Module: Basic Editing for Journalists 1 | P a g e Lesson 1 The Writing Process Whenever you write, consider your specific audience, that is, the people who will read what you have written. In addition, you should also consider the tone of your writing, which depends on your subject matter and on your audience. Your tone is your style or manner of expression and is revealed by your choice of words and grammatical structures and even the length of your sentences. The tone of a piece of writing can be, for example, serious, humorous, personal or impersonal. For both native speakers and new learners of English, it is important to note that writing is a process, not a product. This means that a piece of writing – whether a short report or an investigative piece, is never complete unless and until it is reviewed and revised till its fit for print. There are four main stages in the writing process: pre-writing, planning, writing and revising drafts and writing the final copy for publishing. Pre-writing Step 1: Choosing and narrowing a topic If you’re assigned a particular writing assignment, then of course, what you can write about is limited. On the other hand, when you’re given a free choice of topics and can write about something that interests you, then you must narrow the topic down to a particular aspect of that general subject. Suppose, for instance, you’re interested in the environment. It would be impossible to cover such a big topic in an 800-word piece for a section in a newspaper or on an e-zine. You would have to perhaps narrow it down to environmental pollution. Again, here, environmental pollution is a very broad topic for a short feature, so you might want to further narrow the topic down to a type of environmental pollution, such as pollution of the oceans. However, writing about ocean pollution is still too broad because it would include pollution by oil, chemicals, sewage and garbage. Therefore, you might decide to write about oil as a source of ocean pollution. 2 | P a g e Finally, you might make the topic even narrower and more focused by writing solely about the affects of oil spills on sea life. The point is, you must narrow down the subject of your piece so that you can write about it clearly and completely. Class Assignment Narrow down each of the following general topics to one specific aspect that could be written about in a 600-800 word article for a daily newspaper: Education Pakistan’s entertainment industry Sports Food Terrorism Travel Step 2: Brainstorming After you have chosen a topic and narrowed it down to a specific focus, the next step is to generate ideas. This is done by a process called brainstorming. Although these brainstorming activities may seem unnecessary at first, after doing them a few times, you will realize how useful they can be. Brainstorming for ideas can get you started writing more quickly and save you time in the later stages of the writing process. Three useful brainstorming techniques are; listing, free writing and clustering. I. Listing Listing is a brainstorming technique in which you think about your topic and quickly make a list of whatever words or phrases come into your mind. Your purpose is to produce as many ideas as possible in a short time and your goal is to find a specific focus for your topic. Follow the procedure mapped out below: Jot down the topic. Make a list of every idea that comes to mind about the topic. Keep the ideas flowing. Try not to deviate from the main topic at hand. Use words, phrases or sentences and don’t fret about spelling or grammar (at least not yet). 3 | P a g e II. Free writing Free writing is a brainstorming activity in which you write freely about a topic because you’re looking for a specific focus. While you’re writing, one idea will spark another idea. It works like a charm. As with listing, the purpose of free writing is to generate as many ideas as possible and to write them down without worrying about appropriateness, grammar, spelling, logic or organization. Follow the procedure mapped out below: Jot down the topic. Write down as much as you can about the topic till you run out of ideas. Include such supporting items such as facts, details and examples that come into your mind about the subject. After you’re done, circle the main ideas that you would like to develop. Take that main idea and free write again. III. Clustering Clustering is another brainstorming technique that you can use to generate ideas. Here’s how you use this activity: in the centre of your page, write down your topic and draw a circle around it. This is your centre, your core. Then, write down whatever ideas come to you in additional small circles around your main topic. Class Assignment 1. Brainstorm by listing ideas on any one of the following topics: Pakistan’s film industry Poverty The arts and social change 2. Brainstorm by free writing on any one of the following topics: Animal rights in Pakistan Child abuse Pakistan’s tourism industry A topic of your own choice 4 | P a g e 3. Use the clustering technique to generate ideas about a subject that is close to your heart. Planning Previously, you chose topics and narrowed them down by generating ideas and brainstorming. In the planning stage, you organize the ideas you generated by brainstorming into an outline. The first step toward making an outline is to divide the ideas generated during your brainstorming activities into sub-lists and to cross out any items that don’t belong or aren’t useable. After you’ve whittled down your ideas to ones that you can most certainly include in your article, you’re now ready to proceed with finally penning your piece. Writing and Editing After the pre-writing and the planning stage is the final stage of writing and editing. Remember, no piece of writing is ever perfect the first time around. Each time you write a new draft, you will refine and improve your writing and will leave little to no room for errors. Step 1: Writing the first rough draft The first step in this stage is to write a rough draft from your final outline. Write steadily, referring to your main points every now and then. Don’t hesitate to add ideas that aren’t in your outline if you are certain they’re relevant to your topic. Since this is your first draft, don’t pay any heed to grammar, punctuation or spelling. You can tackle that later. Remember that writing is a continuous process of discovery, so you can add new ideas or delete older ones at any point during your first draft. Step 2: Revising content and organization After you revise your rough draft, the next step is to revise it for content and organization, including unity, coherence and logic. This is how you should proceed: Read over your story carefully for a general overview. Are you satisfied with your lead paragraph? Does it entice the reader to continue reading your story? 5 | P a g e Check for general logic and coherence: is the article making sense? Your audience should be able to follow your ideas easily and understand what you have written. Check for unity: delete any sentence or paragraph that does not support your overall topic. Are there sufficient supporting details in your article? Make sure every paragraph gives your reader enough information to understand your piece. Does each paragraph transition well into the next? Or is the content fractured in certain parts? Finally, your conclusion: does it leave the reader wanting more? What’s the tone of your conclusion? Does it end with a question? A fact? Is it repetitive? Does it conclude your story effectively or not? Step 3: Proofreading The next step is to proofread your article to check for grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation: Check over each sentence for correctness and completeness; no fragments and no choppy or run-on sentences. Check over each sentence for a subject and a verb, subject-verb agreement, correct verb tenses, etc. Check the mechanics: punctuation, spelling, capitalization, typing errors, etc. Change vocabulary words as necessary. Step 4: Writing the final copy Now you’re all set to pen the final copy and submit it for publishing. Make sure you incorporate all the corrections that you identified in your second draft. Again, writing is a continuous process of writing and rewriting until you’re satisfied with the final draft. Class Assignment Choose any one topic of your liking (unless assigned by the instructor) and pen your first draft. Once completed, proceed to proofreading your entire article; after which you will edit the second draft and prepare your third and final draft for submission to the instructor. 6 | P a g e Lesson 2 Copyediting for Reporters: How to Get the Basics Right By Leighton Walter Kille In their working lives, reporters naturally concentrate on reporting — making calls, developing sources, conducting interviews and research, and finally writing. All this effort centers on getting stories and making sure they’re timely, accurate and compelling. In large news operations, be they print, online or broadcast, journalists know that after they submit their stories, their copy will normally go through an editor and potentially copyeditor before publication. The goal of these additional layers of attention is to ensure that stories are comprehensible, consistent and correct.