The Editing Style That's Fair To A Writer Or Journalist

Jan. 29,2010
The Editing Style That’s Fair To A Writer Or Journalist
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Any editor can think of his own style in editing news stories, opinion/commentary articles and feature stories. Let’s concentrate our discussions in these 3 types of articles commonly found in majority of a weekly and daily newspaper both in the provincial and the national level.
As a contributor of news stories, opinion/commentary articles and occasionally feature stories, I have some sort of experiences wherein my aforesaid articles have been subjected to heavy editing. I have fallen upon two kinds of editors-a weekly and a daily one-who would cut several paragraphs of my news stories or feature losing some facts or ideas content in it. Upon reading it in the printed edition, my interest and enthusiasm during the writing of the stories suddenly faded out and I have to stop reading my works even before I could finish it.
This was followed by another series of cutting paragraphs from some of my news stories in particular. In some occasions, it looked as if the article is no longer my own work because some sentences constructions were
already changed, conveying a twisted facts! My question is: why is it that there are editors who would re-write a contributor’s articles to the point that the writers of such articles could no longer claim ownership of their works? Is this not an injustice to those concerned writers or contributors whose presentation of works are done in various expressions of their thoughts and ideas unique in themselves? I have asked an editor of a provincial weekly in my region regarding the cutting of some paragraphs of a news or feature story. He said that it’s the work of an editor. But I disagree to his statement.
In the first place, why is it that some editors have to cut some sentences or paragraphs in some submitted articles? What is the main reason behind it? Is the editor’s cutting of some parts of an article his prerogative right? Is it an editor’s right if some facts and ideas are already lost because of his cutting style? I don’t think so.
If I were in his shoes as the editor, and has the habit of cutting some sentences and paragraphs from his contributed news or feature stories, will he still be enthusiastic to read his butchered articles on the printed or online page? I don’t think so. This is the main point when our Lord Jesus Christ uttered a command in the positive instruction: “Do unto others the things that you want them to be done unto you”. While Confucius says
it in the negative statement: “Do not do unto others the things which you do not want them to be done unto you”.
I always feel that responsible and thoughtful editors of newspapers or magazines would use their right with justice and fairness to the writers or journalists’ works. This means that he/she has to consider the style of expression of each of his writer/contributor in the presentation of their thoughts and ideas. This must be so, because different writers or journalists, each have a different way of expressing things.. Rarely could we find 2 or 3 writers who have the same style of expressing their ideas and thoughts in the English Language or in other medium. That any editor should consider these things in his/her mind before doing the actual editing for publication.
A prudent and judicious editor should also refrain from comparing writer or journalist the way he/she would write an article, because as I have said earlier, there’s always this prevailing distinction in writing style and individual expression. This, the editor must always recognize and consider.
Nevertheless, not all newspapers and magazines have the kind of editing whose style is similar to the kind of editors whose style of editing I am against with. The cutting of some sentences or paragraphs
is very frustrating and disgusting. But a writer’s frustration is put on the sideline. And his silent disgust is under control until he/she lost his/her interest to continue contributing and would rather look for another outlet somewhere else.

What They Were Doing?
Luckily, I have met the kind of editors whom I considered to be thoughtful and responsibly considerate. They always putting in mind the time and effort spent by their contributors in writing those news stories, opinion articles, or feature stories for the newspaper or magazine. What is their style in editing contributed articles from various writers? My answer is: they have only one kind of a style. That is they have employed the very basic kind of editing. What they are doing during the actual editing? Each article
Is being read to look for sentences and paragraphs that need corrections. In the entire process of editing, cutting of paragraphs is shunned.Crooked, redundant or awkward sentences were corrected. The editor may also rearranged some sentences to straighten the expressions of ideas. Wrong words, whether it is a verb, noun, adjective or adverb, if there’s any, were replaced with the correct ones. To review, the editors will re-read the edited articles, but cutting of some sentences is not applied. If in case a news story, opinion/commentary piece or a feature article would exceed its length on a designated space being provided, the editor would then change its font size just to accommodate it.
The style of these editors whom I worked with as an erstwhile correspondent/contributor to various weeklies and 2 dailies in Leyte and in Cebu is appreciable and recommendable. However, please allow me not to mention them specifically their names. What I will mention here are the names of the newspapers they were working with before during my active involvement as one of their correspondents.
Although some of them at this very moment have already resigned and perhaps worked in another publications. These are the 33-year old regional Tacloban-based weekly the Reporter with a branch office in Maasin (now defunct),Cebu-based weekly the Visayan Express(now defunct),Cebu-based daily the Freeman(now a sister company publication of the Philippine Star), a 6-year old Tacloban-based weekly Tribune, and at present another Tacloban-based daily the Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Their style of editing should serve as a good model worthy of emulation by among writers/journalists who want to become editors of newspapers and magazines. Here the writers’ and journalists’ freedom of expressions is distinctively and fairly preserved by the these editors who shun encroachment from their scribes’ way of putting their varied expressions of thought s and ideas on papers.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)