Deborah Potter of NewsLab designed this handout on "self-editing" for TV reporters but it could be useful to newspaper reporters as well.

Back to Writing Resources

Revise and Conquer: NewsLab Self-Editing Tips

  • Wait at least five minutes before beginning to revise your copy. If you start revising immediately, you may read what you thought you wrote or meant to write, rather than what you actually put on the page.

  • Read your copy aloud. OUT LOUD. Not under your breath. Listen for sentences that are too long, for awkward phrases and for double meanings.

  • Replace jargon, "cop-speak," and "journalese" with more everyday language. (Spot stilted language by starting each sentence you read aloud with a conversation opener like "Guess what?")

  • Derail freight trains. Break up long titles and awkward strings of modifying nouns ("the 6-year-old Boulder area girl").

  • Remove shopworn adjectives ("tragic," "stunning," etc.) whose only purpose is to tell viewers what to feel. Retain or add specific details instead.

  • Look closely at transitions in and out of tape. Be sure the lead-in sets up the tape and explains any pronouns, but doesn't just restate the bite. Be sure the tag follows logically from the tape. Remember: a well-written story is seamless. There are no sections that can be lifted out.

  • Police for spelling (especially common mistakes) and grammar (especially subject-verb agreement and subject-pronoun agreement). Make sure your verbs are in the right tense, and look for any use of the passive voice that is not deliberate, which may signal missing information.

  • Double check for accuracy: all numbers and calculations; names and titles; date and time references; superlatives (Is it really the first? The biggest?)

  • Edit backwards. The last word is the most powerful. Do you need that last sentence? Those last few words in each sentence? (A chrysanthemum show featured 51 varieties of the flower.)

  • Listen to the story without looking at the video. Make sure all the sound is clear and understandable.

  • Look at the video without listening to the sound. Are the pictures telling the story you want to tell?

  • Screen the entire story, and check how what you've written corresponds to the pictures. Have you merely described what the viewer is seeing, or added meaning to what the viewer is seeing?
Back to Writing Resources