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DON FRY, THE freelance writing coach, says he was visiting a large Midwestern daily when newsroom discussion turned to a photo rejected for publication the previous Sunday. One editor explained the decision:
"We rejected that photo because of the lizard rule.' "No, said another editor,"that was the snake rule."
"No," said a third,"it was the reptile rule." Despite the argument over nomenclature, the three agreed that the paper had an ancient rule banning the appearance of snakes on section fronts on Sundays.
Fry investigated. He says the rule dates to 1924, when the owner was offended by her discovery of a snake picture on a section front. The photo appeared on Sunday, a day when ladies with delicate sensibilities were supposedly more likely to be reading. Hence, the snake rule.
Ridiculous as the original may seem, most newsrooms have their own snake rules. For that matter, snake rules plague all of journalism.
It's time to eliminate a few of these slimy vipers. They cripple our creativity, thwart policy and cause friction between writers and editors.
Fry suggests that newsroom staffers write every unwritten rule they can think of on a 3-by-5-inch file card. The cards can then serve as the basis for an all-staff discussion with editors, who can get the whole group grounded in contemporary reality.
In the meantime, consider squelching these long-lived newsroom reptiles:
Direct quotes must appear as separate paragraphs.
Where'd this one come from? True, we create a separate paragraph for the words of each speaker in a dialogue. But what does that have to do with direct quotes?
Set off a direct quotation as a separate paragraph - for emphasis - if you want. But if the quote flows naturally from the preceding introductory material, you'd be well-advised to leave it in the same paragraph. Like this:
Brady leaned into the bar, cranked his head to the right and spied the bartender 12 stools down. "Bring me a beer and...