A STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL FEATUES OF ENGLISH NEWS STORY.DOC

A STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL FEATUES OF ENGLISH NEWS STORY

Title: A STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL FEATUES OF ENGLISH NEWS STORY

(Graduation Paper submitted in Partial Fulfillment for B.A Degree in English) I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor.

Date submitted: May, 13th 2008

There was the times I was so happy that moving to tears as I realized that people who are next to me, and who are remote to me also, though they are still in my mind, always bring the happiness to me for what they have done to me says they love me I am in debt to this life where I receive the hug loves.

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents who have been hardly supporting me They are always beside and motivate me in my study and my life.

I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Dong, Ph.D for her valuable and detailed comments, valuable suggestions, enthusiasm, guidance, introductions and also materials throughout this study And my heart is also to the teachers at the faculty of English and Modern Languages for their kindness and willingness during the time I carried out this task.

Beside, my dear friends provide me with encouragement, support and inspirations especially when I got in trouble It is my debt of gratitude.

Moreover, the shortcomings in this study are unavoidable Therefore, I hope to receive the sympathy from teachers and friends.

Last but not least, I would be grateful to any remarks from the readers! Thank you!

Ha Noi, May 2008 Trinh Thi Ha

1 Aims of the study 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Methods of the study 3

4 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHARPTER I: THEORIES OF THE STUDY 5

1.1 News story and its functions 5

1.2 Types of news story 8

1.2.1 Political news story 9

1.2.2 Economic news story 10

1.2.3 Socio- cultural news story 11

CHAPTER II: ANALASIS OF THE STRUCTURAL FEATURESOF ENGLISH NEWS STORY 13

2.1 Structure of paragraph 13

2.1.1 Headline in English news story 14

2.1.2 Topic sentence in English news story 18

2.1.2.1 Form features of the topic sentence 19

2.1.2.2 Content features of the topic sentence 22

2.1.3 Structure of news story’s body 25

2.1.4 Sub-title in English news story 29

CHARPTER III: SOME DIFFICULTIES AND REQUIREDSUGGESTIONS IN TRANSLATING NEWS STOR 33

3.1 Some difficulties in translating news story 33

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Aims of the study

News is sine qua non for active life None can ignore the milieu in which he lives Only news keeps us in tough with the milieu in which we live It gives us the insight to the dynamics that form the environment around us, it be in local or regional or national or international level.

The main conveyor of news is newspaper Neither the advent of television nor that of internet could affect the importance of the newspaper The reason for it is the width, breadth and the depth of news provided by the newspaper, its low cost and the ease of providing the news at our leisure and comfort as many time as we desire People of all profession need newspapers Reading newspapers is a must for students and adults for growth and enlightenment irrespective of the class or field of their life And it is a very important part with a remarkable position of newspaper news story.

English is spoken over 70 countries and in 20; more English occupies an important position Many newspapers are published in English It is estimated that the two thirds of all scientific newspaper are first published in English It is also the most common international working languages.

Therefore, to a developing country like Vietnam, English is a popular foreign language for all people They are trying their best to learn English well due to the fact that English will help them to keep up with advanced technology, modern culture, and up-to-date information in the world Written-in-English journals are available in all news stands, so it is easy for us to get one.

However, to study English with newspaper and magazines is not easy We would not understand the information deeply in the newspaper if we are lack of any ability on analyzing the news, especially on structural analyzing.

Information of the newspaper is transported to the readers under the text form which is very complicated and diverse Thus, it still has the main characters

that here, in this paper, I study on and choose the topic “A study on the

structural features of English news story” with the hope of giving the

readers the useful knowledge on newspaper, since better their insights to the changing-world.

News story plays an important role in newspaper that is occupied a great number of English language one which is considered the international language Therefore, to understand about the all news deeply, the readers need to know about English and more, about the structural analysis the text which is a common difficulty for the reader as well as the English leaner.

Being a student of English, I would like to present structural features of the English news story so that the readers and learner can understand comprehensively about the topic As these learning, we can have some basic knowledge in getting information from news stories in newspaper written in the international language, English, then develop the ability in translation and many other related fields.

2 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of space and time, within the framework of this study, this paper can not cover the whole features and details of news story Since, I decided to analyze the structural features including headline, topic sentence, body-part structure, the sub-title, and the discourse of the news story.

From which, I would like to draw some difficulties of Vietnamese readers when they translate the news story.

To sum up, the scope of the study may be shown as follow: a) Analyzing some structural features of the news story

b) Suggesting some difficulties and strategies to cope with problems relating translating.

3 Methods of the study

In fulfilling this study, I have applied some methods such as survey, statistic and comparison.

A reference of books from authors, materials from different sources and foreign languages also helps me a lot All English examples in the study were

taken from the International Herald Tribune newspaper which uses the

Standard English and updates information daily from all over the world Furthermore, studying with it would help improve my English so much.

Moreover, my supervisor, an experienced teacher, has helpfully directed me to the appropriate ways to carry out this study.

4 Design of the study

For the limited framework, this graduation paper is divided into three parts as follow:

Part A is the Introduction of the study which introduces my reasons and

aims to write the thesis This part includes the aims, scopes, methods and design of the study.

Part B is the main part of the study that consists of three chapters below

Chapter I focuses on the theories of the study.

Chapter II is an Analysis of the structural features of English

news story.

Chapter III concentrates on some difficulties and strategies in

translating news story

Part C is the Conclusion of the study in which I give a summary of

major findings, an identification of limitation of the study and an exploration

the implication for the future research In the final part, bibliography and sources of materials for the study are listed.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT8

CHARPTER I: THEORIES OF THE STUDY

1 1 News story and its functions

Newspaper has played an important role in the modern society all over the countries and its most important component is news.

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, wrote that if hehad to choose between government without newspaper or newspaper withoutgovernment he would choose the newspaper Since the first newspapers were

published in Venice, Italy in 16th century, there have been thousands of newspapers and magazines born

According to UNESCO, there are more than 5300 press organizations all over the world with over 830 millions copies a day In United Kingdom alone, the newspaper publishing industry includes 2,000 companies with combined annual revenue of $50 billions.

Every newspaper or magazine has its own features with many articles and column for daily events In addition, news story always plays an important role and has a remarkable position in these ones

By nature, firstly, “what is news?” As for Lenin, “Any kind of goodspossesses two characters; they are value for using and value for exchange.”

In fact, press is also a kind of goods because it also has two character like others goods Certainly, news story is one item of the goods The value for exchange of press in general and news story in particular is shown in the way the journal or the magazines itself perform.

People pay money for a journal in order to know what is happening around or simply to entertain News story has using value because it is

essential for human being News story will give people information; interpret domestic and oversea events happening every day

Therefore, “what is news story?” actually, it is a difficult question for

not only the journalism studiers but also those learning about the world It is difficult to define, as there is not and cannot be a single, universal answer Besides, the answer always keeps changing for the world changing Thus, catching up with the latest events is a requirement to keep pace with and to join into the world.

The Webster defines news story as “a report of a recent event; newinformation, fresh tidings… and matters regarded as interesting to newspaperreaders or news broadcast audiences” The news events are known as the

current affairs happening within 24 hours, from yesterday to today and tomorrow

The saying “attracts many people’s attention” means that without this

attention it is not news story This fact is one of the social reasons that differentiate between the English and Vietnamese news story in term of publishing.

Experienced journalists and scholars disagree about what news story isand what it ought to be There are broad areas of agreement and here is the

collection I get from internet and some other sources:

- News story is a report of anything timely that interests a number of people The more people it interests the better the news story is News story is the difference between the world yesterday and the world today.

- News story is what the well-trained reporter finds satisfaction in gathering and having published News story is what the well-trained editor puts in the newspaper.

- News story is the report or accounts of events or occurrences brought or coming to one as new information, new event as a subject of report on talk.

- News story is anything that interests a large part of the community and has been brought to their attention.

- News story = people + events + reader’s interest.

- News story, while its definition varies from office to office, has common elements to all conceptions of news To be news story, an event must first be interesting to public Second, and equally important, it must be new (to the public).

- News story which is one of news, consist of full elements reporting messages about features of contents or appearance of news itself.

- News story is a report of words performing a news event and getting many people’s attention.

Therefore, there are many definitions, some of which are accepted or not Others are fairly news, among them you will have found some to agree partly or wholly.

Now and then the desire for news exists not always stays enough to be described as a need but nonetheless, it is a wish to be told something strong enough to demand satisfaction.

Therefore, news story has some main functions as follows:

- The purpose of news story is to report short, brief messages aboutsome important problems and significant news events It only concentrates on

scale, form of the event and sometimes the importance of events.

- News story has a duty to report briefly about new events in current life

by answering all the basic question of press: What?, Where?, When?,

Who?, How? All the contents of the news story can be shortened within 60

and 100 words.

- News story is used to inform the details, characters and newly discovered issues if the important events happening.

From the above functions, the characteristic of news story are:

- Timeliness

The following example in English newspaper is an illustration:

Online game merges Web with real-world rivalries

NEW YORK: This winter, the armies of Yale invaded Massachusetts and conquered Harvard Cornell’s troops turned Darmouth’s militia into a vassal force Columbia allied itself with Yale and occupied Long Island, before getting routed by the Princeton-Cornell alliance.

The historic rivalries of the Ivy League have reached the Internet.

Eleven thousand Ivy students and alumni have played out these scenarios as part of an online computer game called GoCrossCampus, or GXC The game, a riff on classic territorial-conquest board games like Risk, may be the next Internet phenomenon to emerge from the computers of college students.

(IHT March 22-23, 2008)

The above example shows the reader the information of a new online game, “the next Internet phenomenon to emerge from computers of college students” The characters of the timeliness, the immediacy, the impact and the interest are all indicated into the news

1.2 Types of news story

There are many ways to classify the news story In this paper, I would like to give the most common types classified by the popularity of these news

stories in press Moreover, these news stories are also the topics which are concerned and reported on news story columns because of those importances.

1.2.1 Political news story

Political news story is a general thought of breaking news that is a timely story of great import Political news story is one kind of news which covers a large space in newspapers Usually, it appears on the first page and world news page with the most popular, up date and important news.

Current, important occurrences are always political news story and it often specializes in national and international news not all the political local news Political news story is often about events which have just happened, are happening or are going to happen Political news story has an important impact on current life and play a key role in a country’s government and international community So, it is always accurate, clear and immediate:

Example 1.2.1a:

Nga-Mỹ “hạ nhiệt” về lá chắn tên lửa

Nga và Mỹ vừa có dấu hiệu “hạ nhiệt” đầu tiên trong các cuộc thương thảo đầy khó khăn liên quan đến kế hoạch của Mỹ lập lá chán phòng thủ tên lửa Đông Âu.

(Thanh niên, 03-04-2008)

North Korea threatens South with destruction

After several days of escalating oratory against South Korea, Pyong-yang issued one of its toughest warnings in many years, threatening to turn its neighbor into “ashes” with a “pre-emptive” military strike.

(IHT, March 31, 2008)

1.2.2 Economic news story

Like political news story, economic news story also has a great position in every newspaper With the daily changeable characteristic, economic news story has a duty to report all the noticeable national and world economic news Economic is a very important field of society and is interested by millions of businessman in general and common people in particular.

Naturally, economic news story news is mainly reported on economic page However, economic and political news sometimes are also edited on the same page They call this economic-political page Despite the fact that economic and political news often makes the reader to distinguish, the economic news story still remains its own economic features.

Example 1.2.2.a in Vietnamese newspapers:

Cửa hàng tiện lợi sắp đổ bộ Việt Nam

Ít nhất hai hệ thống cửa hàng tiện lợi là 7-eleven và 108 đang có những bước khởi động để vào thị trường Việt Nam vào cuối năm nay hoặc đầu năm sau 7-eleven và 108 cùng nhảy vào Viet Nam kinh doanh, với kinh nghiệm dư thừa họ sẽ là những thách thức mới cho các “đại gia” bán hang trong nước.

(Thanh Niên, 03-04-2008)

Example 1.2.2.b in English newspapers:

Confused over the credit crisis? You are not the only one

Raise your hand if you don’t quite understand this whole financial crisis It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel as if they should understand it But they don’t, not really The part about the U.S housing crash seems simple enough With banks whispering sweet encouragement, people bought homes they couldn’t afford, and now they are falling behind on their mortgages.

(IHT, March 19, 2008)

1.2.3 Socio- cultural news story

Socio- cultural news story is a vast kind of news It often covers all aspects of daily life Socio- cultural news story will give the readers the information about all things in the world.

From the socio- cultural term, we easily see that this type of the news story will report the national events, problems relating to society and culture, not only in our country but also foreign countries as well as international ones It may consist of events in different fields of life such as: sport, culture, fashion, education, health…

Owing to the information events and the popularity in daily life, socio-cultural news story is often reported in many kinds of newspapers and attracts many readers’ attention As a mean of transporting spiritual food to the readers, socio- cultural news story always has a key room in any newspaper.

Example 1.2.3.a in Vietnamese newspapers:

Giải quyết tình trạng học sinh bỏ hocNgành Giáo dục không đơn độc

Sau khi tình trạng học sinh bỏ học(HSBH) được dư luận lên tiếng cảnh tỉnh, không chỉ ngành Giáo dục đào tạo tìm kiếm giải pháp mà toàn bộ xã hội đã vào cuộc Cuộc tọa đàm “Thực trạng và giải pháp đối với việ học sinh bỏ học” do Ban Tuyên giáo Trung ương tổ chức ngày 9-10 tại Hà Nội với sự tham gia của đại diện các địa phương phía Bắc có số HSBH nhiều, một số cơ quan, đơn vị có liên quan và sẽ được tiếp tục trong thời gian tới ở miền Trug là một minh chứng Những ý kiến thẳng thắn và tâm huyết cúa các đại biểu tại cuộc tọa đàm đã góp phần để Ban tuyên giáo có thêm cơ sở khoa học, thực tiễn đánh giá một cách khách quan tình trạng này, từ đó đưa ra kiến nghị, như lời Phó trưởng ban Nghiêm Đình Vì đã khẳng định.

(Hà Nội Mới, 10-4-2008)

Example 1.2.3.b in English newspapers:

Moving on the low carbon road

A meeting of United Nations member states in Bangkok on Monday to discuss climate change is the first in a series this year at which the action plan adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, will be translated into concrete steps on the road to a new global climate change agreement.

(IHT, March 31, 2008)

CHAPTER II: ANALASIS OF THE STRUCTURAL FEATURESOF ENGLISH NEWS STORY

2.1 Structure of paragraph

News story appeals readers and affects them with the means of language in the written form However, with the written language there is no common situation as there is in face-to-face interaction The situation, therefore, must be interfered from the text Naturally, readers only pay attention to the contents or news of the news story, they do not care how the story are written or formed And the structure is one of the features of the news story’s paragraph.

According to Do Huu Chau [2]: “Structure is an art of the performanceon content factors of the writers Structurally, the writers can change theorders of the contents of the news story”.

In fact, the paragraph of a news story is always brief, varying in length from fifty to one hundred words Each is a unit in itself and needs not o be connected too closely with preceding or following paragraph The most important idea is always placed at the beginning of a paragraph.

Disregarding time order, the reporter can arrange his material in the descending order of importance details for the second paragraph and save less important details for succeeding paragraph The least important part comes at the end and the story just stops abruptly.

This way is called inverted-pyramid technique which has two

advantages, it enables the readers to get the gist of the story by reading only the headline or the first paragraph, and it enable the editor, when space is limited, to shorten story by cutting the paragraph from the end without running the risk of leaving out an unimportant fact.

Basically, the structure of a paragraph or a news story consists of some components which form the structure of the news story in English and Vietnamese.

2.1.1 Headline in English news story

Unlike other news, the news story puts its climax at the beginning Usually, the size and the blackness of the headlines are justified by the important of stories beneath them and do summarize the stories accurately.

The headline generally answer the question ‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘Why?’,

‘When?’, ‘Where?’ and ‘How?’ As I study, a good headline lays up (put

first) whichever one of these- the five W’s and the H- is the most significant ‘What’ and ‘Who’ frequently make the best beginning, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ are often used, ‘When’ and ‘Where’ are least common.

In a good headline the first sentence is not crowded as for the limitation of space in a newspaper and to catch the reader’s attentions at their first glances If the ‘What’ and ‘Who’ take up the whole sentence, the other W’s and the H are put into the second sentence or even into the second paragraph Because the first part of the news must introduce the subject, the following ones must develop the action of that subject.

Example 2.1.1.a:

Beckham comes to a halt as England slowly sinks

The main information is given in this story is:

Who: Beckham

What: comes to a halt as England slowly sinks

According to Galperin [9], “English headlines are short and catching,they compact the gist of news, stories into a new eyesnaring words A skillfulheadline tells a story or enough of to, to arouse or satisfy the reader’scuriosity.” (P.57)

According to Nguyen Dinh Hoa’s statistic, all most topic sentences have main contents as they are written at the headline The only difference between headline and topic sentence is that, the topic sentence often develops more the contents of the headline into the paragraph such as: circumstance, reason or time of the main events This relation is performed through the lexical reiteration, synonym substitution In another word, the topic is reported at the headline and remained at the topic sentence.

- Let us consider the example 2.1.1b; the underlined is the lexical reiteration.

Headline: Fears of a black hole eating Earth lead to lawsuit

Topic sentence:

A lawsuit seeks to stop a giant particle accelerator from smashingprotons together because of fears it will create a black hole that will destroyEarth – and maybe more.

Tata Motors of India said Wednesday it would buy the Jaguar and LandRover brands from Ford Motor for about $2.3 billion in cash, less than halfthe price that Ford paid for the two companies.

(IHT March 30, 2008)

From the above example, purchase and buy are the same meaning.

- Usually, the headline is often written briefly at average of 8-10 words So the presentation of the topic sentence will help the headline give the readers more information.

Example 2.1.1.d:

Headline: Drug makers accused of stalling data

And the topic sentence:

The lead outside investigator on a crucial trial of two widely used heartdrugs said in an economic-mail message last July that Merk and Schering-Plough, the companies that make the drugs, were deliberately delaying therelease of the trial results “to hide something.”

(IHT April 2, 2008)

Moreover, the headline often tends to emphasize the events or main action than time and places.

E.g.2.1.1.e1: China law could impede Microsolf deal for Yahoo

(IHT March 28, 2008)

Or another one:

E.g.2.1.1.e2: ‘Industrial tea’ farmers prefer traditional brew

(IHT April 16, 2008)

- There is an interesting of headline in English news story, that is, most of headlines are statement, full sentences or ellipsis sentences The majority of the headlines are the simple sentences, and the others are nominal, indirect speech and interrogative ones

Example 2.1.1.f for a headline with whole sentence:

Trouble still plagues new terminal at Heathrow

(IHT, March 30, 2008)

An interrogative headline sentence:

E.g.2.1.1.g1: Is the food still Italian if the chef is a foreigner?

E.g.2.1.1.h1: Hillary’s St Patrick’s Day massacre

Moreover, in some cases, using passive voice is more meaningful

because the writers can avoid mentioning the agent of the action However, this kind of headline rarely appears in newspapers.

Grammatically, most of verbs used in the headline are in the present

simple tense According to Evans [7]“using verb in the present simple tenseis able to take the readers into the situation of the events happening.Moreover, it will help the readers feel that the event has just happened.”

Example 2.1.1.1k1:

Olympic torch arrives in Beijing amid tight security

(IHT, March 31, 2008)

Or another one: E2.1.1.k2

Militias resist Iraqi forces in fight for Basra

(IHT, March 28, 2008)

However, to report the event which is likely to happen, to infinitive is

more often used instead of using to be going or will/shall.

Example 2.1.1.l:

USB to write down additional $19 billion

(USB is going to write down additional $19 billion)

(IHT, April 4, 2008)

2.1.2 Topic sentence in English news story

The topic sentence is the most important sentence in the paragraph It controls and limits the ideas that can be discussed in a paragraph.

In grammar, that topic sentence has two parts: the topic and the controlling idea.

- The topic sentence is the subject of the paragraph.

The color yellow is the color of mental activity.

The topic: the color yellow

- The controlling idea limits or controls the topic to one aspect that we want to report about.

The color brown is the color of material security.

Topic: the color brown

Controlling idea: material security

Or: Brown shows a desire for stability.

Topic: Brown

Controlling idea: a desire for stability

(Weaving it together, Book 3 Milada Broukal P.7)

Usually, a topic has more than one controlling idea In the example above, the writer can write one paragraph about the color brown indicting material security and another on the desire for stability.

In some other experts’ opinions, if they are allowed to write a sentence to report the event, that sentence must be topic sentence It means that the topic sentence must conclude important and remarkable information Here, the writer can use the lexical reiteration and synonym substitution to report again the most important news which has been reported at the headline.

Therefore, in this part, I would like to analysis the form and content features, which are the most interesting one of the topic sentence.

2.1.2.1 Form features of the topic sentence

Nguyen Hoa’s study [10] shows that 92.8% topic sentences are the first ones of the news story Therefore, they are meaning sentences and belong to the types of the simple sentences, complex sentences and mixed sentences And the majority of them has at least two clauses which can help the writer report more information in a sentence usefully, indicating a good news story.

The main headline:

Route 3, a highway to openness

The sub-title:

China-to-Bangkok road already changing isolated region

The topic sentence:

LUANG NAMTHA, Laos: The newly refurbished Road 3 that cutsthrough this remote town is an ordinary strip of pavement, the type of

two-lane road you might find winding through the backwoods ofVermont or sunflower fields in the French province.

(IHT March 31, 2008)

From the above example, the topic sentence reports more information

about the places the new road passes through It has two sub-clauses: “thatcuts through this remote town”, “the type of two-lane road you might findwinding through the backwoods of Vermont or sunflower fields in the Frenchprovince.”

And other following examples:

Example 2.1.2.1.b of the topic sentence reporting of scenery:

The headline:

In life and death, Tibet victims belie official account

The topic sentence:

In life, the five young women who burned to death in a Chineseclothing store during rioting in Tibet on March 14 were not the typeswho would make headlines.

(IHT March 29-30, 2008)

 Example 2.1.2.1.c of the topic sentence reporting about time:

The headline:

Maoists nearing a majority in Nepalese election

The topic sentence:

Nepal’s former rebels moved closer Tuesday to winning half of the

direct elected seats in the special assembly that will shape the nation’spolitical future.

(IHT April 16, 2008)

Example 2.1.2.1.d of the topic sentence reporting about place:

The headline:

Muslims in northwest add to Chinese unrest

The topic sentence:

SHANGHAI: Acknowledging a recent protest there, the Chinesegovernment has announced that Islamic separatist groups are seeking to

foment unrest in Xingjian, a northwestern region that is predominantly

(IHT April 3, 2008)

- Moreover, out of the topic sentences collected, 24% are indirect sentences within indirect content put at the end of the sentence.

E.g.2.1.2.1.e1: The headline:

Hong Kong recovers 2 bodies from capsized boat

The topic sentence:

HONG KONG: Divers recovered two bodies Wednesday from atugboat that capsized in Hong Kong waters and searched for 16 moreUkrainian sailors believed to be dead after being trapped in the

overturned hull last weekend, the Hong Kong government said.

(IHT March 27, 2008)

And more another example 2.1.2.1.e2: The headline:

Party goes on at Sevens, market troubles or no

The topic sentence:

HONG KONG : Hong Kong’s annual rugby sevens tournament, alure for bankers in the Asia Pacific region and beyond, sold out in record

time this year and needs a new stadium to cope with demand, tournament

officials said.

(IHT, March 29-30, 2008)

- At the beginning of some topic sentences, we can easily see that the name of a country, a city or a place which is to inform where the source of the news comes from.

E.g.2.1.2.1.f1: The headline:

Goalie saves Australia in China

The topic sentence:

KUNMING, China: Mark Schwarzer saved Shao Jiayi’s penaltytwo minutes from time as Australia held China, 0-0, Wednesday to collecta valuable away point in Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

Move is used as basis for legal challenges

The topic sentence:

WASHINGTON: When CIA officers destroyed hundreds of hoursof videotapes documenting harsh interrogations in 2005, they may havebelieved they were freeing potentially serious legal trouble

(IHT, March 29-30, 2008)

2.1.2.2 Content features of the topic sentence

It is the topic sentence that decides the whole structure of the news If its content cannot create a certain connection to the readers, they would stop their reading as the topic sentence has the duty to attract them to the whole news So, according to Bush [1], topic sentence has some features as follows:

- The topic sentence is first to inform the main content or the gist of the event decided by the writer In another word, due to the writer’s purpose, this

aspect or others of the event will be the main content This function is

sometimes called “playing the feature” that means to highlight the chosen

Wartime powers made interrogators exempt, legal brief contended

The topic sentence:

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department gave militaryinterrogators broad authority in 2003 to use extreme methods inquestioning detainees and argued that wartime powers largely exemptedinterrogators from laws banning harsh treatment, according to a publiclydisclosed memorandum.

(IHT April 3, 2008)

In this example, the writer wants to report the information of the publicly disclosed memorandum that the U.S administration authorized the extreme methods to the detainees in 2003 but still argued to largely exempt them from laws banning harsh treatment This is a good attraction to any reader who cares for the peace.

- The second function of the topic sentence is to join the reader into the news by using various ways And a special one is the use of the questions For example 2.1.2.2.b:

The headline:

Dylan fans grapple with his Pulitzer

The sub-title:

Does prize lessen his rebel status?

The topic sentence:

How did it feel? Perhaps you were thrilled last week when Bob Dylan

earned a special award from Pulitzer board for his “profound impact onpopular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions ofextraordinary poetic power.”

(IHT April 16, 2008)

- Thirdly, the topic sentence helps the reader understand the news by using words or building up the events into the story.

E.g.2.1.2.2.c: The headline:

R.E.M wakes to old fans, but with something new

The topic sentence:

On the ground floor of a nondescript building, a few blocks fromUniversity of Georgia campus here, sits a little room stuffed withinstruments and decorated with Christmas lights, lava lamps, old concertposters and tacked-up 45s.

(IHT April 3, 2008)

The above topic sentence describes the scenery of the concert rehearsed

by an old band The usage the image words like “a nondescript building”, “alittle room”, “Christmas lights” …ect helps the reader know what is new at

the concert.

Most of the social and political news stories are brief in not only the main content but also the main events In detailed, according to some experts,

the topic sentence must provide the information of 5 Wh-’ questions: Who?,

What?, Where?, Why? And one “H”- How?

The following topic sentence is an example: E.g.2.1.2.2.d:

Coalition forces were drawn deeper into Iraq’s four-day-oldcrackdown on Shiite militants on Friday, launching airstrikes in Basrafor the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.

(IHT, March 29-30, 2008)

This topic sentence gives the reader the news of:

Who: Coalition forces

What: were drawn deeper into Iraq’s four-day-old crackdown…When: Friday

Where: Basra and Baghdad

The elements of “Wh” or “H” of the topic sentence depend on the writer’s aims Thus, the main tendency in this text is using the topic sentence with the contents of “Who” and “What” In addition, the topic sentence focusing on time with “When” element is rare.

E.g.2.1.2.2.e: The headline:

10 years old, bloated Citi struggles to find footing

The topic sentence:

Ten years ago this Sunday, on April 6, 1998, Sanford Weill rewrotethe rules of Wall Street.

(IHT April 4, 2008)

The information of time: “Ten years ago this Sunday, on April 6, 1998” is the main news of the story Throughout the story, the writer mentions to the days and events relating to this main news.

2.1.3 Structure of news story’s body

The structure of an essay, a graduation paper usually has three parts: the beginning, the development and the conclusion Thus, a news story in newspaper is reported in a brief way, its structure is quite different from these.

MacDougall stated, “Every news in newspaper needs escaping from partially and subjective ideas, and press should have equality and balance when giving news to the reader.”

For that, news story in newspaper, especially in English has only two parts: content summary and content development In addition, every news story in English in general has an identical structure consisting of a headline, a topic sentence and a content development.

According to Nguyen Hoa, “the main tendency in English news story is the using the mixed sentences including compound and complex sentences”

LONDON: The European Commission said Tuesday that legitimateEuropean worries about human rights and Tibet should not be “walledoff” from a trading relationship with China but that it did not supportthe idea of boy-coots.

(IHT April 16, 2008)

This using would trouble the reader in understanding sentences and create long sentences However, every event will be put in its correct relation due to mixed sentences rather than the simple ones.

Moreover, the length of a sentence also relates to the difficulty or the easiness of the story to read It is a common advice to the journalists and the

correspondents that “Press needs to easy for readers to understand and theycan read fast One of the ways to gain this target is to use shot sentences.”According to Bush, “the reasonable length of a sentence is 20 words.”

The readers who have average educational level and rarely read newspaper could remember immediately 8 words; and 16, at maximum, to high-educational level readers Another study shows that average educational level readers have capable of remembering 12 words It is okay if there are 12 words in a sentence But when reading a 17-word sentence, readers remember

only 12 words, which means that out of every two words, only one is remembered.

Similarly, if a sentence is 40-word long, the reader can remember only 12 words, of which 10 in the first half and 2 in the second one Such a sentence can exist only when each half of it is an independent unit of information Under that circumstance, the reader needs not to read this half to understand the other one It means that the sentence can be divided into separate parts or sentences In brief, each unit of information must not be more than 17-word long.

Each required three million rivets, and shortage peaked duringTitanic’s construction.

(IHT April 16, 2008)

Thus, the sub-clause should not be abused If not, each sentence consists of no more than 12 words Imagining that we insert a clause or phrase that has more than 12 words between the subject and the object of a sentence, the reader might understand the whole sentence by reading the second time Therefore, each unit of information contains at most 17 words is an effective way to form.

Reading is a psychological process The reader can normally remember and understand ideas one by one If there is too much information packed into a sentence, it will cause difficulties to the reader As a result of this, such sentences should be avoided.

On Thursday night, the Obama campaign, in an effort to shift thespotlight to the Clintons, provide The New York Times with a picture ofWright and President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1998, at abreakfast meeting with religious leaders just hours before the report on