Editing: Copy Editing, Headlines, Page Layout and Design
Copy editing
The sub-editor checks factual accuracy (names, numbers, titles, dates), grammar and spelling, house style, legal risk from defamation, contempt and privacy, trims to fit, and improves clarity. Keep the five Cs in view: clarity, conciseness, correctness, consistency, coherence. Never alter a quote without flagging the change.
Headlines
- Active voice, present tense for past events: Minister opens bridge.
- Drop articles (a, an, the) and forms of be.
- One idea per headline, no ambiguity, no opinion on news pages.
- Types: banner, cross-line, strapline, kicker, sub-head, shoulder, side-head, jump head.
- Fit the column width; count characters before you set the type.
Page layout and design
A dummy is the page plan. A pica is one-sixth of an inch; a point is one-seventy-second of an inch and measures type size. Learn column, gutter, fold, masthead, ear panel, index, folio, jump line, modular and symmetrical layout, white space, typographic hierarchy, photo cropping, balance and contrast.
Worked example
Police hunt for man with knife - the modifier attaches to the wrong noun. Rewrite as Police hunt for knife-wielding man. Reasoning: the fault is grammatical, a misplaced modifier, so fix the modifier rather than the facts.
Traps
Headlines in the past tense. Confusing pica with point. Putting a sub-headline where a strapline belongs. Cutting a quote until it means something new. Designing a page with no white space. Editing facts to fit a headline instead of rewriting the headline.