EDITING PROCESS

Editing process
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2.
3. 4. 5. 6.

Language Making the story conform to style Readability Ensuring accuracy Attribution Looking for legal trouble: defamation and contempt of court

Language
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2.

3.

4.

Spelling of words accommodate/ accommodate, hanger/ hangar; spellings of proper nouns (people and places) Protecting and polishing the language grammar, syntax and clarity: subject-verb agreement, tense , active voice-passive voice, conventions of usage, clutter, avoid cliches and jargon, idioms and metaphors Trimming unnecessary words: a small number of can be a few Eliminating passages in poor taste

Language
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2.

3.

Looking for biases, derogatory or offensive terms, being legally correct while referring to things: a High Court/ Supreme Court Judge is never only Mr./ Ms. So and so. It is always Justice. TOI story No place for slang, obscenities, profane words Ensure reporters/ writers convey what they intend to communicate: misleading headlines or leads, wrong terminology: our gratitude for your servitude

Style

we have completed this topic TOI story

Readability

Getting the language and grammar right Conformity to style also improves readability: The Hindu story Remove most statistics and figures from the text and use graphics: easier to read, easier to understand Ensure than the story logically progresses so that reader/ viewer/ listener is not confused. The audience should not have to go back and read something again

Accuracy

Factual accuracy Numbers and percentages: do they tally? Figures given by govt. officials Correcting inconsistencies factual, style and language Story in todays Hindu

Attribution

Everything but the most basic, most common information has to be attributed Especially things that are controversial, so that the public knows where the journalist got the info from Any kind of factual information that u quote, should be adequately attributed Over attribution: no need to give the page number of the book where u got the info from, but give enough so that the public can locate it themselves

Legal trouble

Defamation: give person a chance to respond to allegations Contempt of court: truth is the best defence, but it is important to stay within the law DNA story on judges, housing societies and contempt of court

Golden rule:
If in doubt, check it out If still in doubt, then leave it out

Reference:
The Art of Editing by Baskette and Scissors: will be made available in library shortly