Abstract

This paper aims at pointing out the normative expectations constraining political editorials. We adopt an internal perspective focusing on the process of “making” an editorial: how and why is argumentation constructed and what is at stake with it from the journalistic point of view. The focus is on the making of an editorial on David’s Cameron speech about his plans for a referendum on British membership of the European Union. Taking into account the editorial conferences where the topic is discussed as well as the writing process and the verbal protocol leading to proper comments by the journalist himself on the making of the text, we analyze in detail the emergent normative expectations and the individual credos of argumentation in the editorial.