THEORIES OF THE STUDY 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 he had to choose between government without newspaper or newspaper without government 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 goods possesses 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; new information, fresh tidings… and matters regarded as interesting to newspaper readers 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 is and 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 about some 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 - Immediacy - Truthfulness - Accuracy - Clarity - Fairness - Impact - Interest 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” chắn tên lửa Nga Mỹ vừa có dấu hiệu “hạ nhiệt” thương thảo đầy khó khăn liên quan đến kế hoạch Mỹ lập chán phịng thủ tên lửa Đơng Âu (Thanh niên, 03-04-2008) E.g.1.2.1b: 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 đổ Việt Nam Ít hai hệ thống cửa hàng tiện lợi 7-eleven 108 có bước khởi động để vào thị trường Việt Nam vào cuối năm đầu năm sau 7-eleven 108 nhảy vào Viet Nam kinh doanh, với kinh nghiệm dư thừa họ thách thức cho “đại gia” bán hang 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, sociocultural 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 tình trạng học sinh bỏ hoc Ngành Giáo dục khơng đơn độc Sau tình trạng học sinh bỏ học(HSBH) dư luận lên tiếng cảnh tỉnh, không ngành Giáo dục đào tạo tìm kiếm giải pháp mà toàn xã hội vào Cuộc tọa đàm “Thực trạng giải pháp việ học sinh bỏ học” Ban Tuyên giáo Trung ương tổ chức ngày 9-10 Hà Nội với tham gia đại diện địa phương phía Bắc có số HSBH nhiều, số quan, đơn vị có liên quan tiếp tục thời gian tới miền Trug minh chứng Những ý kiến thẳng thắn tâm huyết cúa đại biểu tọa đàm góp phần để Ban tuyên giáo có thêm sở khoa học, thực tiễn đánh giá cách khách quan tình trạng này, từ đưa kiến nghị, lời Phó trưởng ban Nghiêm Đình Vì 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 FEATURES OF 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 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 performance on content factors of the writers Structurally, the writers can change the orders 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 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 skillful headline tells a story or enough of to, to arouse or satisfy the reader’s curiosity.” (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 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 Eg: 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 Eg: 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 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 E.g.2.1.2.1.a 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 that cuts through this remote town is an ordinary strip of pavement, the type of twolane road you might find winding through the backwoods of Vermont 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: “that cuts through this remote town”, “the type of two-lane road you might find winding through the backwoods of Vermont or sunflower fields in the French province.” 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 Chinese clothing store during rioting in Tibet on March 14 were not the types who 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’s political 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 Chinese government has announced that Islamic separatist groups are seeking to foment unrest in Xingjian, a northwestern region that is predominantly Muslim (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 bodies from capsized boat The topic sentence: HONG KONG: Divers recovered two bodies Wednesday from a tugboat that capsized in Hong Kong waters and searched for 16 more Ukrainian 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, a lure 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 penalty two minutes from time as Australia held China, 0-0, Wednesday to collect a valuable away point in Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup (IHT March 27, 2008) E.g.2.1.2.1.f2: The headline: Destruction of tapes hovers over CIA The sub-title: Move is used as basis for legal challenges The topic sentence: WASHINGTON: When CIA officers destroyed hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting harsh interrogations in 2005, they may have believed 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 aspect E.g.2.1.2.2.a: The headline: U.S memo authorized extreme methods The sub-title: Wartime powers made interrogators exempt, legal brief contended The topic sentence: WASHINGTON: The Justice Department gave military interrogators broad authority in 2003 to use extreme methods in questioning detainees and argued that wartime powers largely exempted interrogators from laws banning harsh treatment, according to a publicly disclosed 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 on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary 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 from University of Georgia campus here, sits a little room stuffed with instruments and decorated with Christmas lights, lava lamps, old concert posters 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”, “a little 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 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-old crackdown on Shiite militants on Friday, launching airstrikes in Basra for 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 rewrote the 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” E.g.2.1.3.a: LONDON: The European Commission said Tuesday that legitimate European worries about human rights and Tibet should not be “walled off” from a trading relationship with China but that it did not support the 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 they can 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 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 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 E.g.2.1.3.b: Each required three million rivets, and shortage peaked during Titanic’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 E.g.2.1.3.c: On Thursday night, the Obama campaign, in an effort to shift the spotlight to the Clintons, provide The New York Times with a picture of Wright and President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1998, at a breakfast meeting with religious leaders just hours before the report on Monica Lewinsky scandal by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr was made public (IHT, March 22-23, 2008) A 50-word long sentence with three information units is more readable than a 20-word long one with a single information unit Moreover, another feature in the development part of the news story is passages It is very different from other kinds of news, as the purpose the story in news story is to report the events or the news, not to develop the ideas The majority of passages in news story are one sentence Thus, if we regard the news story as a “big” paragraph, the passages are really supporting sentences According to some experts, “one of the reasons to make the paragraphs consisting one sentence is due to the work of ordering the lay-out of a newspaper Otherwise, the one-sentence paragraphs are usually easier to read than the others” E.g.2.1.3.d: Lee, who first joined the Legislature in 1985, said he would step down as a lawmaker at the end of his current term in July but would remain a member of Democratic Party (IHT, March 29-30, 2008) In conclusion, a little bit long sentence with proper structure and punctuation is acceptable Therefore, the length of the sentences in the news story’s body is not as important as its structure To write the most effective sentences, journalists should apply these strategies: - A sentence should be divided into the information units, each of which is not more than 17-word long - Sub-clause should not be abused - Sub-clause should not consist of more than 12 words - The main information should always be ordered from the beginning of the sentence 2.1.4 Sub-title in English news story There is a separated part from the body part of the news story discourse, the sub-title It is recognized easily by the italic letters and be printed smaller than the headline The sub-title is widely used in English newspaper E.g.2.1.4.a1: The headline: North Korea hit hard as food crisis worsens The sub-title: But angry Pyongyang won’t seek South’s aid (IHT April 4, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.a2: The headline: High rice prices fall to trickle down The sub-title: Rising costs and small harvests leave farmers struggling (IHT April 7, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.a3: Te headline: A rare opportunity to make Beijing sweat The sub-title: Pushing Darfur into the Olympics (IHT, March 29-30, 2008) Many people misunderstand that the sub-title is or is a part of the topic sentence To know deeply about this problem, let us consider the two terms of its form and content features - In term of form feature, we cannot unify the sub-title and the topic sentence for the following reasons: Although this part has the some grammatical features of the topic sentence, it develops the content feature of the headline in using the ellipsis of article, particle E.g.2.1.4.b1: As club owners feud, supporters remember deadly crush (IHT April 16, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.b2: U.S Treasury official pushing a news plan (IHT April 16, 2008) From the above examples, at the first, there is an absence of the determiner such as “the, his, her…” before the word “supporters” Or at another one, the verb is bare-infinitive, which just exists in the headlines The headline is written briefly, so it is difficult to express the whole content needed shown The writers clarify the content by the sub-title Most of them are the simple narrative sentences, as nearly long as the headline, and use the vigorous, conservational idiomatic language According to the statistics, 100% the sub-title are the narrative sentences E.g.2.1.4.c1: Congress wants answers from Fed chief (IHT April 3, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.c2: Treasury acting with long term in mind (IHT April 1, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.c3: News Corp could team with Microsoft (IHT April 11, 2008) - In term of the content feature, the sub-title is closer to the headline They are developed in the body part or even right in the topic sentence E.g.2.1.4.d1: The headline: Accommodating Muslim becomes issue at Harvard The sub-title: Special requests challenge secular tradition The topic sentence: CAMBRIGE, Massachusetts: A small controversy over how Harvard practices tolerance has been sparked by two issues relating to Muslim belief – whether to call to prayer should ring out across Harvard Yard and whether women should be granted separate gym hours (IHT April 22-23, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.d2: The headline: Fight for Basra a struggle for Iraq The sub-title: Shiite cleric tells followers to stop battling government forces The topic sentence: NAJAF, Iraq: The Iraqi Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers on Sunday to stop battling government forces, seeking to stamp down violence in tows and cities that has threatened to spiral out of control (IHT, March 31, 2008) In the following example, the sub-title is repeated at the seventh paragraph: E.g.2.1.4.e: The sub-title: An escapee from U.S military prison emerges as a possible heir to bin Laden The seventh paragraph: “And he is very charismatic, young, brash rising star within AQ and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire, global jihadist movement.” (IHT April 5-6, 2008) The headline and the sub-title have their own roles The headline is developed in one part of the body part and the sub-title is done in the others E.g.2.1.4.f: The headline: Wall St tests Fed’s lending facility The sub-title: Financial companies average $13.4 billion in daily borrowing The developing part: Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans that are part of a major effort by the central bank to help a financial system in danger of freezing… The companies averaged $13.4 billion of daily borrowing over the past week from the new landing facility, the central bank said Thursday… (IHT April 22-23, 2008) The content of the headline part is described at the former paragraph about the Wall Street And the sub-title part is at the upper one to re-inform that the financial companies have on average $13.4 billion in daily borrowing For the above reasons, sub-title is very a separated part from the body part of the news story discourse The sub-title summarizes the content, which will be developed in the body part, especially in the news plentiful of content and the content expresses the reaction to the news Like the headline, it attracts the reader’s attentions to the main content of the news story ... “Structure is an art of the performance on content factors of the writers Structurally, the writers can change the orders of the contents of the news story” In fact, the paragraph of a news story... from the text Naturally, readers only pay attention to the contents or news of the news story, they not care how the story are written or formed And the structure is one of the features of the. .. 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