News Item is a factual text which informs the readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.
Social
function of news item is to inform readers, listeners or viewers about
events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.
Generic structure:
· Newsworthy Event(s): recounts the events in summary form.
· Background Event(s): elaborate what happened, to WHOM, in WHAT circumstances.
· Sources: comments by participants in, witnesses to, and expert on the event.
Significant Grammar Features:
· Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline.
· Generally using Simple Past Tense.
· Use of Material Processes to retell the event.
· Using Action Verbs, (e.g.: were, run, go, kill, hit, attack, curb, etc).
· Using Saying Verbs, (e.g.: said, added, claimed, etc).
· Focus on Circumstances.
· Use of projecting Verbal Processes in Sources stages.
There are some rules that can help to make newspaper headlines more comprehensible:
1. The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.
Example: Town ‘Contaminated’
Complete Sentence: Town is contaminated.
2. It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used
Example: Fire Destroys over 2,511 acres of Forest in 2003-2004
Newsworthy events:
Moscow – A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town.
Background Events:
Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo – 22 near Vladivostock.
The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered up by officials of the Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tones of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy.
Source
Sources A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy.
1. The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.
Example: Town ‘Contaminated’
Complete Sentence: Town is contaminated.
2. It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used
Example: Fire Destroys over 2,511 acres of Forest in 2003-2004
Complete Sentence: Fire has destroyed over 2,511 acres of forest in 2003-2004.
3. The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.
Example: World Heading for Energy Crisis
Complete Sentence: The world is heading for an energy crisis.
4. To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.
Example: Queen to Visit Samoa.
Complete Sentence: The Queen is going to visit Samoa.
5. Headlines are not always complete sentences.
Example: More earthquakes in Japan.
Complete Sentence: More earthquakes happened in Japan.
3. The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.
Example: World Heading for Energy Crisis
Complete Sentence: The world is heading for an energy crisis.
4. To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.
Example: Queen to Visit Samoa.
Complete Sentence: The Queen is going to visit Samoa.
5. Headlines are not always complete sentences.
Example: More earthquakes in Japan.
Complete Sentence: More earthquakes happened in Japan.
The example of news item :
Town Contaminated
Newsworthy events:
Moscow – A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town.
Background Events:
Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo – 22 near Vladivostock.
The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered up by officials of the Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tones of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy.
Source
Sources A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy.
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