ABSTRACT
Editors often speak of macro editing and micro editing. Macro editing is big-picture editing and includes: Making sure stories are worth running; Making sure stories have good leads, are organized and flow well; Making sure stories do not leave unanswered questions; Making sure stories are accurate; Making sure stories are objective; Making sure stories are legal, ethical, tasteful and sensitive to the audience. Writing or editing hard-news stories is somewhat different from writing or editing soft-news, or feature, stories. Hard-news stories are meant primarily to inform. Soft-news, or feature, stories are meant to entertain while informing, or even to entertain without informing, as in the case of humor columns and some human-interest stories. As a result, a feature story often intentionally aims for the emotions. In a hard-news story, objectivity also often means being impersonal in style. Objectivity in journalism typically refers to being factual, being neutral and being fair.
