Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/300

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Failure to remember that a verb without a subject is assumed to have the same subject as the statement in the deck immediately preceding, not that in any other of the preceding decks, also leads to confusion. The following head, for example, is poor because it is not clear that "president" is the subject of "gives," since "governor" is the subject of the statement in the preceding deck; nor is it evident that "troops" of the first deck is the subject of "to camp" in the fourth.

PRESIDENT ORDERS
    TROOPS TO REMAIN

Governor Undecided About Calling
  Special Legislative Session.

GIVES TWELVE DAYS OF GRACE

To Camp Here Three Weeks
   While State Decides
        Its Course.

The subject is sometimes incorrectly suppressed in one deck when there is no subject in the preceding deck that can be understood for that verb; for example, in the following head there is no word in the first deck that can be taken for the subject of "was" in the second.

ARREST REVEALS DOUBLE LIFE

Was Both Traveling Man and Bur-
 glar at Same Time, Say Police.

Often it is necessary to repeat in other decks with additional details or in more definite form the statement made in the first deck; for example: