《新闻英语与范文评析》笔记

《新闻英语与范文评析》理论题笔记1. The Function of HeadlinesA: Five main functions.First, a headline summarizes a news story with the most important and attractive words. A reader usually doesn’t have time for every piece of news that’s printed. With the guidance of terse headlines, readers can quickly find the parts they want to read.Second, it sparkles the whole page. One can imagine how suffocative a newspaper could be if there were not a single headline and dozens of news stories just piled up. Third, it beautifies the form of edition. Headlines are good decoration to the page as they appear in various sizes and typefaces.Fourth, a headline sometimes is used to attract the readers’ attention.Fifth, a headline can be used to make some comment.2. Grammatical features of headlinesFirst, there are omission of article, conjunction, pronoun, link verb and auxiliary verb. It is used to summarize and highlight the content. For example, “China sees housing as (an) engine to drive (the) economy.”Second, present tense is used to show things that happened in the past.Three reasons:First, it saves space. In most cases past tense is longer in space than the present tense, with an “ed” in extra. So present tense can save some space for a headline. Secondly, present tense is active. It puts the reader into action and gives him afeeling of participation, so that it attracts readers’ attention.Thirdly, a present-tense emphasizes the timeliness of the news. It gives the reader a sense of freshness and immediacy, although he might well understand that a head in the present tense in today’s newspaper is presenting yesterday’s news. More:First, use “be to do” instead of “will do” to present the future tense, and “be” is often omitted in order to save space.Secon d, use “be doing” to present things that are happening, and “be” is often omitted in order to save space.Thirdly, sometimes present tense can also present things that are happening or will happen, for example,”Labour plans BBC shake-up. ”Third, active voice is more often used. It is more colorful and appealing, more forward and powerful in transferring meaning than passive voice. The word ”be” or “by” are often omitted only use past participle to express passivity. Fourth, punctuations are used sometimes in headlines. English headlines are known for its terse structure, and punctuations are used in much rarer cases than in the text. Punctuations only appear in the head for two reasons. First, they are used to save space. For example, comma is used to sub stitute “and” only to save space. Secondly, they are used to show the relation between two groups of words. For example, a dash is used to connect a quotation and its attribution.3. Why sometimes in headlines, “and” ,“the” or “to be” are not omitted? A: They are not to be omitted in two occasions. One, when they are in set phrases,such as in the headline, “TB on the rise again”. Two, when they can fill up the space hole in a headline. For example, “Four killed and five hurt in a house fire.”4. The language feature of headlinesA: A headline is aiming at summarizing a whole article with a few words. So journalists make great effort in choosing the right words which are clear in meaning and economy in space.There are some preference for journalists and editorsFirst, they use abundant of simple words. Some are teeny tiny little words that lively express some meaning. “Hit” or “ruin” are often used instead of “damage”Second, initials are often used to save space, like “WTO” or “ABM”Thirdly, Abbreviations are used, which can be easily recognized by readers. Such as “ad” and ”biz” which can be easily found in the English newspaper. Fourthly, there is flexible use of journalistic coinages. To save time and space, journalists often combine two or more words into one word in practice and coinage then comes into being. They are very impressive and catchy, some even have the characteristic of originality, like “newscast.”5. Different styles of the typefacesAmerica/Canada: capitalize the first alphabet of every notional word.English: capitalize the first alphabet of the first word in a headline. Exceptional: New York Times: capitalize every alphabet to beautify the editionmon styles for headlinesA: flush-left head, dropline head/indented head, crossline/keyline, centered head,inverted pyramid head, banner head/streamer and jump head.7.Difference between Chinese headline and English head？A：They are different in four ways.First, Chinese headlines usually provide more information than English heads. Chinese heads are often multi-deck, and English heads are often one-deck, thus Chinese headlines tend to focus on the totality of the news. And if it cannot include all the facts that is needed in the head, the subhead can do the job. Another reason it usually carries more info is that each Chinese character takes up equal space, while English words are not. As a result, Chinese heads tend to be like mini-story in capsule form, while English heads accentuate on one important factor of the news. The second difference is the difference in the use of words. Like in English heads, it’s a no-no to begin a head with a verb. But in Chinese headlines, it’s ok. There are abundant use of simple words which serve to save space in English heads, but you can need not to follow that rule for every Chinese character takes up equal space. For another example, people seldom use adjectives or adverbs in English heads following the principle of “ABC”(accuracy, brevity and clarity), but you can easily grasp a piece of Chinese news with adjectives or adverbs in the headline. Thirdly, they are different in tense. English heads often use present tense which had been called “historical present tense” to present yesterday’s news, and avoid time-indicating words like “yesterday’ or “last night”. But Chinese heads use them to indicate the happening time.The last difference should be in the word layout. You can never lay the Englishheadlines in vertical form, but you can certainly do that in Chinese heads. People use single quotation mark in English headlines but double quotation mark in Chinese headline.8. News value determinersA: timeliness or freshness;Importance/consequence/impact/significance;Prominence;Proximity/locality/nearnessUnusualness/bizarreness/oddity/noveltyHuman interest;Conflict9. Hard news and soft newsHard news (spot news/straight news): Events that are timely and are covered almost automatically by print and electronic media. They are often very serious and important news.Soft news: Events that are usually not considered immediately important or timely to a wide audience.10. Genre of news reportingNewsFeatureCommentaries and columnsInterpretive reportingInvestigative reportingNew journalismSkit/essayPicture news/photojournalism11. News structureInverted pyramid style: it is the most frequently used structure in news writing.In this structure, events are written in descending order of importance. First of all, a terse lead is formed. The lead offers the most essential elements telling who, what, when, where, why and how of the story.Advantages: First, it is convenient for editors to decide the news value and cut the news from the bottom; Second, it is convenient for journalists to meet the deadline without missing any key facts; Third, it can help readers to find the main facts of the news quickly.Disadvantages: First, the main facts all frequently appear in the headline, lead and body, which would be suffocative to most readers; Second, the writing is not tightly organized and fully deployed, what’s more, the style is top heavy and lack of suspense interest.Pyramid style/the chronological styleIt is composed by three parts, they are beginning, body and ending. To write a piece of news in pyramid style, a beginning is given first and events are written in time sequence. Writers can take advantage of narrative and descriptive writing, so it flows better and involves readers. At the meantime, it adds suspense interest tothe story.Mixed form of invented pyramid and pyramid style (Circle style)After a lead, events are written in time sequence. It has the advantages of pyramid style and important facts can be presented high in the story. The most important information is repeated in the narrative, so that readers can have a chance to absorb it. It is more effective storytelling and can keep readers interested until the end then leads up to a real conclusion. Comparing with the other styles, this form is more balanced. But it discourages editors slash the story from the bottom.List techniqueWall Street journal formula: It tends to focus on individual.12. Forms of reportingSingle event coverage/briefRoundups: it tends to focus on the totality and integrity. There are two types of this kind: horizontal roundups and vertical roundups.Follow-ups/ follow-up stories (second cycle stories/ development stories) Advantages: First, it attracts readers’ attention by accentuating on one important fact of the news; Second, it tends to fully deploy the news from different aspects, which can well make up for the contradiction in terms of freshness and integrity; Third, it helps to form the public opinion.Content: Facts that are not mentioned in previous stories or some background of events.The developments of the events;Different opinions from people of all walks of life;The prediction of the events;Important facts that previously reported.In-depth reports: Including investigative reporting and interpretive reporting emphasize on WHY.13.Features of leadsA: Succinct. A summary lead should outline a news story in no more than 35 words Informative. A summary lead should contain the 5Ws of news.Intriguing. Leads are sometimes called “grabbers”, which means it serves the duty to grab the readers’ attention.What’s more, leads shou ld also be straightforward, varied, clear specific and active.That why English journalists struggle for the best wording and leave no stone unturned.14.Types of leadsSummary lead/roundup leadMain fact leadDescriptive leadDirect address leadQuotation lead (full quotation lead/partial quotation lead)Suspense leadDelayed lead/multi-paragraph leadContrast leadQuestion leadAnecdotal leadCombined lead/multiple element leadLabel lead (empty lead)15.Famous pressesAP（Associated Press）UPI（United Press International）AFP (L’Agence France Press)Reuters (The Reuter Ltd)Kyodo; Itar-Tass; ANSA; PTI（Press Trust of India）;DPA(德新); EFE（埃菲社,西班牙）16.placement of the datelineEnglish: place, date, press name中文: press name, place, date17.Sources of news reportingAccurate news sources: with the name of organization, people or agency; Implied news sources: people who do not want to be told the name, or sources from nonsense people that readers do not have interest in, as used like “witness said”Use fuz zy words to imply the sources such as “it is said”18.Difference between feature and news.A: Three differences.First, their focus is not the same. News reporting provides all facts that are related. It tends to focus on inclusiveness and integrity of the news, while features only present the most characteristic and impressive episode of the story. A piece of news shows a panorama, but a feature gives an enlarged close-up.Secondly, their writing purpose is not exactly the same. News only tries to inform the readers, while features try harder to attract the reader’s attention with more detailed and descriptive writing.Thirdly, their composition structure is not always the same. News reporting for most cases adopts inverted pyramid form, but features follow no such rule. It can be very flexible in terms of structure.19.Types of features1) News-oriented, interest-oriented2) Profile; what-feature; locality feature/ travelogue; personal experience feature/ I-account (with immediacy, persuasiveness and vividness)20. Types of commentaries and columnsEditorial,; commentary; column21. Common topics of the commentaries and columnsImportant events; typical or hot topic; significant or big festival22. Keynote/language feature of the commentaries and columnsFirst, it should be accurate, succinct, and informative when summarizing stories. Second, there are abundant uses of formal words, long and difficult complex sentences.Third, tone should be impersonal, but the editorial “we” is used sometimes to establish a rapport between the editors and readers.23. Grammatical features of English newsLanguage of news stories should be fit for communication, so it is accurate, succinct and understandable. In addition, it has to meet the deadline and limited page space. So in practice, Journalistic English has its own features distinctive from other forms of language.Omission of “that” as a conjunction;Omission of “on” before date;Use of split infinitive, in news stories, such phrase as “to illegally enter” is often met.Break of sequence of tenses, it is flexible to use the tenses if basic grammar principle has been kept.Use passive voice to give prominence to the object or to catch the attention of readers.Proper insert of backgrounds, it makes the news more understandable to readers and deepens the thesis of the news. There are contrast back-grounding, interpretative back-grounding and explanative back-grounding to be insert when necessary.Heavy use of attributes and they are often linked by hyphens.Use direct or indirect quotations to show maximum objectivity and to decrease the color of personal slant.Use dashes to insert parenthetical statement in order to give more background and show the opinions of people related,Use figure of speech in a flexible way, which makes the story more readable, vivid and attractive. The common figures are: alliteration, humor, contrast, exaggeration, witticism and so on.24. When use passive voice?First, when the receiver of the action is more important than the executor. For example, the casualty of a plane crash or a fire rage usually draws a lot of attention, passive voice is used in these cases.Secondly, passive voice is used to attract readers’ attention because the very beginning of the news draws more attention then the words hides deeper in the paragraph.25. Wording featuresJournalistic English is quite exclusive. It includes solemn statement of president, relaxed talk of common people and special jargons of various fields, but they have the same purpose¬——to transfer information and make sure that readers can understand them with least energy and time.Use specific names to indicate special things or meanings. For example, the palace “Kremlin” refers to “Russia”.Use loanwords to indicate new things or exotic things, French phrase “en mass” are often used to express the meaning “in general”.As in journalistic English, words of certain people often quoted, so there are variouswords used to express the meaning of saying, such as “allege”, “claim” and “argue” are often used.News words emerge in endless streams. New meaning may come from former words as “basket” can mean “a series of problem.” New words may come from new things such as “Euro” “petrodollar” and so on. Old words can be combines to form new words, such as “cybercafé” “compuword”, etc.Abundant vogue words can be seen in journalistic English, their special meanings come into being in a certain current and disappear afterwards. “Trauma” is one of such kind of words.Fuzzy terms can be used to add credibility to reporting as well as fit the reading habit of readers’, such as “green” “tall” and so on.Use the words vividly to put the readers into action or gives them a feeling of participation.26. Why sometimes reporter use fuzzy terms?A: 4 reasons.Sometimes reporters cannot find to the exact data, so he have to use fuzzy terms. This would make the reporting even more credible.As most readers only want to get a rough idea about what is happening, a report crammed with various detailed descriptions would be suffocative to most readers. Reporters sometimes don’t have the time to check every truth out before he have to dispatch the story to ensure timeliness of the news. What’s more, fuzzy terms can make the news much easier for readers.Fuzzy words have the advantage to enliven a writing, which accurate language (especially figures) might fall short of.27. Difference between newspaper lead and broadcasting lead.A: Three differences.First, most newspaper leads are summary leads, which include all the 5Ws of the news. But a broadcasting lead usually gives a rough summary with only a few important truths, because it would be easier for the listeners.Second, broadcasting lead should be shorter in length and simpler in structure to make sure that the news is easy for listeners.Thirdly, broadcasting leads usually adopt present tense or present perfect tense to emphasize timeliness and freshness of the news. But newspaper leads must use past tense when reporting things that happened.28. The features of broadcasting EnglishBroadcasting news often use small words in order to make it understandable. Spoken language is used instead of written language, as “aim” is used instead of “purpose”.In order to make the broadcasting brief, simple sentence are always used.The broadcasting leads, in most cases, tends to focus on the most important factor of the news by using short and simple sentences. The present tense is often use to add timeliness, freshness and immediacy to the news.Approximate numbers are used instead of e xact numbers, such as “roughly” “about” “just over” and so on.Quotations should be fit for listening so indirect and short quotations should be used instead of long and direct quotations. Quotation using should follow the rule that source attribution should be placed before the information considering the listening habit.29. Different quotation using between broadcasting news and newspaper news First, indirect and short quotations are often used to make the news fit for listening habit, but it can be very flexible in using quotations when writing a newspaper news. The second difference should be the difference in the placement of source attribution. In most case, source attributions follow the information in newspaper reporting, because what is said is more important than who said it, but it is different in broadcasting news, attribution should be placed before the information considering the listening habit.30. Difference between news reporting and news translatingThere are different audiences at home and abroad in culture, language, political system and life style. Readers’ interest should be carefully considered before translating Chinese news into English news.Communication effect is the most important aspect when translating Chinese news into English news. Make sure that foreign English reporting is not literally translated from Chinese news.The translation of Chinese news to English news should be accurate and understandable. Proper explanation can appear in the news if it is necessary.Try to pay attention to:One should offer necessary background in a flexible way.Focus should be placed on the most important factors of the news. Do not treat the background as the main fact of the news.Considering the readers’ attention/interest abroad do not me an that one can not report the news with accurate trait, our purpose of English news reporting is to show a real China to the world, so reporting with some kind of culture trait is necessary to some extent.31. Ways of using punctuations in the headlineEnglish headlines are known for its terse structure, and punctuations are used in much rarer cases than in the text. Punctuations only appear in the head for two reasons. First, they are used to save space. Second, they are used to show the relation between two groups of words. There are three ways of using punctuations. Using comma instead of “and”A dash is used to connect a quotation and its attribution.Colon is used to substitute “be”, or instead of “say” to show the quotation. 32. The disadvantages of the news just with objectivity only?First, it pays too much attention to the clarity without considering the readers’ comprehension ability.Second, it neglects the journalists’ initiative.So, reporters often use interpretative way of writing which will make up all those disadvantages.33. The features of Political NewsFirst, it has a distinctive political flavor.Second, political news has the priority of the first page, which shows the importance of the news.Third, it should be reported in a much more timely way.Fourth, the journalist who would report the political news should be ready-witted, and what’s more, every details of doing the report should be elaborately planed.34. How to write news about laws and ethicsStick to the principle of objectiveness and fairnessDeal with each case on its merits of laws and ethics news of home and abroad. Know some professional knowledge in the fields of laws and ethics, and explaining them in an understandable way while doing some reporting.Add some example of cases in order to make the news more understandable. You can use quotations to add objectiveness and fairness or explain legalese in an understandable way.35. The features of financial news reportingFirst, it has a preference for short but strong words to lively express the story in a way of contrast in order to ad objectivity and credibility to the news.Besides using the word “increase”, words like “go up” “jump” are frequently used.Using abundant quantities of words like “dip” “drop” “fall” to expres s the meaning of “decrease”.Second, use various ways of expressing to show the trend of economicdevelopment. Thus, it perfectly combined the dull figures and the useful information in a more attractive way.Make full use of comparative degrees and superlative degrees to provide the info. Use adjectives and adverbs to show the development levels in a proper way. Third, explaining the dull figures in a much more flexible way which makes the dull numbers more understandable.Use small data instead of large data.Use ways of contrast or comparison.Explain in an understandable way or use various figures of speech.Use approximate numbers in a flexible.Forth, proper using of idioms in order to meet the deadline of reporting,36. Qualifications of a good reporterAs it given by the Christian Science Monitor, a good reporter should beself-operating, productive, caring, versatile, exemplary, authoritative, expansive, supportive, visionary, sensitive, considerate, confident, distinctive, intuitive, teachable, selfless, responsible, active, paced and fully impelled.More accurately, given reasonable intelligence, most of the attributes of a successful reporter are acquired not inherited.A good reporter should:Aside from desire and ability to write for print——he should have insatiable curiosity.A flexible and social personalityA nature that relishes a variety of experiencesA temperament to work under the pressure of deadlineA tolerance permitting objective observations of people and eventsA successful reporter also needs ambition, drive, determination, and most certainly, self-discipline.Reporters need to know how to gather facts for a story as well as how to write in a clear, accurate, fair and coherent style, so that readers can immediately understand the story.Every reporter should be a voracious reader, a collector of information about everything that is going on.It is important for reporters to know as much about the complete operation of the newspaper as possible——not only its editorial policies, but its business, technical and mechanical divisions as well.Reporters must know the characteristics of journalism as it is practiced not only at his or her newspaper, but also in the profession in general.A reporter needs to understand the unique role of a newspaper in society.。