ut UNITED STATES DEPA 


(HE BUREAU /OR2ENTOMCLOGY 
RTMENT OF /AGRICULTURE 
MONTHLY LETTER OF 
Number 171 




PROMPTNESS AND EXPLICITNESS—IN-CONTRIBUPING-NENS ITEMS 
The Monthly Letter of the Bureau of Entomology is maintained as 
a medium for the exchange, chiefly within the Bureau, of information con- 
cerning the activities of its scientific personnel and the various divis— 
ions in which its work is conducted. The advantages of such an inter- 
change of information hardly need to be enumerated. An important point 
in making it as useful as possible is the publication of this news with 
the utmost promptness, and before it is so old as not to deserve to be 
called by that name. The most logical and, as experience has shown, the 
most practicable method of doing this is to collect the news items up to 
the end of each calendar month and to issue them as promptly as possible 
thereafter. Causes of delay in publication are numerous; lack of prompt- 
ness in forwarding the items, and the time required for editing, retyping, 
approving for publication, making up the pages, multigraphing, proof read-—- 
ing, assembling, and stapling. It is rarely that the monthly issue is 
ready for distribution until after the lapse of two-thirds of the follow- 
ing month. To reduce the delay to a minimum the receipt of news items 
for any month will hereafter be restricted to the first five days of the 
following month, and as soon as the material so received can be edited 
and retyped it will be offered for final approval. 
By far the larger part of the news items can, and should, be for-—- 
warded before the end of the month--perhaps as much as ten days before; 
and can be edited and retyped as promptly as practicable after they are 
received at the central office, thus avoiding the last-minute rush which 
has hitherto been a feature of the work on the Monthly Letter. Additional 
items, about events of the last few days of the month, can be sent immedi-— 
ately after those days have passed. It may reasonably be expected that 
items mailed promptly at the end of a month at any post office in the 
United States will be received at the editorial office within the five 
days allowed. 
In this connection a few suggestions concerning the preparation 
of news items seem desirable. Like other manuscript, all news matter 
should be written in double space for convenience in editing. Some time 
may be saved by placing the appropriate head for the division, as used 
regularly, at the beginning of the group of items. It is desirable. that 
the date of an occurrence be given as exactly as is practicable; precise 
knowledge of the time may be useful to some reader. To say that some 
visitor called, or somebody did something, "in July," is greatly to les— 
sen the value of the news. The value is still less-——almost vanishingly 
small—-when, as too frequently is the case, the time is not even remotely 
mentioned. And, in general, lack of explicitness (i.e. failure to give 
details which would answer one or more of the questions who, what, when, 
where, how, and why) is one of the most serious faults of the news items 
contributed, often causing waste of time in seeking more exact informa- 
tion. 
