Authors: Cecilia Friend, Katherine C. McAdams, Don Challenger
ISBN-13: 9780072853988, ISBN-10: 0072853980
Format: Paperback
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies, The
Date Published: July 2004
Edition: 2nd Edition
We live in the Information Age, surrounded by news and information from more sources and with greater frequency than ever before. In such an environment, good editing is essential, for the editor's task is to manage information. Whether by checking facts, editing copy, choosing photos or designing pages, the editor is inextricably involved in the process of shaping the news. To ensure the accuracy and quality of the news, editors need a broad array of skills. Advances in online journalism and the vast array of resources available mean that contemporary editors need the skills and context to deal with the changing nature of news. At the same time, traditional copy-editing skills are more important than ever.
Contemporary Editing offers a balanced approach to news editing, emphasizing that good news judgment is the key to making editorial decisions and recognizing that a combination of traditional and emerging skills is the best approach to the news today. Part 1, Approaching the Story, provides general insights into the editing process, explains the copy editor's place in the newsroom, offers an extensive grammar review and extends your knowledge of good writing practices. Part 2, Inside the Story, gives more specialized treatment to a number of editing tasks and story forms, including local news, wire stories, polls and surveys, briefs and features, as well as writing headlines and the legal and ethical issues surrounding a story. Part 3, handling photos and information graphics, designing pages and editing on the World Wide Web.
By providing step-by-step editing techniques, practical exercises, and a solid basis in news judgment, Contemporary Editing will equip you with the skills to edit the news.
Addresses the many facets of newspaper editing from grammar and design to questions of ethics in a multimedia culture. The textbook's 16 chapters are organized into three parts: basic skills; special issues in copy editing; and editing issues beyond the story itself, including photographs, graphics, page design, and Web editing. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Preface | xvii | |
Part 1 | Approaching the Story | 1 |
Chapter 1 | Focus on fundamentals: The editor within | 2 |
Editing is Reading with an Attitude | 2 | |
The Editor Emerges | 4 | |
The Editor Shifts From Me to We | 7 | |
What Editors do and Why It Matters | 8 | |
The Editor's Changing Role: From Print to Multimedia | 12 | |
The Changing News and News Judgment | 18 | |
Preparing to be an Editor | 22 | |
Chapter 2 | Focus on news judgment: The editor's attitude | 25 |
The Editor Steps Forward | 25 | |
The Editor's Attitude | 26 | |
News Values and News Judgment | 30 | |
Applying the News Values | 36 | |
News Judgment in Action | 37 | |
Doing the Right Thing: Fairness and Ethics | 41 | |
The Starting Point: Your Stylebook | 51 | |
A Look Around the Newsroom | 52 | |
Chapter 3 | Focus on skills and tools: The editor in the newsroom | 56 |
The News is in the Details | 56 | |
Skills for Today's Copy Editor | 58 | |
Organization: the Shape of the Story | 65 | |
Accuracy: the Substance of the Story | 73 | |
Numbers in the News | 82 | |
Tools for Today's Editor | 90 | |
Chapter 4 | Focus on grammar: The mechanics of language | 100 |
Why Grammar Matters | 100 | |
What are Grammar, Style and Usage? | 102 | |
Building Grammar Skills Step By Step | 104 | |
Sentences: Putting the Parts Together | 130 | |
Punctuation | 137 | |
Chapter 5 | Focus on good writing: Strong and graceful prose | 151 |
Correct Writing and Good Writing | 151 | |
Style and Usage: Let the Writer's Voice Be Heard | 153 | |
The Editor's Role: Seeing the Details and Hearing the Song | 153 | |
Clarity Through Word Usage: Be Simple, Be Brief | 156 | |
Misused Words | 164 | |
More on Quotations and Attributions | 176 | |
Building Graceful Sentences | 185 | |
Part 2 | Inside the Story | 199 |
Chapter 6 | News close to home: Editing local stories and community news | 200 |
The Importance of Local News | 200 | |
What's Different About Local News? | 203 | |
The Characteristics of Strong Local News | 205 | |
Raising the Standards in Community News | 219 | |
The Debate Over Civic Journalism | 228 | |
Chapter 7 | News from afar: Editing wire stories | 235 |
News From Afar | 235 | |
Looking Inside the Wire | 238 | |
The Wire Editor's Tasks | 239 | |
Reading and Selecting Wire Stories | 247 | |
Editing and Trimming Wire Stories | 250 | |
Chapter 8 | Making a long story short: Editing for brevity and clarity | 267 |
Cutting Stories Without Cutting Corners | 267 | |
Old Tools for New Needs | 269 | |
Thinking Through the Story | 272 | |
Editing Briefs: The Shortest of the Short | 294 | |
Chapter 9 | After the fact: Editing features and more complex story forms | 305 |
Feature Editing is Creative Editing | 305 | |
Features, News and News Features: Some Distinctions | 307 | |
The Feature Editor and the Feature Writer | 308 | |
Changing Priorities: News Values and More | 311 | |
Leads and Language in Features | 315 | |
Focus and Organization in Features | 328 | |
Chapter 10 | No safety in numbers: Poll and survey stories | 339 |
Polls Can REflect or Distort Public Opinion | 339 | |
A Primer on Polling | 340 | |
Key Concepts in Poll Results | 343 | |
Bias in the Questioning Process | 346 | |
Scientific and Nonscientific Polls | 356 | |
The Impact of Polls on the Public | 361 | |
Chapter 11 | Doing justice: Legal issues, ethics and bias | 367 |
The Lessons of 1998 | 367 | |
Developing A Sense of What is Right | 370 | |
The Concept of Libel | 376 | |
The Right to Privacy | 386 | |
Ethical Guidelines | 389 | |
Part 3 | Beyond the Story | 403 |
Chapter 12 | Headlines: Precision, power and poetry | 404 |
The Voice of Authority | 404 | |
What Headlines Do | 405 | |
Getting Started: Headline Basics | 406 | |
The Language of Headlines | 410 | |
Four Stages of Headline Writing | 412 | |
Intention: What Good Headlines Must Do | 413 | |
Approach: What Good Headlines Should Do | 421 | |
Mechanics: Compressing Meaning, Maintaining Clarity | 424 | |
Structure: Headlines on the Page and Screen | 435 | |
Chapter 13 | An eye for news: Editing photos | 447 |
The Power of Pictures | 447 | |
Image and Reality | 451 | |
Selecting Photos | 452 | |
Ethical and Legal Issues | 458 | |
Cropping and Sizing Photos | 468 | |
Writing Cutlines | 475 | |
Chapter 14 | Showing the story: Editing information graphics | 481 |
The Value of Showing the Story | 481 | |
Types of Information Graphics | 483 | |
Data and Distortion | 494 | |
Editing Text in Infographics | 504 | |
Chapter 15 | The balancing act: Designing pages | 509 |
Communicating Through Design | 509 | |
Why Design Matters | 510 | |
Design Concepts | 516 | |
Story Design with and Without Art | 522 | |
From the Module to the Page | 530 | |
Typography: the Visual Dimension of Words | 535 | |
Advanced Issues in Design | 539 | |
Laying Out Inside Pages | 546 | |
Color Considerations | 548 | |
Chapter 16 | From gatekeeper to guide: Online news and 21st-century editing | 556 |
The Leap from the Page to the Screen | 556 | |
Audience, Advertising and Ethics: New Realities Online | 561 | |
The News and the Newsroom Go Online | 567 | |
Adapting Your Skills to Online Editing | 577 | |
The Web, Free Speech and Democracy | 585 | |
Appendix A | Frequently Misused Words | 593 |
Appendix B | Glossary | 597 |
Appendix C | Sample Dummy Sheets | 607 |
Acknowledgments | 611 | |
Index | 613 |