Chapter Two Structural Features of English News March 2 I. Components of a news
? Headline(subtitle)
? Lead (usu. the first para.) ? Body
II. three basic kinds of news structure
? Inverted Pyramid Style (IPS) 倒金字塔结构是以重要性递减的顺序来安
排新闻中的各项事实。
\\ead The lead offers the most essential elements telling Fact 1 who what when where why and how of story
Fact 2 the second para has less important informa- Fact 3 tion. This way of framing the news story …… is called IPS. News stories are Fact n packaged in these standard Mold for very good reasons.
“倒金字塔结构”起源于19世纪60年代的美国南北战争期间。当时，人们渴求迅速获得战争消息。许多报社都派了战地记者进行采访。由于收发报机使用有限，经常出现十几个乃至几十个记者包围着一个报务员，争相要求发稿的情况。为了避免混乱，大家约定轮流发稿，每人只发一段，然后再轮流发第二段。这种做法迫使记者把新闻的主要事实塞进第一段。另外，当时电讯设备极不完善，发电报收电报中经常出现故障。因此，报社向记者提出要求：发新闻一定把时间、地点、人物、事件、为什么等要素写进第一段，这样，一旦电讯设备出现故障，只要第一段收到了，就等于收到了一条完整的消息。此后，越来越多的人体会到了这种方法的优越性，于是“倒金字塔结构”便从实践到理论上都被承认了。在相当长的历史阶段，它层是英文新闻报道中独一无二的消息结构形式。目前，在新闻英语中，它仍是写消息时记者最常用的结构，由此，足见其合理性和生命力。
这种就够的主要优点是：便于记者写作,便于编辑选稿、制作标题和删节，便于读者阅读。（张健：P37）
Containing most important or most interesting information
导语包括最重要的或最吸引人的消息
More facts 更多的事实材料
Supporting information or background
辅助性消息或背景材料
Quotes or more facts of lesser importance
引语或更多的次要事实材料
Minor detail 细节材料 Least significant information
最不重要的消息
? Fiat to Cut Work Force
as Part of Restructuring TURN, May 28, 1992(AP)—Fiat spA will have to cut its work force as part of a planned restructuring, Chairman Giovani Agnelli said Thursday.
Commenting on an Italian newspaper report that Fiat was planning to close its plant at Chivaso to reduce its production capacity by 100000 cars a year, Mr. Agneli said, “Certainly there will be restructuring with personnel cuts.” He did not eleborate. A spokesman at Fiat headquarters said the company’s management had scheduled a meeting with labor unions for Monday.
Fiat, struggling with a weak European car market, has been restoring to temporary layoffs of workers every month for more than a year to reduce its production. Cutting its capacity by 100000 cars a year would bring production to 2.04 million cars. 当然，“倒金字塔结构”有一些短处
? Pyramid Style “金字塔结构”，在记者遇到某些较复杂打事件或故事
性、人情味浓的素材时，往往另辟蹊径，采用这种结构，旨在增加全文的悬念感。Suspense interest。它是将报道的事实按时间顺序排列，逐渐进入高潮，the chronological style。 Beginning Fact 1 Fact 2
Fact 3 events in time sequence Fact 4
…… Fact n Ending
Pet Deer Killer Fined 400$
AQUILIA, Missouri---three years ago Harold Merick, who runs Angus cattle on a 240-acre farm near this southeast Missouri community, found a fawn tangled in his wire fence.
The fawn , a doe, had struggled in the wire. She was bloody, half-crazed with fear and, most of all, alone. So Merick, his wife, Mary, and their daughter, Sandra, who was then 8, adopted the doe. They magaged to dress the wounds and in time, with softness and tenderness, to wipe the film of fear from the doe’s eyes.
The fawn survived, and they named her Joanie.
Joanie grew. She grazed with the Merick’s cattle, occasionally being bossed around by a calfless cow in need of company---no matter how odd-looking. Mrs. Merick remembers Joanie was as joy.
“We’d get school bused filled with kids who came to look,” she said. “So did people just driving by, fascinated at this deer in amony the cattle. Everybody around here knew her. Most people knew her name, too.”
Although Joanie grew to be a fine, strong doe, she never went near the
Mericks’ fences, which she could have bounded over easily. She apparently was content being a deer in a herd of cattle.
On April 13 an early-rising neighbor heard three shots, looked out and saw Joanie staggering around the pasture. Down near a gravil road was a man with a rifle. The neighbor called the Mericks.
Merick arrived in time to confront a man by the road with a small, yellow pickup truck. He remembered later there was a farm strike sticker in the rear window. Asked what he was doing, the man said he was just “watching the dear”.
Merick want off to see whether he could help Joanie. He couldn’t. A
veterinary report later said he animal was hit by two bullets, one piercing the heart.
By the time Merick returned, the man was gone. But Merick remembered the truck.
Don May, a Missouri Conservation Commission agent, found 14 trucks fitting the same general description within a five-mile area. None belonged to the man Merick described.
But just as he was about to give up, May saw the 15th. In it was a man who two hours after he was arrested made a statement about killing the deer. And in Stoddard County Magistrate Court here Wednesday, 28-year-old August John Scherer, a Brownwood, Mo., liquor store owner, was found guilty of discharging a firearm from a public highway and for hunting out of season.
Scherer was fined $ 400----the largest fine ever levied in the county for such an offense.
“Just for fun.”
The Kansas City (Mo.) Star, April 28, 1999
? Mixed Form of Inverted Pyramid and Pyramid Styles “顺序-----倒叙”混合
结构
这类结构的报道往往冠以一个“倒金字塔结构”常用的概要性导语，先交代事件的轮廓，接着便完全按照事件发展的顺序来写， 给读者以事实具体完整、叙述清晰明白的感觉。这种结构的特点是，它既有一个归纳性的导语，又有一个精彩的尾声做结尾。因此，它的开头结尾同样重要，同样有威力，同样吸引读者的深思和兴趣。
Lead Fact1 Fact 2 Fact 3 …… Fact n Ending
Police hurt in street violence
Tow police were injured and two patrol cars damaged during street vilence involving hundreds of drunken youths in Stroud, Cloucs, last night.
Trouble started when two plain clothes officers on duty in the Victoria Inn arrested a woman for spitting in the face of one of them.
The two policemen were pelted with stones, glasses and bottles as gangs of youths rampaged through the town center.
They were then set upon by the mob and kicked and puncked until rescued by other officers.
Six people---four men and two women---all aged between 19 and 27, later appeared in court charged with assault, destruction and public offences.
They were released on stringent bail conditions, including curfews and bans on using public houses and clubs.
The Daily Express, June3, 1999
III. 新闻报道的形式 1. 单一事件报道：single event coverage. 是集中针对某一新闻事件或新闻人物进行报道的一种形式，也是消息报道中的最基本，最常见的形式。它的篇幅大小不一，短的仅有百来字，又称简讯briefs，长的则可达千余字甚至数千字，但一般情况下，均在三百字左右。
2. 综合报道 roundups：全面概括地反映一个时期或某一事件、问题的全局性情况。它的题材以影响范围较大或情节错综复杂的重大事件为主。它的报道面宽、声势大，着眼全局，有事实、归纳，因此能给读者提供一个完整的印象和认识，从而弥补时效性方面不如但已报道的缺憾。根据不同的素材编排与
写作角度，综合报道一般可分为两种：
1）横向综合报道：将不同地点、不同时间发生的好几件同类事件，围绕一
个主题加以综合出来。
2）纵向综合报道：只采写某一个重大事件， 但综合了来自不同消息来源却
又相互联系的新闻素材，以勾画出某一事件的全貌。
3. 连续报道 follow-ups或follow-up stories：是一种针对新闻人物或事件在一定时期内进行追踪报道的形式。重要用于重大或正在发展中的新闻事件的新近动向。如奥运会，精选总统。
4. 深度报道 in-depthreports：是一种题材重大、报道面宽广、深刻透视新闻事件的报道形式。运用客观解释或分析思辨的手法，着重解释或阐明新闻事件的意义，来龙去脉及因果关系，深入触及事件本质，有时还对事件的发展趋势加以预测。记者应力求在报道中运用事实或背景材料去解释和分析某一新闻事件发生的原因。