Basic Principles of News Editing

•Editing is one of the most important steps in news reporting.

•A well written but poorly edited story could end up
meaningless to the reader.
•Even a thoroughly investigated story could turn off the
audiences if not well edited.
•A newsworthy story has to be worth reading otherwise the
aim will not be achieved.
•One of the major ways of making a newsworthy story worth
reading is through editing.
In a news organization, news editing plays a vital role. A news story
is written by hurried reporters and is rough-edged like a raw
diamond. Hence, the copy is polished and toned by a team of editors.
What is News Editing?
•Editing is the process of removing unwanted or irrelevant portions
of a story and possibly making necessary additions to make a write-
up worth reading.
•News editing is a process that makes a copy readable and worthy for
print. It consists of correcting factual and syntactical errors, giving
the required shape and size to a story by using the right kind of
expressions and styles.
•Editing is used to polish a story and bring out the “news sense” in it.
Basic Principles of News Editing
•In every editing task, there are basic principles that guide the
process. Principles are the foundations upon which a task is carried
out.

•Editing has basic principles which guide every editor in

crosschecking a news story.

•Here are basic principles of news editing every sub-editor, journalist

and writer should know.
1. Accuracy
• This is a basic feature everyone involved in writing should
know. It could be a conventional journalist, blogger or
anyone involved in serious writing, accuracy should be a
major interest that guides news editing.
• This is because one mistake can destroy the reputation of
a newspaper or magazine, and such mistake could be
made within seconds.
• Looking out for accuracy involves checking and
crosschecking names, figures and verifying facts in a
story.
2. Attribution
•Source attribution involves telling your readers where the
information in your story comes from, as well as who is being quoted.
•In source attribution, you make use of a source’s full name and job
title if that is relevant. Always attribute the news to the source so that
readers can judge its credibility.
•You could use the name of the source but if you want to protect the
source, you can say “A highly placed Government Official, Finance
Ministry Sources, Reliable Sources said…” etc. These are attributions
that help readers to arrive at their own conclusions, while steering
clear of the suspicion that the reporter is giving his own version of the
story. Attribution makes a story more credible.
3. Balance and Fairness
Balance and fairness are basic foundations of good editing. Balance is
giving both sides of the picture, while fairness means the story is not
biased or does not take sides. This shows a journalist is objective and
the sub-editor or whoever is editing a story should ensure the content
is balanced and unbiased.

4. Brevity
Brevity is a great virtue in journalism appreciated by readers and
editors alike. This has to do with telling a story, as it should be,
without beating around the bush. It saves time and space and wins
applause when consummated to perfection.
5. Clarity

•Clarity consists of having all of your facts and have them

organized in a news story to make sense to the readers.

•You should ensure that your story does not leave unanswered
questions and should avoid jargon.

•This means the story should be easily understood by the

target audience.
6. Readability
•Readability involves length of sentence and simple manner of
expression. The general advice s that the average length of a sentence
should not exceed 18 words, which is standard.
•It is not easy to read a sentence with more than 18 words. Beyond 25
words the sentence would be very difficult to read, though some
accomplished authors have far exceeded the standard and yet
remained readable because of their craftsmanship.
•But beginners are advised to stay out of long-winding and
complicated sentence constructions.
•Making your sentences simple, short and easy to read is a virtue that
should be reflected in editing news stories.
7. Human Interest
•Human interest involves evoking emotions through a story. Editing
calls for the use of a style that arouses human interest.
•Sub editors should see the events from the readers’ point of view and
the news stories keeping the reader ever in mind along with his hopes,
fears and aspirations.
•While editing a story you should identify yourself with the proverbial
common man who does not exist but represents the silent majority
whom the journalist is duty-bound to defend and protect.
•Human interest is a principle that guides editors in ensuring that
stories appeal to diverse segments of the audience.
What is an Email?
•Email stands for electronic mail. It’s used to send and
receive computer-stored messages via the internet.

•Generally, an email is a message that may contain text,

files, images, or other attachments sent through the
computer network to an individual or group of
individuals.
Uses of Email

Email can be used for various purposes

•Can be used to communicate within the organization or
personally. 
•It provides flexibility in communication.
•It is a professional way to communicate.
•Email is also used as a newsletter to send
advertisements, promotions, and various other content.
Importance of Email
•Business communication can be done easily without any
security issues, and it is faster than any other forms of
communication. Also, contacts can be saved easily with the
help of emails, and the past messages can be checked
frequently rather than saving the data in the local server. This
helps to save storage space.
•Most of the emails come with a subject line, and hence it is
easy to understand the matter inside the email and categorize
them accordingly. This helps in saving time checking for
emails. Unwanted emails can be easily ignored and moved to
spam folders.
Advantage of Email
An email has various advantages that are listed down here
•Easy and Fast – Composing an email is very simple and one
of the fastest ways to communicate. We can send an email in a
minute by just clicking the mouse. It has minimal latency and
can be traded quickly.
•Cost-effective – Email is a very convenient service for
communicating with others, as several email services are
available for free to individuals and organizations. 
•Mass Communication – Email can be used to communicate
with a large number of people.
•Environment Friendly – The most important advantage of email is
that it’s paperless and there is no requirement for pages, pens, or
cardboard boxes.
•Global Reach –  Email can remove social and geographic distance by
removing status signals. 
•Scheduled Delivery – Users can schedule the delivery of emails and
can also automate the replies to emails.
•Multimedia Emails – Photos, videos, and various types of files can
be shared easily with multiple people through a single email and are
delivered instantly. Also, as cloud storage, it can be permanently saved
in the mailbox. All details, including the time and the list of recipients
who received the messages, can be saved and sorted, if necessary, by
email.
Disadvantage of Email
•Malicious Use – An anonymous user can send an email if he
has an e-mail address. The email attachment feature is the main
disadvantage, hackers can send viruses via email because
sometimes the spam feature is unable to classify suspicious
emails.
•Viruses – Email is one of the most common ways to infiltrate
viruses in devices. The email may contain a virus, or the virus
may be in an attached document. Infected emails may come
from an anonymous source or appear to be from a trusted
contact. On clicking the email or attached document the virus
enters the system and starts infecting it.
•Time Consuming – Responding to email is quite a TIME
CONSUMING and LENGTHY process and takes more time in
comparison to various other messaging applications like
Skype, Whats app, etc. Email is a good source to communicate
brief information for professional discussion.

•Lack of Personal touch –  The email lacks a personal touch.

While some things are best sent as written and typed messages,
some things should be conveyed verbally or handwritten in a
note or letter.