Genetic editing (French critique génétique; German genetische Kritik) is an approach to scholarly editing in which an exemplar is seen as derived from a dossier of other manuscripts and events. The derivation can be through physical cut and paste; writing or drawing in a variety of media; quotation, annotation or correction; acts of physical defacement; etc. Genetic editing aims to reconstruct the sequence of actions on the manuscript and exactly which parts of the manuscript were acted upon. Where multiple manuscripts have been combined (through for example cut and paste or quotation).