Deck 9: Making the Long Story Short: Editing for Brevity and Clarity

Question 1

Stories written in the ___ format are the easiest ones to trim because they usually can be cut from the bottom.

Answer 1

inverted-pyramid

Question 2

The most practical approach to editing a story, especially when editing for brevity, is to work from the largest story ___ first, before editing sentence by sentence.

Answer 2

blocks

Question 3

Careful editors with enough time to work on a story can often eliminate repetition not only within the story itself, but also even within individual ___.

Answer 3

paragraphs

Question 4

As editors begin to work through stories, they should always begin by finding out or deciding how much ___ the finished story has been allotted.

Question 5

Editors can often improve stories by ___ them skillfully.

Question 6

Some experts say that writing styles should work with people's shortened ___, as people are drawn to short pieces of text with visuals that can be understood at a glance.

Question 7

Repackaging a print story for the web may require you to ___ the story elements into separate links with new leads.

Question 8

One- and two-paragraph summaries sometimes called ___ are growing in importance as the need for breaking news items and tweets grows.

Question 9

Shortening print and broadcast stories for the ___ or other digital media requires thinking about users' needs and digital habits.

Question 10

If context helps give meaning to shorter stories, a key ___ can give it appeal and color.