merely dazed as some writers believe.

Et al. stands for the Latin et alii, et aliae, or et alia, meaning and others. Of course it should never be written et als. to form a fancied plural.

Prone means lying flat and face downward. One can not lie prone on the back. Supine means lying on the back.

Use pseudonym, a good English word, or pen name, and not nom de plume, which isn't even good French. Says L'Intermediaire, a French journal: "We do not know in our language the expression nom de plume. We have the phrase nom de guerre."

Don't use most for almost, as, I am most as tall as you.

Never write kiddies or tots. Write kids when referring to young goats or to children in stories written in a spirit of levity, as, This is the big day for the kids on Belle Isle. Don't try to arouse sympathy for children in unfortunate circumstances by calling them poor little tots, or poor kiddies.

Avoid words borrowed from the yellow-backs, such as, The bullet crashed through his brain, She tripped down the steps. Try such sentences as this on your hisser: "I will not go," he hissed.

In news stories don't use thieves' slang, as, dick, frisk, dip, gat.

Don't use the editorial we. It is old-fashioned. Say The Detroit News.

Don't refer to the Darwinian theory or to Dr. Osler's theory without knowing what they mean.

Don't call a revolver a gun or a pistol a revolver. It is automatic pistol.

Reporters frequently quote Kipling to the effect that west is west, east is east, and never the twain shall meet. But if they knew the poem, they would be aware of the fact that the next line qualifies the quoted lines and vitiates the observation.

The exception proves the rule is a phrase that arises from ignorance, though common to good writers. The original word was preuves, which did not mean proves but tests.

Say in bad condition, not in bad shape.

A toga was a garment worn by a Roman citizen. The word is persistently misused to refer to senatorial honors.

Avoid newspaper slang. To all but a few of our readers the word story means not an item of news in the paper but a piece of fiction. To speak of a story meaning a piece for the paper is to confuse them. Say article or item.

Don't write alright. There is no such word in the language.

Avoid poetic forms. Do not use amongst for among. Thither and whither have a bookish sound. Prefer the simple while to the fancy whilst.

There are no degrees of certainty. Don't write a thing seems more certain.

Amateur means non-professional, not necessarily unskilled. Novice implies lack of skill.

Spectators see; an audience is a collection of auditors. Spectators go to ball games and motion picture theaters.

Use render in speaking of lard and not of songs.

Don't use complected for complexioned.

Don't write better half for wife.

Do not write that a thing grows smaller.

We write wages are. The biblical phrase is, The wages of sin is death.

Don't write the three first. You mean the first three.

A justice presides in police court, in justice court and in the supreme court. A judge presides in other courts except the recorder's court, which is presided over by the recorder and his associate. Justices of the supreme court of the states and the nation are referred to as Mr. Justice Jones or Chief Justice White.

Avoid the hackneyed phrase, a miraculous escape.

It is almost an unbreakable rule that reporters and copy readers shall verify all quotations. Many of the most familiar phrases are popularly misquoted.

Don't write the above statement or the statement given above. It may not be above when it gets into the paper. Write the foregoing statement.

Don't use about meaning approximately except with round numbers. Do not write about 27 cents or about 12 minutes after 8 o'clock, but write about $10 or about 10,000 persons.

Don't confuse O and Oh. The former is the formal spelling of the interjection and is used usually in poetry, as, Sail on, O Ship of State! It is used in supplication, as, O God, hear our prayer! The Oh spelling is that commonly used, as, Oh, dear; Oh, what shall I do? It is usually written with a comma.

DANA'S EIGHT RULES

Charles A. Dana's eight rules for the guidance of a newspaper man are:

1. Get the news, all the news, and nothing but the news.

2. Copy nothing from another publication without giving perfect credit.

3. Never print an interview without the knowledge and consent of the party interviewed.

4. Never print a paid advertisement as news matter. Let every advertisement appear as an advertisement; no sailing under false colors.

5. Never attack the weak and defenseless, either by argument, by invective, or by ridicule, unless there is some absolute public necessity for so doing.

6. Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth or the only truth.

7. Support your party, if you have one; but do not think that all the good men are in it or all the bad ones outside.

8. Above all, believe that humanity is advancing, that there is progress in human affairs, and that as sure as God lives the future will be better than the past or present.

. . . PROMOTER OF CIVIC WELFARE AND CIVIC PRIDE . . . BOND OF CIVIC UNITY . . . PROTECTOR OF CIVIC RIGHTS.