Kim

Irene Kim
490200660
Educational ResearchResearch Paper
1/21/2005
The Headlines and Sentence Structures in English Language Newspapers
Newspaper is a wonderful resource for language learners. It not only provides
the important news of everyday, but also provides a serious of snapshots of our life
and our culture, often from a very specific viewpoint. Students like to read English
Newspaper because it is a very useful device for them to improve their English
degrees. However, many students think that it is often hard for them to understand the
contents of the news. Furthermore, they often misinterpret the grammatical structures
used in newspaper journalism. For example, they think that an adjective ending with
ed signifies the past tense verb, or a noun ending with ing signifies the present
continuous tense (Reah 100). The aim of this research paper is to teach the English
learners how to use headlines to master the main idea of a news article and how to
analyze the sentence structures to understand the contents of the news.
For the first problem, the author Danuta Reah suggests the method of using
headlines to help understanding the contents of news. For the second problem,
Danuta offers some basic concepts of sentence structures to readers. First, we want to
talk about headlines. What is headline? What is headline for? And how a headline
conveys the main idea of an article? In short, headline is the encapsulation of a paper
in a minimum number of words (Reah 13). A brief headline provides the readers a lot
of convenience. For instance, it can tell the readers what the category the news
belongs to and how important the content is. Besides, a headline let the readers to
have an outline of the news of the day. Headline is really important. Since headline
is so important, the writers used to create effective headlines by some devices like

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homophones and rhymes, metaphorical associations, identify groups through naming,

syntax that designed to focus on specific aspects of the texts, ambiguity and words
play, non-standard structures, omission of words to create a telegraphic style and so
on (Reah 17~19). The English language used in headlines of newspapers is different
from that used in topics of textbooks. The difference is that topics of textbooks do not
use the devices that create effective headlines. For instance, in a sociolinguistics
textbook, a chapter discusses about the language discrimination to women, and its
topic is called Sexist Language (Holmes 305). This topic is clear and simple
without adding other rhetorical words.

For another instance, in an educational

research textbook, a chapter discusses about classroom observation improves

teaching, and its topic is called Classroom Observation and Research (Nunan 91).
This topic is also clear and simple without adding other rhetorical words. On the
contrary, headlines of newspapers will add some rhetorical words or stress the tone,
such as the headline Alcohol the Leading Date Rape Drug (MASTERS). In this
headline, the two words date rape is a short rhetorical phrase used to emphasize the
danger of alcohol. Besides, the writer also uses one of the devices called omission of
words to create this headline. That means, the writer omits the verb-to-be is
followed by the article the to create a telegraphic style.
The writers purpose of using a range of language devices is to make their
headlines memorable and striking. First, take homophones and rhymes for example,
in the headline Aisle Not Marry You (Reah 17), the word aisle is a homophone of
the phrase Ill. Homophone means that two words are identical in sound but different
in meanings. On the other hand, rhyme means that the sounds at the ends of two
words are similar. For instance, in the headline Tonys Phoney-War Cabinet (Reah
17), the sounds at the ends of two words Tony and Phoney are very similar. By

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identifying the words homophones and rhymes, the readers can remember the
headlines easily. Second, we take ambiguity and words play for example. In the
headline Labor Banks on Celebrity Support (Reah 17), the meaning of the word
Banks is ambiguous. It can be a noun meaning an establishment where money is
deposited, but it also can be a verb meaning depending on the factual meaning of the
story.
Third, we talk about metaphorical associations. In the headline Titanic Kate
Goes on Diet (Reah 17), for instance, Titanic refers to the name of a film, yet, it
also symbolizes of enormous size.

The word Titanic is used to address

metaphorically the actress Kate Winslett, who has a plump body figure since she
gained weight for the movie. Fourth, we discuss about identifying groups through
naming. Some headlines will show the actual addresser of the news. For instance,
from the headline Govts Should Improve Private Investment Climate: WB
(MASTERS), we know that the actual addresser of the report is World Bank. For
another instance, the headline EU Butts Out Light and Mild Cigarettes
(MASTERS) also tells the readers clearly that the actual addresser of the report is
European Union. Fifth, we come to the non-standard structures. The headlines that
belong to non-standard structures are just like a phrase or a slogan, such as No
Hiding Place For Terrorists, Fire Fight, Into The War Zone, The Streets of
Carnage, Prostitutes Appeal to Pope and so on (Reah 19). Such headlines are
simple and are easily understood. However, these non-standard structure headlines
not only do not offer the factual details of the stories, but also lack of grammatical and
sentence structures. In fact, a non-standard structure headline will not catch the
readers attentions, especially those who only have time to scan the headlines.
As for the last item omission of words, it is really useful for readers. Many

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writers will use this method to cover the essence of news to readers. For instance, in
the headline Lucky Escape As Plane Skids Onto Motorway (Reah 24), the readers
can learn immediately from this headline that nobody dies in the plane accident, and
this is the most important thing to know. The writer omits other minor information
like the planes type, the accident time and the skid location. If the writer does not do
this, the readers are unable to know immediately how the passengers situation is from
the headline.
Next, we talk about sentence structures. What kinds of sentence structures an
English newspaper has? What is the function of the sentence structures? And why
English learners have to learn sentence structures? Actually, sentence structures are
really important. And it is necessary for the readers to know some basic sentence
structures; otherwise they are easily to make mistakes on the sentences. The most
common sentence structures of newspapers are classified as ten forms. They are
active voice, passive voice, inverted commas with a word, phrase, clause or sentence,
main clause plus subordinate clause, one independent clause plus two dependent
clauses, inter-sentence coordination or inter-paragraph coordination, appositive noun
phrase, -ing participial phrase or -ed participial phrase, prepositional phrase, and to
infinitive phrase (Reah 99~104). Those sentence structures are very helpful, because
they enable the readers to understand what the context really means. Besides, an
important function of sentence structures design is to make the language of
newspaper more forceful or more interesting. Take active voice and passive voice for
example, if a context is required to be strong in its writing, and then its sentences must
use the active voice. For instance, in the sentence Singapore government fines radio
station for sex talk (MASTERS), the picture should have aroused in readers minds is
of Singapore government fines. Active voice sentences emphasize the action, the

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doing that the sentence describes. However, when we put this sentence into the
passive voice Radio station was fined for sex talk by Singapore government, the
emphasis has been shifted. Passive voice weakens the effect by taking away emphasis
of the action and the person who performs the action.
Virtually, we can find many examples about the sentence structures mentioned
above from any news article. First, we talk about the prepositional phrase that we
often see in news articles. From the sentence Reuters Group plans to outsource as
many as 20 editorial jobs to India from more expensive news gathering locations
around the world (MASTERS), we can find two prepositional phrases that are from
more expensive news gathering locations and around the world. It seems that this
sentence is composed mainly by two prepositional phrases. Second, we talk about
inverted commas.

The function of inverted commas is to spotlight the readers

attentions. The inverted commas in such sentence like Despite some positive steps
Taipei has taken, the lax protection of intellectual property right remains very serious,
making it impossible to remove Taiwan from the watchlist (MASTERS) could have
developed its function. Because the former comma here emphasizes that although
Taiwan has taken some measures, its efforts are not enough. And the latter comma
emphasizes even more that Taiwan is impossible to be removed from the watchlist.
So, the two commas can indeed spotlight the readers attentions to the sentence.
Third, a sentence always includes a main clause and a subordinate clause, such
as the sentence When it launches the N-Gage gaming device on Tuesday, Nokia will
take its first step towards a new business model targeting wireless entertainment
(MASTERS). The main clause of this sentence is Nokia will take while the
subordinate clause is when it launches

Fourth, most news reports have a

spokesperson. And the name and the identity of the spokesperson will be written in

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appositive noun phrase. For instance, in the sentence This will be an important step
for Nokia, Ilkka Raiskinen, Nokias senior vice president for multimedia and
enterprise solutions, told AFP (MASTERS), Ilkka Raiskinen and Nokias senior
vice president for multimedia and enterprise solutions is a usage of appositive noun
phrase. Fifth, it will be a big flaw if the sentences do not fit together naturally. If we
want to make a fluent inter-sentences coordination, using conjunction is necessary.
For instance, in the long sentence Stark health warnings such as Smoking Kills
must now cover at least 30 percent of the front of each packet and 40 percent of the
back, and an even greater area where messages are printed in more than one national
language (MASTERS), two conjunctions and are the key words in coordinating
inter-sentences.
conjunction.

On the other hand, inter-paragraphs coordination must also use

In the following example, the conjunction but connects the two

paragraphs effectively.

Social worker Luisa Chavarin thought she had left

unemployment and crime behind when she emigrated from Mexico to Silicon Valley.
But, (next paragraph) a four-year economic slump, combined with reduction in state
and federal funding, shuttered her 13-year-old sons after-school program
(MASTERS).
Sixth, a more complex sentence structure like one independent clause plus two
dependent clauses is always confusing. Despite the dependent clauses make the
sentence complex; they offer the adjunctive function to the independent clause. Like
the sentence Lu made the remarks when she gave an opening speech for the Taiwan
Nano Tech 2004 exposition at the Taipei International Convention Center, which
kicked off yesterday and will last until today (MASTERS), there are two dependent
clauses. The former dependent clause when she gave is the location adjunct of
Lu made the remarks and the latter dependent clause which kicked off. is the

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time adjunct of Lu made the remarks. In short, the dependent clauses make the ideas
of a sentence more complete. Seventh, students often find it hard to identify the ing
participial phrase and ed participial phrase. As the example mentioned above,
students often misunderstand that an adjective ending with ed signifies the past tense
verb or a noun ending with ing signifies the present continuous tense verb. This is
the problem of participial. We can look at some examples of participial phrases, such
as growing Chinese market, a tailored search engine, news gathering locations,
targeting wireless entertainment and so on (MASTERS). The first three words
growing, tailored and gathering in the phrases are belong to participial adjectives
while the last word targeting is belong to participial verb.
Finally, we come to the to infinitive phrase. Infinitive is a simple form of a
verb, usually preceded by to, such as to go, to play or to read. To infinitive
phrases are like to help people, to become the innovator, to foster a wirelessfriendly environment, to stimulate economic growth, to improve condition of
private investment and so on (MASTERS).

Actually, having the ability of

understanding sentence structures is important than anything else. Understanding

sentence structures helps the readers to see into the central cores of contents but not
just the surface meanings. Moreover, if we are unable to understand a sentence
structure and its meaning, it is in vain even though we have a lot of opinions.
After reading over this paper, I believe that the students who read English
newspapers will be more confident in overcoming their difficulties. Mastering the
information that the headlines provide and the basic knowledge of sentence structures
are the two big tips to them. By the way, headlines and sentence structures are
essential elements in English newspapers, and we must be sure not to neglect them.

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References

Reah, Danuta. The Language of Newspapers. 2nd ed. London and New York:
Routledge, 2003.
Holmes, Janet. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Harlow, England:
Longman-Pearson, 2001.
MASTERS. Vol.126. Taiwan: English Language Periodical Publishing Corporation,
Ltd, 2004.
Nunan, David. Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge University
Press, 2003.