At the recent Editorial Council held in Takoma Park, one of the officers of the General Conference made this surprising statement: "When I go out among our people at camp meetings and visit the churches, the fact that I have written articles for the Review and other of our papers gives me a standing and a distinction that seem to top every other accomplishment. It is my official passport. Being an officer of the General Conference seems to count for little in comparison." This experience but emphasizes what William Dow Boutwell once said: "Skill in writing will get you on in the world faster than almost any other ability."
But there are reasons for writing other than for personal aggrandizement or to attain a certain prestige, and this is especially true of Seventh-day Adventist writers. Our workers have many opportunities to write, not only for our own papers, but for other papers as well, and such opportunities should be capitalized. A worker who consistently writes will not only derive personal satisfaction from his efforts, but will bring information and encouragement to others, and may by this means help to bring the message to those who know it not.
In a former article (April, 1938, Ministry) we considered some of the mechanics of a manuscript. We come now to a more fascinating field—the creative side of writing. It requires real skill and usually takes long practice to organize one's thoughts in a clear, effective manner, carefully and adroitly weaving words together into phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. But carefulness in construction brings a certain satisfaction which is well worth the extra effort. If the writer does not put forth this extra effort, it must be done by the editor who handles his manuscript. In every editorial office more or less preliminary preparation of manuscripts is necessary before the copy is released to the printers. What are some of the things for which a copy editor looks when he is whipping copy into shape? It might be enlightening to take a look behind the scenes of a newspaper office, through the eyes of James Kiligallen, staff writer of the International News Service:
"Step into any editorial room, and you'll see these copy readers, green shades over their eyes and a batch of pencils at their elbows, hard at work on some reporter's 'masterpiece.' It is to these men—the copy readers—that much of the credit must go for the excellent English that is found in the news pages. They 'draw diagrams' on the young reporter's copy. They take out the redundancy. They substitute the correct word for the incorrect word. They sum up a paragraph in a phrase. They shorten Sentences so that clarity is attained. They watch for misspelled names, errors in addresses, guard against libel, and generally do a fine, all-round job on the copy before them.
"Reporters have complained bitterly about copy readers ever since newspapers were published. The young reporter thinks the copy reader has ruined his story, taken the color out of his 'fine writing.' But as time goes on he learns differently, because most all copy readers are ex-reporters, and they know the 'game.' "—Better English, February, 1938.
We now turn to the specific treatment of certain vital elements of composition, such as organization of thought, simplicity of expression, repetition, brevity, choice of words, originality of thought, figures of speech, faulty grammar, collecting and preserving materials for writing, etc. Let us note what each writer can do to improve his manuscript before he submits it to the tender mercies of editor, copy editor, proofreader, and publisher.
Organization of Thought
Organization of thought is of utmost importance in making a speech, preparing a sermon, or in writing an article, but many a composition shows regrettable lack of such organization. Quite often in preparing a manuscript for printing, a copy editor will find a sentence or a paragraph that is tucked away in the wrong place, and it becomes necessary to lasso this misplaced bit by bringing it back or forward to the logical place in the article. This is but one of the evidences of lack of integration. Sudden transitions of thought, disconnected sentences, repetition, weak correlation, obscurity of meaning, dislocation of words, and other discrepancies are also manifest. Some suggestions may prove helpful in avoiding such pitfalls, and in producing a well-organized, closely knit, lucid article.
An Outline as an Aid.—It is usually a good plan to have an outline on paper, or at least in mind. I would not say that it is always necessary to arrange this outline before you start writing, as sometimes a writer can pour forth his thoughts on paper and arrange the sequence later. But the sequence should be arranged sometime before the product is finished. Clyde Cason gives good advice on this point in his book, "How to Sell Stories," that might easily be applied to writing articles as well:
"A mass of material, no matter how good that material may be, does not constitute a story any more than a pile of bricks and lumber constitutes a house. The builder must select ; he must cut and fit and join together before he has a building. Just so must the writer work ; he must assemble his words, his sentences, his paragraphs, and his ideas into a complete unit with the same degree of skill with which the builder transforms his raw materials into a house. The task of organization is to select from the mass of materials that comes to the writer the exact amount necessary to make a complete story, and to arrange it in such a way that a single effect is secured."
Introduction.—When we speak of an outline, we usually think first of the introduction, next the body with its various divisions and subdivisions, and then the conclusion. Be it sermon or article, your introduction wins your welcome, or loses it. It either persuades your auditors and captures the good will of your readers, or it causes them to turn away. Someone has said that the first ten words of a discourse are more important than the next thousand. Therefore the first sentence or sentences of an article should be interest catching. Extra care should be taken to make this so, for if you do not catch the interest of the reader at the outset, his attention will wander and he may turn to something else. A dull, heavy beginning will not lure the reader on. Do not tax his patience by leading him through several tedious paragraphs before coming to the real point of the article. Avoid prosy preliminaries. The introduction should reveal something of the nature and purpose of the article, and be suggestive of what is in store. Strive to get your readers' attention at the outset. Begin your article on some note or theme that is of definite interest. Magazines dress up their covers with bright colors or attractive pictures; musicians strike a chord to arrest the attention. So also must writers do something to arrest the attention of their readers by thought-provocative titles and first sentences.
Conclusion.—The conclusion is also of importance. An article should not stop suddenly. In some cases a summarizing statement is appropriate, with brief recapitulation of points. It may be a sort of memorandum, or something to clinch your -point and drive it home. In any case, it should be brief. Sometimes a one-sentence paragraph is all that is necessary, with a thought which definitely ties up with what has preceded, and is harmonious with the whole. An alarming, pessimistic, or negative note in the conclusion should be avoided if possible. End your manuscript in a positive, constructive vein.
One Main Idea.—For those who are comparatively new at writing, it is best not to attempt too much at first. It is better to start out modestly with shorter, less complicated articles, clinching one thought, sticking to one main idea and carrying it through. And even an experienced writer should not try to crowd material for two or three articles into one. In such a case it might be best to plan a series of articles out of a superabundance of material. The following bit of advice to short-story writers is also applicable to article writers : "Don't try to cover a lifetime in one story. Take a slice out of life and hold to it." This principle is illustrated by the story of the young man who asked Mozart how to write a symphony. The composer replied, "You're a very young man. Why don't you begin on ballads?" "But," persisted the young man, "you wrote symphonies when you were ten years old." "Yes," replied Mozart, "but I didn't ask how."
The Paragraph.—A paragraph is a group of thought-related sentences, a link in the development of thought. Each paragraph is a unit that is designed to develop a single idea. Sometimes there is too much of a jump in thought from one paragraph to the next. Where necessary, use transitional words and phrases, such as furthermore, but, nevertheless, however, finally, and the like. These words may be used in the first sentence of the transition paragraph to connect the two paragraphs, and to prepare the reader for what is coming. Bind all paragraphs together into one closely knit, progressive thought unit.
The gist of a paragraph is usually found in what is called the topic sentence, and this is many times the first sentence of the paragraph, although not necessarily. This leading sentence reveals what the paragraph is about. An enlightening exercise is suggested by Agnes Bass in her article, "Building the Paragraph" (Better English, April, 1939). She suggests that you take an article which you have written, and analyze its paragraphing. Read it through and select the topic sentence of each paragraph. Jot these down in order, and see if they give a skeleton of your article.
The Use of Climax.—Although there is usually no suspended climax to an article such as there is to a story or a novel, there are cases in which climax or suspense can effectively be used by properly arranging words, phrases, or sentences. The construction can many times be strengthened and interest can be maintained by arranging units according to strength or weakness in ascending or descending scale. For a simple illustration, we might take this group of words—character, act, thought, destiny, habit—and arrange them in proper sequence. We would then have: thought, act, habit, character, destiny. . To cite another example, it is said that Julius Caesar told a vigorous short story in only three words—perhaps the shortest short story in literature. He said, "Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)." Notice the climactic arrangement of these words. How else could they be arranged to tell the story? The writer should sense the importance and psychology of climax and learn when to use it, for often an improvement can be made by proper arrangement, if he writes with the thought of progressive climax in mind.
The noted writer, Booth Tarkington, offers this advice : "Write it, rewrite it, throw it away, write it again, and then rewrite it." It is profitable to allow some time to elapse between these writings, for then when you take it up again, you will look at your product with a different and wiser perspective. After the second or third writing, read it aloud to yourself or to some helpful critic. Many chances for improvement are revealed in this way. You may be surprised at the number of repetitions you find, how many verbs that do not agree with their nouns in number, places where antecedents are not clear, or other defects. Time spent thus in polishing is well spent.
Securing Proper Sequence.—In order to save several copyings, one method of arranging material in logical sequence is to write each paragraph or thought out on a separate piece of paper when you start out. Or the thoughts can be written out on full sheets and then cut apart. These slips are then numbered and arranged according to number. Some of the slips may have to be rewritten once, twice, or even more times. Some will be ready for the final copy after the first draft. This plan eliminates copying all the material over and over again.
The next article will deal with simplicity of expression in writing.
