Rules of Copy Editing

Originally by Karina Hernandez

Copy editors can edit any kind of copy. They read through endless pages of newsletters, marketing materials, Web material, academic works, books, newspapers and magazines with a fine-toothed comb. They must address issues of language mechanics, grammar, spelling, punctuation, style and, just as importantly, fact checking. They also must identify problems and correct them for clarity and accuracy without reworking the author's original style or ideas to the point of inauthenticity.  

Style

Vigilant copy editors do well by keeping themselves acquainted with the most commonly used style guides: MLA (Modern Language Association), AP (Associated Press) and the Chicago Manual of Style. The style manuals publish the most up-to-date information on commonly used (and confusing) words, their proper usage, as well as punctuation and information on the writing discipline. Usage manuals and dictionaries are also an important part of the editing repertoire. Copy editors also must be familiar with the specific style guide of the publication for which they are working, which may cover local or in-house issues not included in a general style guide. The in-house style guide may also have rules that contradict traditional style guides, and the copy editor must get to know them well A copy editor must be a master of her in-house style. Because the writers and authors whose work they edit may write for a spectrum of publications, they may confuse or apply a writing convention that's inconsistent with the publication for which the editor works.  

Punctuation

Copy editors must tackle the most difficult punctuation issues to ensure clarity and convey the emotion intended by the writer through the text. The University of Capetown says the comma and apostrophe are the most confusing punctuation marks when writing and are often used incorrectly .  

Spelling

The advent of the computer spell-check function has made this part of a copy editor's job somewhat easier. But the copy editor still must be vigilant, as not all words are included in computer dictionary. A computer spell-checker also won't catch if a correctly spelled word has been used in the wrong way (led vs. lead or rein vs. rain).  

Grammar and Syntax

Copy editors must not only know the principles of grammar and syntax, but also how to convey them to the author in a tactful and professional manner. They must meet tone and sentence structure guidelines without affecting the author's message or their relationship.

Checking the Facts Just as they must preserve a writer's integrity and style, the copy editor must also protect the integrity and reputation of the publication, which he helps do by double-checking the facts, statistics and quotes of an article to reduce the risk of embarrassing and potentially libelous mistakes. Fact-checking may include contacting the author's sources; making sure the writer cites the source of information and gives credit where it's due; and researching the facts online or from texts.  

Brevity and Concise Writing

A piece of writing must convey important information clearly and concisely. The copy editor must weed out unnecessary words and make sure the piece is free of the journalist's opinions or flowery language, keeping the article as tight and factual as possible.

Online Journalism

One of the biggest growth opportunities is online journalism. Web Editors often make more money than their print editor counterparts.

Jobs:

Web editors and producers positions pay higher than the equivalent print positions: Web editors approx $65,000 and Web producers approximately $89,000.

Style Guide Report focusing on the Townsville Bulletin

Writing styles are continually used by sub-editors in almost every newsroom to ensure journalists adhere to their organisation’s style. Sub-editors are often represented or referred to as the ‘news police’ as their job really is to enforce the governing rules or the framework of their organisation’s news medium. Today the traditional newsroom is moving from producing for one medium such as a print which has its own style, to multiple mediums such as video and web, all of which have their own unique style as well.

Although all styles employ the basics of correct grammar and standard news rules such as fair, accurate, attributed, present tense and the inverted pyramid writing method are all still used along with style guides.

University of Queensland Lecturer, Steve McIlwaine outlines how style allows for effective communication.

“Style is a broad attempt to impose order, to standardise meaning, just as the rules of spelling and grammar seek to do on a more detailed level. Effective communication requires efficient comprehension and comprehension is maximised if everyone knows the rules.” (McIIwaine, 2005) 

McIlwaine sees how communication works best if everyone knows the rules, likewise readers of a daily paper know what to expect when the house style is enforced religiously.

 

North Queensland newspaper The Townsville Bulletin operated by News Limited predominantly targets local readers “with two out of three Townsville residents reading the paper at least once a week.” (NewsSpace, 2012) The Townsville Bulletin which has a long history in the North has a readership of 97,000 for their weekend newspaper and an online readership of 95,000 unique visitors.

Although both the print and online version of the Townsville Bulletin may look the same different sub-editing techniques have been used for the print and online mediums. 

The Townsville Bulletin’s printing style

The Townsville Bulletin which is produced in tabloid format tends to cover local, crime and sports stories frequently as their cover and lead stories compared with national papers such as the Australian which generally has a cover story focused towards national affairs or politics and business. The Bulletin regularly changes their front cover layout but all show the same in house style of covering news relevant to the papers distribution network in North Queensland.

The style of the paper is to run a large heading, often two-three words followed by a short sub-heading posted either below or above the initial heading with an author by-line. Articles then have a lead-in sentence which features an eye-catching capitalised first word. While the layout varies most days, key elements such as the title, advertisements and logos stay in the same location. While the copy layout changes depending upon the editorial content that’s been provided, such as images.

Being a tabloid style newspaper in a garrison city the audience targeted is predominantly the working classes. (Rogers, 2012) However, ultimately the editor decides what stories are covered and how they are shown in order to meet their target audience tastes. 

Above: Front covers of the Townsville Bulletin between 2009 and 2012.

 

The Townsville Bulletin’s online style

The online version of the Townsville Bulletin produced in a webpage format is similar to the other News Limited regional newspaper websites. The site incorporates a selection of stories from the daily paper which have been sub-edited and published online. The website, like their paper generally has the same cover story of the paper highlighted first with a featured image.

The TownsvilleBulletin.com.au website sticks to the same template liberally and only changes special ‘highlighted’ sections such as their ‘crimebusters’ section to look attractive to a wider audience. However, generally the website’s articles stick with the same familiar theme set by the other major News Limited websites.

The website features one heading with a by-line, no sub-heading followed by a lead-in sentence with a bold typeset and capitalised first word. This style is familiar to the web and highlights the key point of the story allowing the audience to read the most important information first. 

To further assist the reader with reading full stories, techniques that are effective when writing for the web have been used. These techniques include; locality of the story in each lead-in sentence of the online copy, website speed and efficiency, simple navigation and well thought summaries.

Stovall writes about the effective use of summaries in his book Writing for the Mass Media, highlighting the effectiveness of a well thought summary.

“Informational summaries simply try to give readers an overview of a larger story. A summary can be as long as two or three sentences, so the writer has the opportunity to give the readers more information than is normally found in a lead paragraph of an inverted pyramid new story.” (Stovall, 2005)

Unlike other news websites such as News.com.au the Townsville Bulletin website rarely features embedded links to further readings, however when these are included often incorrect links can be found in the copy online.

An error in a story titled, Make Townsville Work: Housing featured an incorrect link to the comments feed which leaves messy HTML mark-up visible to the reader. However unlike its predecessor errors on websites can be corrected, but reflects badly on the professionalism of the website if not fixed.

In summary the online layout of the bulletin stays the same in order to keep the reader familiar with the site content, which assists with allowing the audience to find current and past stories efficiently.

Writing News for the Web

"The internet is not the enemy of newspapers. It is a medium on which great journalism can reach a larger audience. 

Reading online news

Web news articles are read in more depth than tradition news papers. Audiences read on average 64 per cent more the entire story (EyeTrack 2007)

Readers are often drawn by navigation links and online reading is actually 25% slower as eyes become tired faster. This is why many news stories are broken up over a page with many pictures (to keep the eyes active)

Writing for the web is competitive and to stand out from the herd must have multimedia options and be considerate of a possible global audience. Journalistic writing should be effective, concise and interesting.

Online writing has a particular style along with all the other standard news rules (fair, accurate, attributed, present tense, inverted pyramid)

Online readers are less patient. 

Short paragraphs = twice as likely to be read. 

Web news audiences wants locale in heading/first sentence must spell it out. e.g. Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Language Differences Online - English is the most common online language followed by Chinese and Spanish.

THE BEAUTY ABOUT ONLINE STORIES IS ERROrS CAN BE DEALT WITH BY CORRECTING AND THEN RE-PUBLISHING. 

Short heading in active voice, short intriguing introduction gets more readers, inverted pyramid, good hyperlinks add depth to the story.

CHUNKING is an approach to writing information online to make it more accessible and readable.

Other points... 
- Use boldface emphasis to highlight major points.
- Use links liberally, and build documents with reader responses and inbound links in mind.

Editing - Style Quotes

“Why seek uniformity? Why try to ‘pin down’as elusive a commodity as language? Styleis a broad attempt to impose order, to standardise meaning just as the rules of spelling and grammar seek to do on a more detailed level. Effective communication requires efficient comprehensionand comprehension is maximised if everyone knows the rules. “

Steve McIlwaneUniversity of QueenslandStyle Guide,2002, p. 31

Style guides are used for giving sub-editors and journalists a framework in which to write and work. They provide a connection between the publication and the reader. 

A poorly conceived style guide or having none at all can: affect readability and create poor or unattractive aesthetics.

Sub-editors expect journalists to be familiar with a publication's style guide and to use that style in writing news stories. 

Although for those that can't adhere to the styler guide it is important that the sub-editor is on top of the style to detect any of the breaches. 

Seven main areas of ‘policing’: - Sub-editors are the 'news police'
Grammar and punctuation, spelling, names, capitalisation, titles, language preferences and design style. Legal issues are also looked at.

Dale and Pilgrim (2005) identify 6 elements for successful editing: Priority - emphasis, community - connection, clarity  - clear and orderly, unity - consistency, contrast - guidelines and beauty - visually pleasing. 

Style guides and PR 

Very important tool as PR aims to present consistent and organised messages. 

Consistency is important in branding, promoting and presenting the message they want to get across.

Politics and election campaigns underscore the importance of these elements (eg Kevin ’07 campaign)

Parts of Speech

Today in my Media Editing class I was alerted to my lack of grammatical skills.

Before I become the editor for weeks 5 and 6 for Writing Convergent Stories 2 I shall revisit grammar rules.

The englishclub.com seems to be a good starting point - The EnglishClub Grammar.

Grammar Adult Classes

The editor's role: Print, Broadcast and Online

The readings talk about the current delimeha that newspapers are facing with reducing numbers and believeing less people means more productivity.

--- Lecture Notes ---

The Editor's Role: The editor decides what stories reporters should pursue. Their role entails assigning stories and offering advice to reporters to assess and polish the stories they bring. All reporters acquire editing skills to prepare and submit clean copy/broadcast-ready material.


Clean Copy - Refers to copy that is coherent, easy to understand, devoid of grammaratical and style errors. It also needs to be written with the reader or audience in mind.

Copy editing strengthens "a reporter's grasp of hir or her work as a writer." ~ Leiter et al. 2000:497


The editor's role: Exercising news judgement, improving stories while tetaining tone and identity of the writer, correcting errors of grammar and style, correcting facts of error and emphasis using standard news values, checking for libel and ethical breaches, preserving and enhancing the reputation of the publication/organisation, Writing strong headlines/leading with strong visuals.