Redaction
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Redaction generally refers to the editing of text to turn it into a form suitable for publication, or to the result of such an effort.
[edit] Government secrecy
In the context of government documents, redaction (also called sanitization) generally refers more specifically to the process of removing sensitive or classified information from a document prior to its publication, during declassification.
[edit] Secure document redaction techniques
The traditional technique of redacting confidential material from a paper document before its public release involves crossing out portions of text with a wide black pen, followed by photocopying the result. This is a relatively easy to understand process and has only minor risks associated with it. For example, if the black pen is not wide enough, careful examination of the resulting photocopy may still reveal partial information about the text, such as the difference between short and tall letters. The exact length of the removed text also remains recognizeable, which may help to guess plausible wordings for shorter redacted sections. Where computer-generated proportional fonts were used, even more information can leak out of the redacted section in the form of the exact position of nearby visible characters.
The National Archives (UK) published a document, Redaction Toolkit, Guidelines for the Editing of Exempt Information from Documents Prior to Release (2004), "to provide guidance on the editing of exempt material from information held by public bodies."
Secure redacting is a far more complicated problem with word processing file formats. These may also save a revision history of the edited text that still contains the redacted text. In some file formats, unused portions of memory are saved that may still contain fragments of previous versions of the text. Where text is redacted by overlaying graphical elements (usually black rectangles) on top of text, the original text remains in the file and can be uncovered by simply deleting the overlaying graphics. Effective redaction of electronic documents requires the actual removal of the text or image data from the document file. This either requires a very detailed understanding of the internal operation of the document processing software and file formats used, which most computer users lack, or specialized software tools designed for sanitizing electronic documents.
The National Security Agency published a document, Redacting with Confidence: How to Safely Publish Sanitized Reports Converted from Word to PDF, which provides instructions for redacting Microsoft Word generated PDF files.
[edit] Literary redaction
In the study of literature, redaction can also refer to a form of editing, in which multiple source texts are combined together (redacted), and are subjected to minor alteration to make it appear that they are a single work. Often this is simply a method of collecting together a series of writings on a vaguely similar theme, and creating a definitive and coherent work.
On occasion, the person(s) performing the redaction – the redactor(s) – add brief elements of their own. The reasons for doing so are varied, and can include the addition of elements to adjust the underlying conclusions of the text to suit the redactor's opinion. More commonly, the additions during the redaction simply involve the addition of a framing story, such as the tale of Sheherazade which frames the collection of folk tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
Sometimes the source texts are interlaced together, particularly when discussing closely related details, things, or people. This is particularly common when source texts contain alternative versions of the same story, and slight alterations are often made in this circumstance, simply to make the texts appear to agree, and thus the resulting redacted text appear to be coherent. Such a situation is proposed by the documentary hypothesis, which proposes that multiple redactions occurred during the creation of the torah, often combining texts, which have rival political attitudes and aims, together: another example is the Talmud.
The work of redactors is as old as literature itself. Redactional processes can be documented in numerous disciplines, including ancient literary works and biblical studies. Much has been written on the role of redaction in creating meaning for texts in various formats. For example, in the field of biblical studies, see John Barton, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 5: 644-647; or Odil Hannes Steck, Old Testament Exegesis, 2nd edition (Atlanta: Scholars Press), 74-93.
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. Since many important ancient texts are likely to have been redacted at least once, such snippets open a window into an earlier form of the text. 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.
