The following listing is of the example TeX file story.tex, which should be available in the .../texmf/tex/plain/base/ part of your TeX distribution. It is also listed on page 24 of D E Knuth's The TeXbook. A copy is included in the TeX2page distribution.

You can of course use any example file you want. story.tex merely happens to be the ``first'' example file in the TeX collective consciousness. 74.3% of all TeX users learned TeX by analyzing this file.

\hrule
\vskip 1in
\centerline{\bf A SHORT STORY}
\vskip 6pt
\centerline{\sl    by A. U. Thor} % !`?`?! (modified)
\vskip .5cm
Once upon a time, in a distant
  galaxy called \"O\"o\c c,
there lived a computer
named R.~J. Drofnats.

Mr.~Drofnats---or ``R. J.,'' as
he preferred to be called---% error has been fixed!
was happiest when he was at work
typesetting beautiful documents.
\vskip 1in
\hrule
\vfill\eject