Rewriting involves rewriting a news story to improve clarity, readability, and uniformity. Stories may need rewriting if they are badly written, poorly organized, wordy, unprofessional, or out of date. The purpose of rewriting is to dismantle and then rebuild the information in a new, better structure. It can condense reports, link several reports on the same topic, and improve the language. Editing focuses on language, facts, grammar and punctuation, while rewriting focuses on structure, treatment and flow. The rewritten story should be an improved version that elaborates on important facts and emphasizes key elements not fully covered originally.

1. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Affiliated Institution of G.G.S.IP.U, Delhi
BJMC
Print Journalism II- 24203
PRINT JOURNALISM II
By: Ayushi Sachdeva
Assistant Professor

2. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
REWRITING OF A NEWS STORY

3. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
.
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.

4. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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.

5. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
PURPOSE OF REWRITING
• Clarity
• Readability
• Uniformity

6. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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.

7. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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.

8. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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

9. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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.

10. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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
flow
An 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

11. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
.
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.

12. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 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

13. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
THANKYOU