How to Edit Newspaper Articles
Editing is the key to having the perfect newspaper articles. Editing requires a keen eye for details on how words and phrases should be correctly used, in addition to proper grammar and spelling. In order to edit newspaper articles you must be great at English and grammar. Here is how to edit newspaper articles.
- Perform a spell check of the article. Use a spell check program to help your accurately check the article for spelling errors. Keep an eye open for tricky spellings, and words that can be spelled several different ways. If a word does not look right, make sure to look it up, it won't hurt, but will only help.
- Read through the article looking for grammatical mistakes. Any type of grammatical error, no matter how small, can undermine a story's credibility and totally distract the reader from the overall message of the story. Make sure there are not any word confusion or improper usage of terms such as 'affect,' 'effect,' 'your,' and 'you're." Also, pay extra attention to words that have apostrophes.
- Look for syntax errors in the article such as run-on sentences, and sentence fragments. The article in no way should confuse its readers or give a misleading impression of the article. A sentence should be understandable the first time it is read through. If you find yourself reading through a sentience several times, you must edit it for clarity.
- Check the article to make sure the facts are correctly. If anything jumps out of the article as seeming odd or unlikely, go back to the reporter and verify the facts. Mistakes can happen occasionally where the reporter gets the wrong names or dates. You want to make sure that you get the story one hundred percent correct.