10. NEWS ITEM

News item is to inform the readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important. Is structure is:
• 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 authorities’ 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.

1. The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.
2. It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used
3. The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.
4. To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.
5. Headlines are not always complete sentences.