Recently in Editing Category

Part 27: Wrapping Up

OK, now we are entering the truly insane and hard-to-chronicle stage. We've got the layout done and you've seen how we look at color proofs for the photos and design. You've seen the story editor's and researcher's comments on the proof, both of which were forwarded to the copy desk to input. Bob also sent a couple of changes along as well. The copy desk input all of those changes and produced the final proof, which is -- as the name suggests -- our last chance to weigh in with any changes. Story editor John Birdsall, managing editor Jake Young, and Jason all took one last look at this version and made their final adjustments, and then ran those tweaks past one another before collecting and inputting them. Mostly this was done over the phone on Saturday, but this exchange will give you a sense of the overall tone. … MORE

Part 25: Factcheck

From researcher Rachel Swaby:

My job is to guard the facts, to double-check every statement and make sure no mistakes slip through. I started working on this after receiving Bob's edit, feeding the writer and editor a stream of updates and corrections throughout the process.

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Part 24: The Headline

Generally speaking, the task of writing the headline (or "hed") and subhead (or "dek") falls to our display-copy team of executive editor Bob Cohn, managing editor Jake Young, plus story editors Sarah Fallon and Jon Eilenberg. This time, though, a number of us weren't satisfied with "Puzzle Master," the headline that made it into the layout. Nancy and Jason asked Bob and Jake if we could come up with some alternatives. This is the conversation that followed. By the end, everyone was pretty much signed off, although the dek continued to get tweaked on the final proof.
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Part 23: The Scrub

So now we've been through a first edit, a top edit, and a copy edit. Chris Anderson has read it through and given Jason and Nancy the thumbs-up (whew!). But we're not done yet. After the layout is finished and approved, the story editor fits it -- cuts or (rarely) stretches to fit the allotted space--and sends it on to the "scrub" editor, whose job is to continue polishing, look for any logic errors or reporting holes, identify structural issues, and so on. Here's the scrub edit for this story, below; scrub editor John Birdsall's comments are in blue ink, and Nancy's and Jason's responses are in red. … MORE

Part 19: The Copyedit

From Brian Dustrud, copy editor:

This is our first hardcopy stage. Every edit from here on in will be done mostly on paper, with proofs being handed back and forth from copy editors to researchers to editors. The story's main editor, Nancy Miller, is arbiter of which changes get rejected, which get integrated, and which require further study. As you'll see from my notes on the pages, the copy editor does more than check basic spelling and grammar. It's also my job to point out holes in the logic, imprecise turns of phrase, and other weaknesses, both minor and major, as I see them. And overuse of commas. Nancy then goes over these with the writer, if necessary, and gives it all back to me to enter into the electronic file.

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Part 14: The Edited Draft

From Nancy Miller:

Posted are two versions of our Kaufman story: My revise with Jason's comments/changes/challenges and then the clean version I put together for Wired's executive editor, Bob Cohn, to read.

Right now, I see this story as 85% finished. There are still a few TK's (shorthand for "to come") in need of filling but I'm thinking the piece looks pretty good. There are still a lot of steps to go: Bob's version, with his comments and questions (posting tomorrow), copy editing, fact-checking, art's layout, a process we have here called "scrub," but we'll get to that next week. For now, here's Jason's version and my final (for now) take, presented side-by-side for comparison.

Disclaimer: The piece will be fact-checked and copy-edited soon, but for now, this story, like the previous versions, may contain errors. 

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Part 12: The Edit

From Senior Editor Nancy Miller:

Jason posted his rough draft yesterday. Now it's my turn to post my edit. This is what I sent back to him for his first revise. Here are a few things you might find interesting before you jump in:

As you can see from our previous posts, Jason and I discussed this story quite a bit before he actually interviewed Charlie Kaufman. After he met with Kaufman in LA, Jason seemed confident in the story he wanted to write. Those two factors have resulted in a solid rough draft. The structure works, most of the reporting is there (with a few holes to fill in from his Toronto Film Festival trip) and the writing is lively and smart, especially the ending--those last two graphs--are terrific.

Most of my comments and questions (all in italic) are up top. No big architectural work for me on this piece, just nitpicky, line-by-line stuff and a few suggestions here and there.  I recognize with any story, some of my edit suggestions will work, others won't. You'll get to see what worked and what didn't the revise Jason kicks back to me and the subsequent polished version I send along to Wired's executive editor. His revise and that version will appear together in an upcoming post. Stay tuned...

DISCLAIMER: Like the rough draft, this edit has not been fact-checked or copy-edited so may/probably contain factual errors, typos, and other mistakes.   

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