Newspaper Writing by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 10, 1857

Newspaper Writing.

By Editor

SOME think they cannot make an effective article without ample space. They must have room to spread themselves. But small bullets often do great execution. A paragraph, pithily expressed, is often quoted from one end of the land to the other, and becomes a by-word for millions. In a few piquant sentences a keen writer may hit off a folly of the day, or rebuke a vice, or repel a sneer of infidelity, or put into a portable form an argument for religion. Such an article is not light and frivolous, because it is brief. In that small compass may be packed a tremendous thought and power of expression. It may be solid as a cannon ball, and cut down every thing before it. We beg, therefore, those who write for us, to condense what they have to say into the briefest space. They might save us infinite trouble by a little pains to pack their thoughts close together. If an article covers four pages, let them write it over and compress it into two. Ten to one it will be improved by the change. And it will save us the disagreeable task of criticism and mutilation. Ye who write for this busy age, speak quick; use short sentences; never stop the reader with a long or ambiguous word; let the stream of thought flow right on, and men will drink it in like water. Persons known or unknown to us, who have anything to say to the religious public that is worth hearing, and who can put their thoughts into a compact form, shall have our help to send them abroad.

[N. Y. Evangelist.]