1. About the publication

Not having enough funds to cover the annual cost of the publication of the journal, “relying on orders and promises”, Zawiliński risked once again and resumed its publication in 1925 (1925, Issue 1, p. 1). The subtitle – “Monthly dedicated to proper use and purity of the Polish language” (“Miesięcznik poświęcony poprawności i czystości języka polskiego”), the annual publishing cycle and the volume of one author’s sheet were preserved. The annual bound volume of 1925 was identified as Series C, while that of 1926 – as Series D. The series identification was placed in the running head. From 1927 on, the series was no longer specified, and the former breakdown into annual bound volumes was restored. A total of 40 issues were released. Dispatches of Poradnik were handled by the editorial board. The editorial office’s address was the same as in the previous period. Poradnik was printed by the Drukarnia Literacka printing house in Cracow. Advance payments were collected by the dispatching unit of Poradnik (bank account: P. K. O. No. 404.600) and bookshops. The amount of the advance payment increased insignificantly year by year (from PLN 6.50–7–8). Secondary school teachers accounted for a considerable number of subscribers – the publication was recommended to schools in circular letters sent by education authorities (1925, Issue 3, p. 33).

At the end of 1925, the editor got into financial trouble due to increased prices of paper and printing services. The situation got even worse due the fact that payments were made in instalments (on a quarterly or semi-annual basis) and that subscribers were in arrears with payments and also due to postage costs (complaints, requests for payments). In order to encourage the previous year’s subscribers to sign up again, the first issues released in the following year were sent to them. They could be returned within a specific time or paid for by making the required subscription payment (1926, Issue 3, p. 48). By the end of 1926, more than 100 subscribers failed to make the annual payment. The publication was credited by the editor, it was not granted any subsidy, the sales volume was disappointing (1927, Issue 6/10, p. 81). One of the ways of sustaining pressure on subscribers was withholding dispatches of Issue 5, which was the last one published in 1927. The annual bound volume was closed with a combined issue (6/10), the volume of which was below one author’s sheet, released a year later (1927, Issue 6/10, p. 81). This issue was dispatched to its subscribers in June 1928 (1929, Issue 2, p. 32), yet the interest was small. Zawiliński wrote regretfully that few subscribers were concerned about the lack (suspension of the publication of the issues for the second half of 1927), “so it seems it is possible to do without the journal...” (1927, Issue 6/10, p. 81).

2. Policy statement

With subscribers from secondary schools in mind, it was undertaken: “to discuss various more difficult linguistic issues which students come across learning their mother tongue, but which are not handled in any grammar book. We will search through valuable resources of both the old and modern language in use to demonstrate the inseparable connection and dependence between them in the following year [1926 – W.D.Z.]” (1925, Issue 10, p. 137). Issues related to grammar, style and pronunciation were handled*. It was believed that the more magazines were evaluated in linguistic terms, the sooner the language of the press would improve. As many as 200–300 ones were planned to be analysed (1925, Issue 10, p. 137).

As a result of the exchange of thoughts between the editorial board and the readers, the editor would sometimes – like in previous years – cancel his earlier judgements as regards proper language use:

“I must own up to an oversight. Not knowing Russian, I could not know that it was a Russian influence. It was an obviously better choice to say in Polish przedbolszewicki than dobolszewicki”.

3. Sections of the journal

The basic sections from the former arrangement of the journal were preserved. New sections were declared to be introduced (1925, Issue 1, p. 1). In the annual bound volume of 1925, there were XVII sections, in 1926 – XI and in 1927 – XII. In the “Papers” section, 27 texts were published in total (in 1925 – 10*, in 1926 – 9, and in 1927 – 8). As regards “Queries and replies” (“Queries”), 259 grammatical problems were handled. A new column: “For the sake of proper language use” (“O poprawność języka”) (1925, Issue 5 – 1927, Issue 5), was run by A.A. Kryński*. The “Queries and replies” and “Divagations” sections were combined temporarily into one – “Queries and divagations” (“Zapytania i roztrząsania”) (1925, Issues 1–4). The chief education officer for the Lviv district sent a circular letter to the schools within his competence, containing a list of the most frequent errors in the official language (1925, Issue 4, pp. 55–57). Texts dedicated to professional terminology: business, technical and culinary were published as well. One column, namely “From Readers” (“Głosy czytelników”) survived until 1950 (beginning with Issue 5 of 1927). “Weeds” (“Chwasty”) (from Issue 3 of 1927 on), “Curiosities” (“Curiosum”) (from Issue 2 of 1925 on), “Topics” (“Zagadnienia”) (1925, Issues 1–3) and “Newspaper clippings” (“Wycinki z gazet”) (1927, Issue 1) were not so long-lived.

4. Collaborators

As in the previous years, Zawiliński would request readers to send queries and share their doubts as well as to express their wishes as regards the contents to be published (1925, Issue 1, p. 2), while his fellow Polish language experts were asked to suggest specific grammatical problems to be raised (1927, Issue 1, p. 16). The editor also managed to persuade specialists representing various fields of science to reply to questions concerning professional terminology, that is medicine – Stanisław Skalski (Łódź), law – Józef Muczkowski (Cracow), and technology – Karol Stadtmüller (Cracow) (1925, Issue 1, p. 1). A.A. Kryński and “a number of people who are not professional linguists, yet who truly care about the Polish language” also expressed their willingness to collaborate (1925, Issue 10, p. 137).

The texts published in the “Papers” section were written by J. Czubek, A.A. Kryński and J. Rzewnicki, who had been collaborating with Poradnik for many years, as well as novices: Wanda Gizbert-Studnicka, Kazimierz Missona, Stanisław Pawłowski, Jadwiga Wasilewska and Zygmunt Witold Wasilewski. Circa 60% (16*) of all texts published in this column were written by Zawiliński.