TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75Affiliated Institution of G.G.S.IP.U, Delhi

BJMCPrint Journalism II- 24203

PRINT JOURNALISM II

By: Ayushi Sachdeva Assistant Professor

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

REWRITING OF A NEWS STORY

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

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Rewriting literally means to write again to check the formats, placements, facts and figures. Editing involves correction of news stories by checking its grammatical errors, spellings, punctuations, etc. But sometimes the errors are so serious that they require the story to be rewritten.Rewriting is done because the original copy of news story has serious flaws in formats, organization or accuracy.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

Sometimes a copy once edited is still filled with mistakes and errors so much so that it needs to be written again. This process of writing a news story again is called Rewriting.

Rewriting is nothing but re-telling the same story once which has been already told.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

PURPOSE OF REWRITING

• Clarity • Readability • Uniformity

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

NEED OF REWRITING• Badly Written Copy – Reporters sometimes overlook the

most outstanding feature or the most important information and bury it deep in the story. Therefore, the news copy is rewritten to improve the lead, eliminate confusion and make the story CLEAR and UNDERSTANDABLE.

• Poorly Organized Story – In some stories the lead may be handled properly giving the main information in it. But it might not support the lead until 5th or 6th paragraph. Sometimes the reporter jumps quickly into the chronological a/c of the event and forgets to summarize all information before relating the details.

• Long Story/ Wordy Copy – Some news copies are too long because it has unnecessary details, irrelevant information and uninteresting quotations.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

• Unprofessional Copy - Many news stories especially that are written by freelancers, trainees, and other inexperienced people must be rewritten to match up to the news style of the organization.

• Out of Date Copy – news copy is often rewritten to update it.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

Rewriting is dismantling the existing information to its basic

constituents and again combining the same to create a new

and better piece of writing

To give informal reports a proper structure

To give a local angle to general information

To combine two or more stories

To change story emphasis

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

WHY DO WE REWRITE?

1. To condense the report more effectively.

2. To link several reports on the same subject.

3. To improve the language.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

EDITING AND REWRITING

Writing a story and making it worth publication are different aspects A story might have the facts, but not necessarily the structure, tone and flowAn editor takes care of

Language, facts, grammar, punctuation etc.

Decides which story will be published

While rewriting, focus on

Structure, treatment and flow

Done when correction not possible by minor addition or deletion

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

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CONCLUSION

The rewritten story is nothing more or less than an old story retold from a new point of view, enhanced by a difficult treatment that makes it appear new. Rewriting is required to elaborate and emphasize some facts or elements that the original writer fail to incorporate.The rewritten version of the story should always be better than the original one. The person who is assigned to do rewriting should read the story carefully to get a clear picture of what the story is all about and how it is to be organized. The reporter should be consulted to make sure that the new version is an accurate and factual representation of what took place.

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

SUGGESTED READINGS A. Saxena Fundamentals of Reporting & Editing M V Kamath Modern Journalism M L Stein and Susan F. Peterno The News Writers’ Handbook

George A Hough News Writing

Jan R. Hakemulder, Ray Ac de Jonge, News Reporting and Editing P.P. Singh

M K Joseph Basic Source Material for News Writing Wainwright David Journalism made Simple, Hohnberg John The Professional Journalist

TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75

THANKYOU