Genre of Newspaper Articles
Warmer
Discuss with a partner:
- What was the last newspaper article you read? What was it about?
- Why do people read newspapers and news websites?
- What features do we expect to see in a newspaper article? Why are they used?
Activity 1
Read Article A. Discuss the following questions:
- What is the main event?
- What facts are given?
- What do you learn about Big Sur?
- What people or groups give their reactions?
Activity 2
How is genre created?
Through 1) discourse structure and 2) register features.
First let's look at discourse structure: the elements of the text structured in a predictable order.
What are the main elements you expect to see in a newspaper? What order do they come in?
For example, a newspaper article starts with a headline. What comes after that?
In the next slide, you will see some of the main elements of the discourse structure of a newspaper article.
Match the elements with their contents, showing the order you would expect to see on the page.
If you need help, take a look again at Article A.
Each element of the discourse structure does a different job.
The Summary includes the Headline, Lead, Attribution/Byline and Date.
The News Story includes the Main Event, Background, Consequences, and Comment.
Look at Article A. Label all the elements mentioned on this slide. Use the labelled Article A to check your answers.
Why is a newspaper article organised in this way? What effect does the writer want to have on the reader?
The reader can find the most important information at the top of the page, and then scan the rest to find details and less factual information i.e. opinions and speculation.
Activity 3
Genre is also created through register features: the distinctive language used in the text.
In pairs, look at Article A again. Discuss these questions:
1. What distinctive language features do you notice?
2. Why are they used? What does the writer want to achieve?
Look at these two examples from the Headline and Lead. What is unusal about the grammar in each? For example, they are both missing full stops. Click for hints!
- Big Sur wildfire destroys 15 homes and 500 acres of national forest
- Home of California town's fire chief among properties destroyed by blaze in Los Padres National Forest
When are the events taking place in the Headline?
What grammatical elements are missing in the Lead?
The headline is written in the present tense even thought it is describing a past event. It has also left out a determiner.
- Big Sur wildfire destroys 15 homes and 500 acres of national forest
Try rewriting the sentence in the past tense and adding a determiner; then, check the answer. Optional words are in brackets.
A Big Sur wildfire (has) destroyed 15 homes and 500 acres of national forest
Why do you think the headline was written this way?
Headlines need to grab the reader's attention and put across information quickly, so words are often missed out. The use of the present tense makes the events feel more immediate.
The Lead is missing many grammatical elements such as determiners and auxiliary verbs.
- Home of California town's fire chief among properties destroyed by blaze in Los Padres National Forest
Try rewriting the sentence, adding in the missing elements; then, check the answer. Optional words are in brackets.
The home of the California town's fire chief was among the properties which were destroyed by a blaze in (the) Los Padres National forest.
Why do you think the lead was written this way?
Like the headline, the lead is written to grab the reader's attention and put across information quickly, even if this means omitting grammatical words.
As we saw, the Headline and Lead are written as incomplete sentences that are missing certain grammatical elements.
Can you think of another reason why they are written in this style? This is a practical reason to do with the history of printing which is less relevant today!
Newspapers which are printed on paper need to save space in order to contain as many stories as possible, leading to truncated writing styles. With digital publishing, this issue is less important although newspapers still use this attention-grabbing style!
In what other types of texts and situations is it typical to use incomplete sentences?
Some examples are in spoken conversations and instant messaging and text messages.
Now take a look at Article B. Work with a partner or in small groups. Answer questions 1-3:
- Summarise the article with a partner. What is the main event? What details do you learn? What groups or people do you hear from?
- Label the discourse features: the Headline, Lead, Attribution/Byline, Date, the Main Event, Background, Consequences, and Comment. Is anything different from Article A?
- Find more examples of the register features: present tense used to describe a past event, and the omission of determiners or auxiliary verbs. Can you find any other interesting features?
Use the labelled Article B to check your answers to question 2.
The headline and lead are written to a similar way to Article A: using the present tense and missing grammatical words.
- 100 firefighters tackle blaze at mill used to film Peaky Blinders
- Crews were called to fire at Dalton Mills on Thursday lunchtime as whole of building affected
Rewrite both sentences, changing the unusual features.
- 100 firefighters tackle blaze at mill used to film Peaky Blinders
- Crews were called to fire at Dalton Mills on Thursday lunchtime as whole of building affected
100 firefighters tackled a blaze at a mill which is used to film Peaky Blinders
(The) Crews were called to the fire at Dalton Mills on Thursday lunchtime as the whole of the building was affected
Activity 5
Now it's time to try writing a newspaper article yourself!
- Choose a recent event: something from your school, personal life, or happening in your local area.
- Plan and write a newspaper article, using the discourse and register features you've seen today.
- Use the Writing an Article hand out to help!
- Include any other language features you identified during this lesson.
- When you've finished, share and evaluate with a partner.
