Genres and stylistic features of newspaper articles

light on the style used in newspapers and how it

differs from that used in literary writing.

Abstract: This study presents a stylistic analysis of newspaper stories. It is hypothesized that the language used in newspaper stories violates the rules of grammar and the norms of literary writing. Moreover their style tends to be very distinctive. This can be attributed to the limited space given to each article and the author as all journalists writes to an absent or imaginary reader that must be quickly attracted.

opinion, and decision. Most of people look upon newspaper as

providing a full, sufficient, and satisfying package of current information. The goal of a well- written newspaper article is to capture the validity of the moment and to allow readers to relive the experience.
A newspaper, contains a range of items; news, comments and analysis, advertising and entertainment. Thus newspaper may contain not only strict information, but also evaluative material and views of the newspapers writers.

of emotive words, rhetorical questions, imagery. Special-topic news are the

news that cover sports, fashion, cars, travel, culture and other topics. Finally, headlines as well as crossheads or subheadings, by- lines and photo captions compose the part of editorials. The headline is the first and may be the last chance to grab the reader‘s attention. Whereas, different types of crossheads or subheadings, by-lines or even photo captions are being created as more interesting as possible. The reader can skim through subheading and get the idea what the text is going to be about, even though from the first sight the heading looks complex or the article is very long.

its main function is to give news. Despite this, it

is used to educate, enlighten or entertain people. The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political, economic and other matters. Newspapers can provide a medium of information to those who do not have television, radio or the internet.

Times and the Guardian);
2. The middle-range tabloids (e.g., the

Express and the Daily Mail);
3. Tabloids (e.g., the Sun, the Mirror, the Star).

in broadsheets or tabloids:
Hard news - include stories of a

timely nature about events or conflicts that have just happened or are about to happen such as fires, crimes, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases. Hard news has little value after 24-48 hours.

Soft news - entertains or informs, with an emphasis on human interests and novelty and less immediacy than hard news. Unlike the hard news, soft news pay attention to the things related to the minor things of the story e.g. personal life, work, etc.

the main difference has to be mentioned. The goal of

publicistic style is to influence public opinion, to make theaudience accept the speaker ̳s point of view. On the contrary, the goal of newspaper style is toinform the audience. Publicistic essays and feature articles do not belong to newspaper style.
Specific vocabulary features and characterize newspaper style by an extensive use of:
1. Special political and economic terms (apartheid, by-election); 2. Non-term political vocabulary (public, people); 3. Newspaper cliches (vital issue, well-informed sources); 4. Cliches (captains of industry, pillars of society);
5. Abrreviations (PM, NATO);
6. Neologisms (glasnost, Gorbymania).

The Structure of News Stories

type of style that may differ from any other style

used in writing in other disciplines. Journalistic prose is explicit and precise, and tries not to rely on jargon. Journalists often use short words rather than long ones. They use subject-verb-object construction and vivid, active prose. They offer anecdotes, examples and metaphors, and they rarely depend on colorless generalizations or abstract ideas. News writers try to avoid repetition of the same word within a paragraph.

pyramid structure; 5 WHs (Who, What, When, Where, Why and

How) in lead, other details in descending order of importance
Adheres to accepted grammatical conventions
Written by reporters
Objective, facts-only reporting
Purpose is to inform

Newspaper writers put all the important information at the beginning, mostly the headline in a newspaper is a summary for the whole story. Within the pages of a newspaper, the reader will find a wide variety of writing styles. These styles vary depending on the type of information and the purpose of the message.

in two types of style; chronological narration and the inverted

pyramid. The first one is mostly used in literature."It refers to the narrative as a sequence of episodes when journalists tell the story as a good suspense that culminates of some dramatic piece of information at the end. In other words, the writer starts his story with the least important information then developing the events reaching the climax and the end. The events are arranged into time- line describing the development of the story situations. The inverted pyramid, on the other hand, is used by most journalists who put the most important information at the beginning, and the less important facts are added in a descending order according to their degree of importance. The reason for this is that sometimes stories have to be cut, very often just before the end, so as to fit the available space, this style of hard news writing ensures that the deleted facts are the least

So, pay attention to the examples in the presentation. That

which often, almost always, the headlines are presented in the present tense.
Headlines have special grammatical features. Allan Metcalf in the article The Grammar of (Newspaper) Headlines published in the newspaper The Chronicle of Higher Education (2013) presents such basics of the grammar of headlines:
1. Use present tense for past events: Columbus Discovers New Route to India.
2. Use present tense for future events: Sun to Burn Out In 6 Billion Years.
3. Omit the, a, an: Cow Jumps over Moon; Dog Watches, Laughs.
4. Use comma for and: Jack, Jill Fall from Hill; Confusions Possible.
5. Never spell out numbers: Virgil Guides Dante Past 9 Levels of Hell.
6. Use colon for said or says: Galileo: ―I Confess Earth Stays Still‖.
7. Use single quotation marks: Ceaser To Brutus: ―Et Tu?‖ Falls by ―Unkindest Cut‖.
8. Omit be in its various forms: Candide, Pangloss Happy Cultivating Garden, except when emphasized: Hamlet Asks ―To Be‖ Or Not ? Ponders, Decides To Be.
 

newspaper stories violates the norms of
writing with respect to grammar

and structure. The deletion of certain items mostly the function words is very frequent, and the fronting of subject, for example it is very normal to find a pattern like VS instead of SV. Passive is used in some situation where the active can do. It is used only to attract the reader's attention.
2. As for as the structure is concerned, the structure of the a newspaper story is compared to an upside down pyramid. It does not follow the normal rules of chronological narration; instead, it begins with the final events of the story and retreats to the beginning.