The disorganized, debilitated reporter -- Learning to function more efficiently -- The major commandment: Make it interesting -- Raw Materials -- How and where to get ideas -- Picking the proper subject matter -- The need for files -- Finding and cultivating sources -- Thinking about story ideas: Extrapolation, synthesis -- Advancing story ideas: Localization, projection, viewpoint switching -- What readers like and don't like: Dogs, people, facts, observers, numbers -- Why the ideas with action in them are the best ideas -- Shaping Ideas -- The importance of forethought -- Range of the story: Keeping it narrow -- Theme of the story: The importance of the main theme statement -- Developing the theme of a general profile or a microcosm profile -- Approach of the story: The limits of the profile and the roundup -- Tone of the story: Why it is important -- Story Dimensions -- Time: The importance of the past and the future, as well as the present -- Scope: The quantity, locale, diversity and intensity of a development -- Variety: Using various source levels and internal proofs -- Movement: The built-in kind and the alternation of opposite elements -- The reporter's role: Neither lawyer nor scholastic nor objectivist nor formula follower. But what then? -- Planning and Execution -- A six-part guide for the reporter -- History: Does the main theme development have roots in the past? -- Scope: How widespread, intense and various is the development? -- Reasons: Why is it happening now? -- Impacts: Who or what is affected-and how?.