News Item

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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

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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, etc.
• Using Saying Verbs, e.g.: say, tell
• Focus on Circumstances
• Use of projecting Verbal Processes in Sources stages

There are some rules that can help to make newspaper headlines more comprehensible.

• The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.
Example: Town ‘Contaminated’

Complete Sentence: Town is contaminated.

• 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.

» 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.

» To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.
• Example: Queen to Visit Samoa.
• Complete Sentence: The Queen is going to visit Samoa.

» Headlines are not always complete sentences.
Example: More earthquakes in Japan.
Complete Sentence: More earthquakes happened in Japan