Newspaper Style.

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. English newspaper writing dates back to the 17^th century. For more than a century writers and linguists have been vigorously attacking “the slipshod construction and the vulgar vocabulary” of newspaper English. Yet, for all its defects, this form of the English literary language cannot be reduced merely to a distorted form of literary English. As any other style, it is characterized by a definite communicative aim and its own system of language means.

Not all the printed matter found in newspapers comes under newspaper style. On the pages of modern newspapers we can find news, press reports and articles, advertisements and announcements, and also stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems and the like. Here only those materials matter that perform the function of informing the reader and providing him with an evaluation of the information published.

Thus, English newspaper style can be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

Information and evaluation co-exist in the modern English newspaper.

Information in the English newspaper is conveyed, in the first place, through the medium of:

brief news items;
press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings, etc.);
articles purely informational in character;
advertisements and announcements.

The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other matters. Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and way of presentation of news, in the use of specific vocabulary (allege, claim, etc.), casting some doubt on the facts reported and syntactic constructions indicating a lack of assurance on the part of the reporter as to the correctness of the facts reported or his desire to avoid responsibility (Mr. X was quoted as saying that…). The headlines of the news items, apart from giving information about the subject-matter, also carry a considerable amount of appraisal (the size and the arrangement of the headline, the use of emotionally coloured words and elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating the interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows. But, of course, the principal vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper article, and editorial in particular. Editorials (leading articles or leaders) are characterized by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise. They have much in common with Publicistic writing and are often looked upon as such.

It is possible to distinguish within this style the following substyles:

1. Brief news items.

2. Advertisements and announcements.

3. The headline.

4. The editorial.

Let’s have a closer look at them.

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