Not only should he be quick to recognize a good subject; he must be able to see the attractive and significant aspects of it.  He must understand which of its phases touch most closely the life and the interests of the average person for whom he is writing.  He must look at things from “the other fellow’s” point of view.  A sympathetic insight into the lives of his readers is necessary for every writer who hopes to quicken his subject with vital interest.

The alert mental attitude that constantly focuses the writer’s attention on the men and women around him has been called “human curiosity,” which Arnold Bennett says “counts among the highest social virtues (as indifference counts among the basest defects), because it leads to the disclosure of the causes of character and temperament and thereby to a better understanding of the springs of human conduct.”  The importance of curiosity and of a keen sense of wonder has been emphasized as follows by Mr. John M. Siddall, editor of the American Magazine, who directed his advice to college students interested in the opportunities afforded by writing as a profession: 

A journalist or writer must have consuming curiosity about other human beings—­the most intense interest in their doings and motives and thoughts.  It comes pretty near being the truth to say that a great journalist is a super-gossip—­not about trivial things but about important things.  Unless a man has a ceaseless desire to learn what is going on in the heads of others, he won’t be much of a journalist—­for how can you write about others unless you know about others?

In journalism men are needed who have a natural sense of wonder....  You must wonder at man’s achievements, at man’s stupidity, at his honesty, crookedness, courage, cowardice—­at everything that is remarkable about him wherever and whenever it appears.  If you haven’t this sense of wonder, you will never write a novel or become a great reporter, because you simply won’t see anything to write about.  Men will be doing amazing things under your very eyes—­and you won’t even know it.

Ability to investigate a subject thoroughly, and to gather material accurately, is absolutely necessary for any writer who aims to do acceptable work.  Careless, inaccurate writers are the bane of the magazine editor’s life.  Whenever mistakes appear in an article, readers are sure to write to the editor calling his attention to them.  Moreover, the discovery of incorrect statements impairs the confidence of readers in the magazine.  If there is reason to doubt the correctness of any data in an article, the editor takes pains to check over the facts carefully before publication.  He is not inclined to accept work a second time from a writer who has once proved unreliable.

To interpret correctly the essential significance of data is as important as to record them accurately.  Readers want to know the meaning of facts and figures, and it is the writer’s mission to bring out this meaning.  A sympathetic understanding of the persons who figure in his article is essential, not only to portray them accurately, but to give his story the necessary “human interest.”  To observe accurately, to feel keenly, and to interpret sympathetically and correctly whatever he undertakes to write about, should be a writer’s constant aim.