"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light"
About this Quote
A compact manifesto for writers and editors, the line sketches a sequence of influence: gain attention, secure understanding, lodge memory, and finally enable sound judgment. Brevity earns the first glance in a crowded field; clarity converts attention into comprehension; vivid, concrete language makes ideas stick; accuracy anchors all of it to reality so the work can illuminate choices. The climactic phrase, above all, accuracy, declares a hierarchy of values. Style is a means; truth is the end.
That insistence carries weight coming from Joseph Pulitzer, the Hungarian-born press baron who built the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World in the turbulent Gilded Age. He pioneered bold headlines, illustrations, and human-interest stories to reach immigrant and working-class readers, and he used his platforms to expose corruption and champion reforms. Yet his era also birthed the excesses of yellow journalism during his circulation battles with William Randolph Hearst. In later years he funded the Columbia School of Journalism and the prizes that bear his name, seeking to codify higher standards. Against that backdrop, the formula reads as both craft advice and ethical corrective: make it engaging, but never let engagement outrun truth.
The metaphor of light turns a report into a public good. News is not merely to entertain or even to inform in a sterile sense; it is to guide civic life. The sequence also maps how minds work. People do not act on what they never see, fail to grasp, or cannot retain. Only when information is accurate do decisions based on it have a chance of being wise.
The counsel is even sharper in a fractured media ecosystem flooded with dopamine-driven snippets and dubious claims. The discipline is the same: be short enough to be seen, clear enough to be understood, vivid enough to be remembered, and honest enough to deserve trust. Without the last, the rest is clever noise. With it, words can do their essential work.
That insistence carries weight coming from Joseph Pulitzer, the Hungarian-born press baron who built the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World in the turbulent Gilded Age. He pioneered bold headlines, illustrations, and human-interest stories to reach immigrant and working-class readers, and he used his platforms to expose corruption and champion reforms. Yet his era also birthed the excesses of yellow journalism during his circulation battles with William Randolph Hearst. In later years he funded the Columbia School of Journalism and the prizes that bear his name, seeking to codify higher standards. Against that backdrop, the formula reads as both craft advice and ethical corrective: make it engaging, but never let engagement outrun truth.
The metaphor of light turns a report into a public good. News is not merely to entertain or even to inform in a sterile sense; it is to guide civic life. The sequence also maps how minds work. People do not act on what they never see, fail to grasp, or cannot retain. Only when information is accurate do decisions based on it have a chance of being wise.
The counsel is even sharper in a fractured media ecosystem flooded with dopamine-driven snippets and dubious claims. The discipline is the same: be short enough to be seen, clear enough to be understood, vivid enough to be remembered, and honest enough to deserve trust. Without the last, the rest is clever noise. With it, words can do their essential work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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