NEWS ITEM

Definition Of News Item 

News items is a text that informs the readers about newsworthy or important events of the day 

Purpose of News Item

The purpose of news item text is to inform the readers about newsworthy or important events of the day.

The communicative purpose of this News Item is to inform readers, listeners or viewers about events or events that are considered important or newsworthy.

Characteristics of news items :

Brief information contained in the headline

Focus on an incident

Dominant uses saying verbs, such as reported, quoted, said, preached, and so on.

Generally use action verbs, which are verbs that show activity

Often use auxiliary verbs that show time and place

Using material processes

Generic Structure News Item :

Newsworthy events : recounts the event in summary form

Background events : elaborate what happend, to whom, and in what circumstances.

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

Language Features of News Item :

The use past tense

Example : Alyssa Diva Mustika won the gold medal at the International Matematics Contest held in Romania.

The use of action verbs 

Example : go, walk, run, drive, ride, kill.

The use of saying verbs

Example : tell, reply, say, answer

The use of passive sentences

Example : 

a. The three victims were found by SAR team in Banda Aceh.

b. The whole village was swept away by tsunami last year.

The use of direct and indirect speech

Example : The victims were taken to hospital

The use of adverbs of manner

Example : happily, fast, hard, slowly.

The use of adverbs of time and place

Example : one day, yesterday, after the lesson, in the classrom, at school.

Adjectives to form noun phrases

Example : a beautiful, sunny day, a large green field, asoft, white sandy beach.

Conjunctions to link sentences

Example : and, but, so, because, for, or.

The use of time connectives

Example : after that, meanwhile, then, finally, next, the next morning.

Pronouns

Example : he, she, they, them. his, it.

The tenses in hedlines

The past participle is used for passive sentences.

Example :

a. Agreement is signed today

b. Agreement Signed today 

The invinitive is used for feature events.

Example : 

a. The president will open the ASEAN summit.

b. President to Open ASEAN Summit.

The present participle is used for happening events.

Example : 

a. English teachers are having a TEFLIN seminar

b. English Teachers Having TEFLIN Seminar

To be and pronouns omitted in headlines 

 Example : 

People are free to choose their leader People Free to Choose Leader.

Tips For Writing News Items

How to arrange News Item text? 

A. Determine the news to be delivered. Preferably the news that is currently hot or current in the community. The warmer the better.

B. Write the main story at the beginning of the manuscript you are going to write. This is useful for keeping the reader focused and wanting to read more.

C. Write the contents of the news with 5 W + 1 H. That is, the news is about what, when, where, and why this happened. Write down the process in detail.

D. Write down news sources. It could also be through eyewitnesses of the incident. For example, there is a fire disaster in a village, write an interview with one of the residents who saw the beginning of the incident.

E. After the news draft is ready, start assembling. Since News Item Text is an English script, you can choose one of these two options. Use Indonesian first and then translate into English, or use English directly.

Example News Item :

     Seven Killed in Accident on Jalan Sultan

Seven people were killed in a collision between a bus, a car and a truck at 10:35 p.m. on Jalan Sultan last night.

 The dead were all passengers in the car. Police believe the car may have been trying to overtake the bus when it was struck by a truck coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the car may not have been using his lights, as the truck driver said he did not see the car approaching.

The police said the car should not have been trying to pass the bus, since overtaking is not allowed on Jalan Sultan. In addition, the police reported that the car–a small Japanese car–should not have been carrying more than five people. The names of the victims are not yet known.

Generic Structure : 

A. Newsworthy Event 

Seven people were killed in a collision between a bus, a car and a truck at 10:35 p.m. on Jalan Sultan last night.

B. Backgroud Event

The dead were all passengers in the car. Police believe the car may have been trying to overtake the bus when it was struck by a truck coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the car may not have been using his lights, as the truck driver said he did not see the car approaching.

C. Sources

The police said the car should not have been trying to pass the bus, since overtaking is not allowed on Jalan Sultan. In addition, the police reported that the car–a small Japanese car–should not have been carrying more than five people. The names of the victims are not yet known.

Part E

Exercise Part 2

                ANALYZING PARAGRAPH

A Worker was Buried in Pineapples

news item text about worker buried under pineapples

There was a man working at a warehouse. When he was doing his job, he was buried on 1500 pounds of pineapple.

The identity of the worker was not reported. Though he got that accident, he was not injured but he was sent to a hospital.

The accident happened when the worker was unloading boxes of pineapple from shipping container. The stack toppled over as result more than one thousand pounds of pineapple buried him.

The New York Daily News reported that the worker was 39 years old. While he was unloading pineapples from the ship, he got the accident.

That is an odd news. Poor him but it keeps odd and funny. Well now we are going to talk about the generic structure.

1. Newsworthy event: A man buried in pineapple when he was working

2. Background events: The worker's name was not known. He was injured but kept to sent to hospital. The man got accident when he was working unloading the pineapple from the ship container.

3. Sources: New York Daily News' report can be a source of this news item text that the man is 39 year old.

That is all our news item to day. Hopefully we get better understanding what a news item text is.

Conclusion:

News Item Text is a type of writing that provides up-to-date information about events. The three structures are of news Item Text are: Main event / Newsworthy Event, Background event/Elaboration, and Source.