News Item

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News Item is a factual text which informs the readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

Social function of news item is: to inform readers, listeners or viewers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.


Generic structure:

1.Newsworthy Event(s): recounts the events in summary form

2.Background Event(s): elaborate what happened, to WHOM, in WHAT circumstances.

3.Sources: comments by participants in, witnesses to, and expert on the event.

Significant Grammar Features: 

1.Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline

2.Generally using Simple Past Tense

3.Use of Material Processes to retell the event

Using Action Verbs, e.g.: were, run, go, kill, etc.

4.Using Saying Verbs, e.g.: say, tell
5.Focus on Circumstances
6.Use of projecting Verbal Processes in Sources stages

There are some rules that can help to make newspaper headlines more comprehensible.
The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.


•Example: Town ‘Contaminated’
•Complete Sentence: Town is contaminated.


It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used.


Example:Fire Destroys over 4,111 acres of Forest in 2005-2006
Complete Sentence:Fire has destroyed over 4,111 acres of forest in 2005-2006.




The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.


Example: World Heading for Energy Crisis
Complete Sentence: The world is heading for an energy crisis.


To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.


Example: Queen to Visit London.
Complete Sentence: The Queen is going to visit London.


Headlines are not always complete sentences.


Example: More earthquakes in China.
Complete Sentence: More earthquakes happened in China.