Editing Stories, Susan Eder

Chapter Four: Creative Editing for Canadian Journalists

Image courtsy of Gawker

Copy-editors have many job duties in today's technological world. No longer do copy-editors just read and correct copy and write columns. Today's modern copy-editor has many other resposibilities. Chelsey Smith also has a good blog post on editing and proofreading. Responsibilities of the modern copy-editor are as follows:

• Editing Leads
• Checking for holes in the story
• Making sure numbers are accurate
• Check word usage for accuracy
• Eliminate redundancies
• Edit story structure
• Use of transitions
• Handling Quotations
• Shortening stories
• Editing new-service copy
• The wire editor's job
• Editing for the web

Copy-editors, therefore, must make sure that the story is balanced, accurate and fair. They must consider legal implications. They must make use of appropriate leads. The must check the story for any information gaps and check to make sure the structure is consistant. Number, statitics, attributes and quotations must all be checked for for accuracy. Reduncancies and superfluous information needs to be taken out. Also today's copy-editor's need to be able to use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and need to be familar with the world of blogs. Characteristics of copy-editing techniques can be found on the web.