Guidelines to Editing Process

The process of editing requires immense concentration and can’t be done in a hurry. A sub-editor focuses on the report prepared by a reporter to achieve the following goals:

• To make sure that the report is logical and meaningful

• To present accurate information, facts and figures to the reader

• To trim a report and make it concise and clear

• Is targeted towards the reader

• To render an appropriate tone and tenor to the report

• Makes it purpose clear

The important questions a sub-editor must ask himself while editing a piece are

• Does the lead paragraph provide a summary of the news to the readers?

• Do the individual paragraphs contribute to the key idea in order to form a meaningful whole?

• Does the purpose remain consistent throughout the story?

• How relevant is each sentence to the purpose of the story?

• Is there any sentence in each paragraph that summarizes its meaning?

• Do the paragraphs contain a single meaning each?

• Is there a logical flow of text from one paragraph to another?

• Is the story properly worded avoiding unnecessary filler words (actually, basically etc.) and repetitions?

• Is the story free from clichés, slang and jargons?

• Has evidence been given to back up the statements?

• Is there an appropriate tone given to the story?

• Does the story fulfil readers’ requirements?

• Does the final paragraph properly conclude the story?

If the above mentioned guidelines are met then the copy is said to be clean and is ready for proofing. In most of the cases major changes are to be made on a report prepared by a reporter or have to be rewritten to make a piece publishable. After the necessary adjustments are made the copy is ready for proofreading.

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News Editing Process

Editing literally means to prepare any text, image, audio or video for publication or presentation by making necessary corrections, alterations and modifications. The process is similar while editing news articles also. The aim of news editing is to present a reader an accurate, balanced and fair account of the event, incident or happening in an easily digestible format.

The process of editing starts with the selection of events a newspaper decides to report. There are many incidents of varying significances happening at time and all those events may not become news because of time and space constraints. And also every newspaper organisation has a set of guidelines which govern the process of selection and presentation.

It is the duty of a reporter to write an account of the selected event which is then sent to the editing desk. It is at the editing desk where a sub-editor shapes a story and makes it easily comprehendible to the readers.

A sub-editor structures the story in such a way that all the relevant information is disclosed at the beginning of the story. He aligns the story to the style followed by the newspaper and also double-checks facts, figures and names. He makes a report clean, clear and consistent and writes strong and attractive headlines. He also responsible for the basic page lay-out.

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