I often watch a Welsh-language soap opera about a village in South Wales. It’s called Pobol y Cwm, which translates into English as People of the Valley.
This week, one of the show’s stories made me think about the framing of information. It demonstrated how leaving out a key piece of info can change what people understand.
The story was about a shopkeeper called Colin, his partner Britt, and his ex-wife Gaynor. The key fact was that Colin and Gaynor’s adult daughter had an accident in Thailand, leaving Colin frantic with worry.
After Colin and Gaynor rushed off to Thailand together, several villagers jumped to conclusions. They believed that Colin had left Britt for Gaynor. They focused on Colin’s past relationship with Gaynor and missed the key fact about their daughter.
Any document can become a “Colin situation” if we’re not careful.
Not including a piece of information can lead readers to focus on the wrong facts. It even risks turning something positive into a negative. This is one reason why looking at meaning is such an important part of my work.
As an editor, one of my tasks is to pay close attention to what a writer is saying. I look for places where the writer’s ideas seem muddled in mid-flow and I may then ask if something is missing.
Leaving out information can also be a deliberate choice. It’s like cropping a photograph to change the story it tells.
I’m interested in how deliberate omission shapes messages, but it isn’t part of my work. When I’m editing and proofreading, I focus on what the writer wants to say, not what they’ve chosen to leave out.
I hope to write further blog posts about this topic because it can be fascinating. Omission and its opposite, emphasis, are also important concepts in writing and media literacy.
Photo credit: Stephen Leonardi on Pexels.com
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