Redaction is one of those words that I always thought that I “sort of” understood but since it didn’t come up in daily conversation that frequently perhaps I didn’t.
Now you might have thought it meant the use of a thick black marker pen on MP’s expenses or even studies on the economics of national mapping agencies (yes including the land mass of the US) but maybe not.
Wiki says
redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined (redacted) and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work.
No mention of black pens or scissors there, the wiki goes on to talk about redactional fatigue
Redactional fatigue is an important related concept: when making changes to a large text, a redactor may occasionally overlook a piece of text that conflicts with the redactional goals. The nature of the conflict between the bulk of a redacted text and the contradictory windows can suggest what the goals of the redactor might have been
Got to have some sympathy for those redactors, haven’t you?
Of course if you are like me you might prefer this definition of redaction at https://www.redaction.org.uk
Come on you Red Actors!
