We wish intending contributors to the Press would all read
Mr. Gilbert Russell's Advertisement Writing (Bean, 8s. 6d.), especially the eighth chapter on how the " copy " should be prepared. By this we do not mean that article; are in any sense the same as advertisements, but that there are certain rules which have always guided the good journalist and are now being emphasized more and more in the terrific competition of modern advertising. Economy of words k the first requisite. Facts rather than generalities is the second. Clarity is the third, then simplicity, conviction, originality, courage. If would-be journalists were to take a course in copy-writing they could not fail to benefit : to comm. vert thoughts into grammatical sentences is fairly easy, but there is a binding quality between the sentences, an invisible but almost tangible spirit that hovers over every paragraph of print which differentiates good writing from bad, and it is this spirit that stirs as a leaven in the reader's mind. Without this quality of life, no story is worth reading, no argument worth following. Newspaper space which is often bought at a cost of £1,000 is precious : the sentences to fill it must be jewels, and their fashioners stylists. This book of Mr. Russell's confirms us in our belief that modern advertising, rightly understood and directed, will greatly contribute to better English. It is full of hints for writers; more, the technical chapters will appeal to the intelligent general reader as well as the specialist, for we should all know something of the working of a profession which is exercising a profound and little understood influence on our lives. We all read advertise- ments, whether we know it or not.
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