Copy editing

Abstract: Nanotechnology Reviews (Nanotechnol Rev) ‘Just Accepted’ Papers are papers published online, in advance of appearing in the layouted final online and print versions of the journal. The papers have been peer-reviewed and/or approved for publication by the Editors and are online published in manuscript form, but have not been copy edited, typeset, or proofread. Copy editing may lead to small differences between the Just Accepted version and the final version. There may also be differences in the quality of the graphics. When papers do appear in print, they will be removed from this feature and grouped with other papers in an issue.

Abstract: This article is an ethnographic case study of a senior business reporter as he discovers, writes, and reflects on a news story. We "follow the story" from its entry in the newsroom through the review process during a story meeting and the writing process up to the point the story is filed for copy editing. Drawing on ethnographic data, this article sheds light on how a news story about Russian gas exports to France is discursively constructed. In this writing process, we focus in particular on a frame shift in the construction of the lead and argue that this shift is led primarily by technological rather than overt ideological concerns. The detailed description of one newswriting process supports the argument that framing is an interpretive practice achieved within the demands, relationships, and discourses that anchor business news as a social institution.

Abstract: For many people, writing is painful and editing one's own prose is difficult, tedious, and error-prone. It is often hard to see which parts of a document are difficult to read or how to transform a wordy sentence into a more concise one. It is even harder to discover that one overuses a particular linguistic construct. The system of programs described here helps writers to evaluate documents and to produce better written and more readable prose. The system consists of programs to measure surface features of text that are important to good writing style, as well as programs to do some of the tedious jobs of a copy editor. Some of the surface features measured are readability, sentence and word length, sentence type, word usage, and sentence openers. The copy editing programs find spelling errors, wordy phrases, bad diction, some punctuation errors, double words, and split infinitives.

Abstract: 1. Why Is Online Journalism Different? 2. The Job of the Online Journalist. 3. Generating and Focusing Story Ideas. 4. Web Resources and Databases. 5. Sources and Interviewing. 6. Online Writing Styles. 7. Hooking and Keeping Readers. 8. Revving Up Your Writing. 9. The Last Minute(s). 10. An Uphill Battle: Online Copy Editing. 11. The Online Editor/Utility Infielder. 12. Multimedia for News. 13. Basic Online Layout. 14. Online Standards vs. Journalistic Standards. 15. Legal Issues Online and Offline. 16. Ethics in Cyber-Land. 17. The 21st Century Journalist.