The news editing process was analysed in four steps. This methodology is
applicable, with appropriate adjustments, to analysis of all types of editing. In
many cases, there is no problem in identifying what was the original version on
which an edited text is based (step 1). Steps 2 and 3 are the syntactic and
semantic analyses of editing changes: the heart of any such study. At step 4,
the precise methods used to identify patterns in editing changes will depend on
the kind of questions which the study addresses.