Another type of deletion takes out constituents within a sentence. It is
unusual for any sentence, except in the shortest wires, to pass the copy editor
without some constituent(s) being deleted. The editor treats detailed information
as superfluous, or at least unwarranted in the few sentences
avaff able to tell a story. Often omitted are personal details of age, occupation,
nationality, or even the person's name if the focus of a news item is
what happened rather than who it happened to. One of three defendants in a
murder trial was referred to as: a third girl, Josephine Kona Burton, 20,
masseuse. In broadcast news, description plus name plus age plus occupation
is too much in a row for both newscaster and listener, so the copy editor
left simply: a third girl aged twenty.