FUNDAMENTALS

Stanton's Crash Course on Editing

Editing can be viewed as a three-step process:

1. Going through the story catching all the mechanical errors -- grammar, spelling, punctuation, AP style -- and checking accuracy.

2. Editing for conciseness, clarity, a touch of elegance and eloquence, if possible. Tightening sentences, smoothing out sentence structure, making clumsy phrasing graceful, penetrating muddy phrasing and making it crystal clear (remembering that you're smarter than most of your readers and that, therefore, if you don't understand something, they probably won't either). Keep checking for accuracy.

3. Backing away from the piece for a moment and then looking at it as a whole piece. Is the approach of the story the best possible approach? Is the lede the best kind for this story? Is the overall organization the best? Will it lead the reader easily through the piece, and hold the reader's attention? (Remember that you're a story teller here and you want to rivet readers' attention onto your story.) Are there holes in the story -- unanswered questions? Check for accuracy.

Some gifted writers suggest that the writer of a story should go through the same three-step process, only in reverse order. Save the mechanical stuff for last. Editors might do that, too, but the key point is to make sure that all three steps are covered.

BEYOND THE BASICS