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WRITING
THE EDITORIAL
THE NEWSPAPER SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.
By the side of a certain high school building was a bicycle rack at
which fifteen or twenty students each morning left the bicycles on
which they rode to school. At lunch period each day numerous students
who brought their lunches threw wrapping paper in the space between the
bicycles and the building. Warnings in assembly by the principal had
little effect. In addition to being unattractive in appearance the
waste paper was a serious fire hazard. An editorial writer for the
school paper counted the number of bicycles left at the rack each day.
He went to a local dealer in bicycles and had the dealer compute the
approximate value of all of those bicycles. He asked the principal for
a statement about the ease with which the papers might catch fire from
a carelessly thrown match or cigarette butt. He then wrote a simply
worded editorial, pointing out the fire hazard, giving the exact amount
of damage that would result if a fire ruined the bicycles, and
suggested that waste paper be deposited in the nearby waste can. The
appeal went home to the readers of the paper; the space behind the
bicycle rack ceased to be an eyesore and a fire hazard.
A small high school was in need of a pep squad. A group of students
volunteered to help form such a squad, but no teacher could be found
willing to sponsor the organization. With the consent of the principal,
the editor of the school paper printed an editorial challenging the
teachers to respond to the call for patriotic service. A teacher
immediately volunteered, and the squad was organized.
One who reads the high school papers of the various states will find
them constantly speaking for those things which will benefit the school
and the student body. Expressions of opinions are barred from news
stories; feature stories and special columns are written to entertain
and inform rather than to encourage action on the part of the reader;
it remains for the editorial to carry the burden of speaking for the
paper. The editorial is the mouthpiece of the school paper. In no other
place is the character and personality of the paper so clearly shown.
Editorials
are an important part of the school paper for at least three reasons:
(1) Well-planned editorials bring results; (2) through the editorials
more than through any other part of the paper do members of the staff
have an opportunity to say what they think and to help mold public
opinion in accordance with their beliefs; and (3) the editorial offers
an opportunity for experience in a distinct kind of creative writing.
First among the qualities of a good editorial is interest.
If an editorial is not interestingly written, it will have few readers;
and the editorial page of a newspaper, which is filled with
uninteresting preachments will soon become valueless.
The second quality is brevity.
A long editorial presents a blank expanse of body type and looks dull;
the reader consequently is prejudiced against it from the start. Short
editorials, 200 words or less, are preferred.
The third quality is force.
The editorial should have a purpose and that purpose should be evident.
An editorial cannot have this quality if it is dashed off hurriedly,
without careful thinking. Force comes not so much from the use of
forceful words alone as from a logical presentation of thought and a
clever turn of phrase that drives the idea home to the reader by
calling from his mind a responsive note.
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