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