Visual Guide to Editing

The idea is to end up with all live performance reviews in a similar format, clearly written, correctly spelt, with full credits of everyone involved. Reviews don't necessarily arrive like this, and this guide aims to be the bridge between the two. Editors need to check facts, obtain missing facts, and to rewrite creatively when needed. It is easiest to start with the factual parts of the review - who wrote it, when, who was involved, dates of the run - before the the creative part - the words of the review - and the sequence shown may be helpful. You may also find these articles useful Writing For Fringe Report, How To Punctuate Speech, and possibly (for copying and pasting accented letters but don't worry about the html part) Symbols & Accents For Writers.

After you have edited it should look like this (you don't need to bother with bold, font sizes etc, page layout, or html coding - just send it by email eg as a Word document in eg 12 point plain font, but do get it in this order; the numbers shown are the suggested sequence for your editing, not the order to send it in):

1 End Lines

The writer has copyright (c), put the writer's name and the year. Write the day of the week and the date, with the month name in full and the year. Use a slash / and put the venue, the town, and country.

2 Company Credits

There are eight basic company credits: writer, director, lighting designer, sound designer, technical operator, producer, company, website. A producer is a name of a person not a company. If more than one company credit is named by the reviewer, name both. Where possible, separately credit individual roles. If the production is co-directed list the directors' names separately. If the review says that the production was 'written and directed by' credit the person twice, once as writer, then as director. If you're not sure where someone fits, add them in at the bottom.

Find dates of dead people from www.wikipedia.org. This removes any assumptions that the audience knows about the person or production in advance of the review. eg Writer - Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). If the name of the company is missing, eg Google the show title and it might come up. The company may be listed in a press release saying they 'present' the show. Check the company / production website for cast and crew names and their spellings against what is in the review. Check if there is an image for the review. In company credits, the job description comes before the person's name. If key credits are missing from the review and from the production's website, list them as 'uncredited'. There isn't a fixed order for company credits, but as a guide list first the people without whom it couldn't happen: writer, director, designers eg lighting designer, sound designer, technical operator; then all the other credits; ending with the producer, the company, the company's website (if any).

3 Cast Credits

List the cast in alphabetical order by surname. Place the person's name before that of their character. Nicholas Asbury - Governor / Sergeant / Jussup. If reviewing a music production, band credits should go after those of the cast. From the company website look for anyone who is listed who is missing from the review. Add these missing people in.

4 Title

Insert the title of the production: eg The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

5 Strap Line

Then insert the town, venue, month, year and the start and finish times of the performance. If there is a difference in months then put 'to' between the dates. Put the start time, using the 24 hour clock in hour:minutes format separated by a colon: In brackets put the length of the show in hours:minutes, or the finish time (either is fine - people need to know how long they will be in the theatre for eg babysitters or endurance). Eg Leeds – Quarry Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse – 25 September to 17 October 09 – 19:30 (2:50).

6 Picture

Picture perfect – Find an image from the company/production website to use. Then find the name of the photographer for copyright credit. If you can't find it, note copyright to the company / production name and add the current year as the copyright date (unless a previous year is indicated). Note the image location link, and mail it and the image with the copyright name with the completed review.

7 Body

Editing proper. Now you are looking through the body of the review. The following instructions are a guide - depending on what has been written you may need to do more or less editing.

The first sentence of a review may not be good. If it looks bad, then delete. Remove quotes from any external sources. Check the tense for consistency. Make the review all present tense (better, more immediate), or all past tense. Where a surname ends with an s add an apostrophe for possession - eg Jones becomes Jones's. Remove slightly arch or pompous words like 'acclaimed'. Remove any words which seem to patronise the production eg 'opportunity to play', 'comfort zones'. Replace 'however' with 'but'; 'that' can often be replaced for variation with 'which'; 'having said this' with 'but'; 'issues' (cliche) with eg 'matters'. It is fine to start a sentence with but or and. Repeat the title of the production rather than 'this production' for variation.

Spelling. Spell check all the words with a spell checker or by eye. Pay particular attention to the spelling of names, including the cast and character names. Each instance of a name must be spelt the same throughout the report. This is very important - we are a 'names' publication. Best is to spell them correctly once in the end credits and copy and paste for all other uses in the review. Has the writer used full human names only? No surnames or first names by themselves. If there is more than one spelling of a name in the report contact the writer to check which one is correct. Names include: cast, characters, crew names - and job titles.

Grammar. If you are not sure about grammar (come on, it catches us all out!), suggest having beside you a grammar guide such as the 'Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation' Oxford University Press by John Seely (£5.99 in 2010).

Punctuation of Speech. There is a separate article about this which may be helpful - How To Punctuate Speech

Adjectives & Adverbs. Check use of adjectives (which alter the impact of nouns) and adverbs (which do the same with verbs). English is a great language for exact nouns and verbs and you may be able to clean out some cluttering adjectives and adverbs. 'She hit him' is strong as a sentence. 'She hit him hard' (hard is working as an adverb here) is OK, but 'She flattened him' or a better verb you can think of does it without extra words.

Tone. Check the writer has stayed objective and left out: I, me, we, you, the audience. Banned words are: hilarious, hysterical, beautiful.

Facts. Check all facts are correct, exactly spelt and with all accents correct. Check all: the exact day and date of the review, title, town, venue, dates of run, start time, end time (or duration).

Two Spaces. Ensure that there are two spaces between sentences ie after each full stop. ie Between every sentence. (space)(space) This is different from UK newspapers (one space) and US practice (one space). We are using the UK manuscript standard. (space)(space) The two-space method makes pages look lighter to read.

8 Verdict

Verdict is a slight misnoma: it can also be a summary, eg 'sketch comedy'. Maximum is always 5 words. If using it as a literal verdict, the words must come, or very nearly come, from the review - ie the reader must be able to find the sentiment expressed preferably in the same words in the review. It is best not to be clever (oh the temptation!) but just straightforward - suggest avoid puns. Eg Verdict - Fresh, rich and rewarding. (a near quote from the review).

END

John Park, editor Fringe Report 15 January 2010