Non-fiction text types - AQANewspaper articles

There are several different types of newspaper articles:

• News Reports - these are found at the front of a newspaper. They inform readers about things that are happening in the world or in the local area. They will be full of facts, like names, dates and places, as well as points of view, eg “Local opinion is still divided over plans to open a new shopping centre.” Reports tend to have a more formal, neutral tone.
• Feature articles - these explore the issues raised by news stories in more depth. For example, a report about young children left home alone could inspire a feature article on the difficulties of finding childcare providers in the local area. A feature article tends to be more opinionated and less formal than a report, often taking a personal point of view.
• Editorials, columns and opinion pieces - these are pieces by 'personality' writers, often celebrities in other fields. They might be there to inform (because the writer's expert opinion is valued), or they might be there to entertain (because the writer has a comic or interesting way of describing everyday life). Columnists develop a style of their own – for example, polemical or sarcastic. They create this style through vocabulary choices and rhetorical devices. They might use informal language to convey their idiolect. This individual style appeals to their audience.

Tabloid and broadsheet newspapers

The type of newspaper that publishes the article influences how it is written:

• If it is in a tabloid it will have shorter sentences and paragraphs and use more basic vocabulary – reports are sensationalised using emotive language and they may focus more on celebrities and gossip, eg The Sun and The Daily Mirror.
• If it is in a broadsheet the sentences will be longer and more complicated, and the vocabulary will be more advanced. The tone is more formal and serious as they focus on important national and international issues, eg The Times and The Telegraph.
• Some newspapers also have particular political points of view, which might affect how they report events in the news.

Example

This is a news report from The Financial Times, which is a broadsheet paper. Only part of the report is printed here. It is about children in Singapore being the best in the world at maths.

July 22, 2016

Why Singapore’s kids are so good at maths

The city-state regularly tops global league tables. What’s the secret of its achievement?

Sie Yu Chuah smiles when asked how his parents would react to a low test score. “My parents are not that strict but they have high expectations of me,” he says. “I have to do well. Excel at my studies. That’s what they expect from me.” The cheerful, slightly built 13-year-old is a pupil at Admiralty, a government secondary school in the northern suburbs of Singapore that opened in 2002.

At meetings of the world’s education ministers, when it is Singapore’s turn to speak, “everyone listens very closely”, says Andreas Schleicher, head of the OECD’s education assessment programme.

But what is it about Singapore’s system that enables its children to outperform their international peers? And how easy will it be for other countries to import its success?

A densely populated speck of land in Southeast Asia, Singapore is bordered by Malaysia to the north and the leviathan archipelago of Indonesia to the south. The former British trading post gained self-rule in 1959 and was briefly part of a Malaysian federation before becoming fully independent in 1965. A sense of being dwarfed by vast neighbours runs deep in the national psyche, inspiring both fear and pride. In a speech to trade union activists on May Day last year, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong told citizens: “To survive, you have to be exceptional.” The alternative, he warned, was being “pushed around, shoved about, trampled upon; that’s the end of Singapore and the end of us”.

The Financial Times, Jeevan Vasagar

Analysis

This article:

• uses the headline to make a direct statement, “Why Singapore’s kids are so good at maths” – the purpose of the report is to explain why
• the language “global” league tables highlights the international success – followed by a rhetorical question, “What’s the secret of its achievement?” to interest the reader
• the conversational tone avoids being too formal, eg “kids” and “what’s the secret” – the audience might be parents as well as educational experts
• more rhetorical questions prepare the reader for “answers” provided by the report
• a metaphor “speck of land” makes Singapore sound tiny – the reader is even more amazed at its huge success – and its tiny size is reinforced by the description that it is “dwarfed” by its neighbours
• imperative language from its Prime Minister explains the efforts behind the brilliant maths results, “You have to be exceptional”
• the extract ends with a rule of three, “pushed around, shoved about, trampled upon” – the aggressive verbs imply the struggle Singapore students face if they do not achieve highly at school