Editing

From ArticleWorld

Editing involves preparing material for publication by correcting, condensing, organizing or modifying it in any way. A person who edits is called an editor. Editors may specialize in editing writing, images, video or film, or sound or music recordings. Professionals may specialize in the editing of writing, still images, cinema/video, sound recordings, and music recordings. Depending on the job, these areas can overlap.

History of the word

Editor, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, comes from the Latin word ditus, which means “to put forward.” In Ancient Rome, the editor put on the Roman games. In French and Italian, editeur and editore, mean “publisher.”

Specialty editing

Different types of editing vary by field. Print media offers various levels of work. Roles include those who are responsible for newspaper and wire services, organizing compilations, organizing and publishing a magazine, producing a collection of an author’s work, organizing contributions to a multi-author book, finding ideas and presenting them to authors, recruiting authors or obtaining copy, improving an author’s writing, correcting key mistakes and choosing the layout of a publication. Some specific kinds of editors are:

• Executive editor, the top editor is also sometimes known as an editor-in-chief. This person is responsible for the overall content of a publication. In a newsroom, however, there are usually separate executive editors for each department. This person sets the publication standards and is responsible for the content.

• Editors at newspapers fill a variety of roles, including copy editors, department editors, managing editors, news editors, photo editors, section editors, editorial page editors, executive editors, wire editors, city editors and administrative editors.

• Visual media editors typically edit film or video and perform a variety of tasks. Their roles include screening and logging footage, placement of scenes and shots and the assembly of the final product before distribution.

• Sound editors are employed by motion picture companies to construct tracks of the dialogue and audio mix sound effects to achieve the desired result.