I.D.D.

LIMBA ENGLEZÅ

TUTORAT 1

SEMESTRUL II

NEWSPAPER GRAMMAR

LECTOR DRD. RAMONA MIHÅILÅ

NEWSPAPER GRAMMAR

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WORD ORDER

- the words in English sentences followed a certain pattern.

(ATTRIBUTE) + SUBJECT + PREDICATE + DIRECT OBJECT+

INDIRECT OBJECT + ADVERBIAL OF MANNER + ADVERBIAL OF PLACE +
ADVERBIAL OF TIME

- but the simple and understandable sentences are commonly used in news writing:

The President Visits China

- this structure has its advantages in communicating, because it is normal, usual and
familiar for the readers or listeners. They recognize familiar sentence structure and
know what is coming in order to provide information.
- ordinary journalistic usage asks for writing in normal order.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

- occasionally, for effect, the order of words is changed, e.g. when the writer wants
to call special attention to some word or phrase in the sentence. The words
emphasize an idea, a fact, some names, etc.

Important were the people who attended the summit.

( normal: The people who attended the summit were important )

Putting the adjective at the beginning instead at the end emphasizes the key word
important.

LISTS OF NAMES

Newspapers usually have to publish lists of names in news stories: names of dead
and injured in accidents, names of people elected to office, names of people charged
with crimes. This time the sentence starts with the verb:

Charged with murder and armed robbery were: John Williamson, 23, of 4598
S. Normal Ave; Michael Taylor, 25, of 30 W. 71st St., and Chris Robertson, 21, 692 S.
Cornell Ave.
- the piece of news is written this way because, otherwise, the readers will be
confused till they end to read the paragraph:

John Williamson, 23, of 4598 S. Normal Ave; Michael Taylor, 25, of 30

st
W.71 St, and Chris Robertson, 21, 692 S. Cornell Ave, were charged with murder
and armed robbery.

- many newspapers accept these inverted constructions. Other newspapers prefer

normal word order and introduce lists of names like this:

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 Those charged with murder today were…
The dead are…
Three men were found not guilty of the same charges yesterday. They
were…

THE PASSIVE VOICE:

-The passive voice is a useful variation. It can and should be used to put emphasis
where it belongs.

Note the contrast in the following leads:

The earthquake that damaged the East Coast of California injured 300
people.
300 people were injured in an earthquake that caused minor damage to the
East Coast of California.

- in the first lead, written in the active voice, the earthquake is the subject of the
sentence and gets the main emphasis. In the second, written in the passive voice,
the people represent the subject and gets the greatest emphasis. Minor damage has
little news value. Death or injuries to human beings does.

EMPTY SUBJECTS:

- when there is, there are or there were is used as a sentence opener, the result is
often inconvenient. Of course, this is not always the case, since we find sentences
that begin in this way.( the sentences in the fairy tales)

- the journalists should avoid this opening. They have to identify the real subject of
the sentence and start with it.

Compare: There are more than 30 factories are to be closed.

More than 30 factories are to be closed.

There were about 1000 students expected to enroll in this party.

About 1000 students were expected to enroll in this party.

SPLIT INFINITIVE:

-splitting the infinitive means placing an adverb between word the to and the verb:

to immediately run; to eventually leave; to quickly go

EMPTY WORDS:

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 Some words in the language have a functional rather than a semantic utility.
Suppose, for example, we say to someone:

He said us to find some new stories.

This is one way of telling someone who is listening to you that he said what in writing
we would put this way:

He said us to “find new stories”.

“Find new stories,” he said us.

The word said is used in much the same way in news writing. It is a word that carries
very little semantic meaning. Its main use is to link a statement with an identification
of the speaker:

The Prime Minister said that taxes are much too high.

Other empty words may be less useful, for example, the words et cetera, usually
written etc., which mean and so on and so forth.

Writers often use etc. when they do not know what to say next or how to cut off a
sentence:

The Prime Minister said that taxes are too high, expenditures are excessive,
the budget is unbalanced, etc.

- the etc. in this statement means nothing. If the Prime Minister cited other examples
of the fiscal problems, the writer should have included them.
- if no further examples were cited, the writer should not have implied that they were
with etc.
- if there is something to say, it should be said.
- if there is nothing more to add, the sentence should be finished.

FALSE POSSESSIVES:

- another writing problem is the overuse of the –‘s that ordinarily indicates
possession.

California’s governor; The board’s admission

- the use of these so-called false possessives is widespread:

More than half of those at the meeting left after the board’s vote.
More than half of those at the meeting left after the board voted.

- in many cases the –‘s is substituting for a more usual and more readable
construction using the preposition of:

the governor of California, not California’s governor

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 the president of Harvard, not Harvard’s president

AGREEMENT:

- in standard English, verbs and subjects are supposed to agree-that means the using
of singular verbs with singular subjects and plural verbs with plural subjects.
- the collective nouns cause occasional confusion
- a collective noun must be followed by a singular verb when the noun refers to a
group or unit:

My favorite team is the best one.

My favorite team are playing very well this season.

AGREEMENT OF NOUNS AND PRONOUNS:

- the grammatical rule is that singular pronouns must refer to singular nouns and
that plural pronouns must refer to plural nouns:

The lecturer is speechless.

He can’t find his words. (here the singular pronouns he and his refer
to
and agree with the singular noun lecturer)

- nouns like board, committee, council, among others, are singular nouns and all
must be followed by singular verbs:

The board is meeting only once a month this summer.

The committee is in session right now.
The city council is writing a new budget.
- These nouns must also be followed by singular pronouns:

The board is meeting only once a month this summer.

It will resume weekly meetings in September.

The committee is in session now.

It will meet for another hour.

The city council is writing a new budget.

It expects to have the budget ready tomorrow.

IDENTIFICATION

­ The people, organizations, buildings, places and events in news stories should
be fully identified as early as possible, generally on first reference.

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­ People must be identified clearly. Readers don’t want to see their names
misspelled or to be given the wrong street address, profession or job.

­ The reporters must know who people are. They ask people to spell their names.
They must verify the correctness of titles. If a reporter intends to use a person’s
age in a story be sure he is right. If the newspaper’s style requires the use of
courtesy titles, ask women whether to use Miss or Mrs. with their names.

­ The basic form of identification is by name. A reporter must spell names correctly,
using first name, middle initial and last name unless the person prefers another
form: for example – initial, middle name, last name.

­ The reporter must use junior, senior, second or third if that is part of the name.
If there is no other or better means of further information, he must use the
person’s street address:
Mark Joe, 34, of 98 Washington St.

­ newspapers often use age as means of identification, especially in stories of injury

or death or in other circumstances where ages have been officially documented.

­ people can be identified by their job, trade or profession:

Susan Wilde, an BBC reporter

­ people can be identified by the title of the elective or appointive job they hold:
Mayor Traian Basescu; Justice Mary Roberts

- people can be identified by their accomplishments:

Nadia Comaneci, who got the first 10 in Gymnastics
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- people can be identified by some local connection:
John Warren, a 1997 graduate of University of Journalism
Robert March, son of Mr. and Mrs. March, 76 Main St.

­ people can be identified by their involvement in a past news event:

Jenny Rupert, the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1993

­ in most news stories, it will be necessary to identify a person only once. And the
identification should be the one that is most relevant to the story.
The accident took place on Wednesday night. Jerry Bart, a lorry driver is
the only eyewitness. (the name is identified the first and second, the job)

­ in identifying women in the news, it would be pointless and sexist to identify a

woman as someone’s wife if the story is about her professional career .
News style requires that on first reference women be identified by their own
names
not, for example, Mrs. Bill Clinton but Hillary Clinton

­ organizations and business, like people, must be identified on first reference if

the name might not be readily recognized by the readers. The organizations,
especially less known ones, should be identified by their purpose or nature:

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 Washington Monthly, a national political
magazine

­ buildings, if they are not well known, should be identified by their location,
generally
the street address or their use.
University X, of 29 Lime Street,

PU N CT UAT I O N

THE COLON
- it is widely used in news writing and causes little difficulty.
­ the most frequent use in clock time , where it links the hour and the minute: 1:10
a.m.
- it is used to link an introductory statement and a list that follows in a separate
paragraphs:
Those injured in the clash were: Police identified the arrested men
as:

- it is also used to link an attribution or speech tag to quoted material:

A spokesman said: “The main interest is to sustain peace in Europe”.

THE DASH

- a single dash is used to connect the main part of a sentence with a subordinate
part:
He will quit Common Council next month to become a higher - paid
Council employee - city deputy auditor general.
Worst than that – the firm’s out of business

THE HYPHEN

- it is used to link two or more words together, to link numbers and words, to link
prefixes to words.
- it is used in word combination when it is modifier: Right-to-work laws
A well-to-do
neighboring.

- hyphens are used in combinations of a number and a noun: one-year contract;

4-1score; three-quarters completed

- hyphens are used in double names where both elements are of equal importance:

East-West Center; City-County Reporter; American-Romanian

- they are used in some political titles and designations:

ambassador-designate; secretary-general

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- they are commonly used in word combinations that include a present or past
participle:
hard-working team; twice-told news

- hyphens link combinations of letters and words or numbers:

X-ray; H-bomb

THE COMMA

-It is used to separate figures: October 12, 1996; 2,000$; 10,000

- it is used to separate words in a series, but in news writing the final comma before
and and or is omitted
The president was clever, ambitious and severe.

PARANTHESES

- they are most used for enclosing and setting off single words, initials or brief
interpolations

Smith was a reporter for the Marion (Ind.) Tribune.

The committee approved the land-use bill (House of Bill 1122) Monday.

REPORTED SPEECH
­ words that are spoken or thought in one place by one person may be reported in
another place at a different time, and perhaps by other person. Because of this
there are often grammatical differences between direct and indirect speech.

­ the change of speaker mean a change of pronoun:

I – he or she
We – they

­ a change of place and time mean changing the following words:

now – then
next – the next
last (Monday) - the (Monday) before/ (on) the previous (Monday)
yesterday – a day before
tomorrow – the next day/ the following day
today – (on) that day
this – that
these - those
here – there

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 the day after tomorrow - two days later, after two days
ago - before

­ the conjunction that is often dropped, especially after common reporting verbs
(e.g. say, think) in informal speech

He said (that) he hadn’t been at office.

­ that cannot be dropped after certain verbs (e.g. reply, telegraph, shout, complain,
explain, protest, object) and it is not normally dropped after nouns

He replied that he had been working for all the week.

- after present, future and present perfect reporting verbs, tenses are usually the
same as in the original (because there is no important change of time).

He says he likes writing such an article.

­ a change of time may mean a change of tense: the person reporting uses tenses
that relate to the time when he/she is making the report, not to the time when the
original words were used.

He said he didn’t like science- fiction articles.

­ verbs in the direct speech have to be changed into a corresponding past tense:

Simple Present _____________Simple Past

“ I like watching movies”, said John

John said he liked watching movies.

Present Continuous__________Past Continuous

“ I am watching a movie”, said John

John said he was watching a movie.

Present Perfect______________Past Perfect

“ I have seen this movie”, said Tom

Tom said that he had seen this movie.

Present Perfect Continuous_____Past Perfect Continuous

“ I have been watching TV all the morning”, said Tom

Tom said he had been watching TV all the morning.

Simple Past_________________Past Perfect

“ I saw this movie at the festival”, said Mary.

Mary said she had seen that movie at the festival.

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Past Continuous______________Past Perfect Continuous

“ I was watching this show at this time yesterday”, said Mary.

Mary said she had been watching that show a day before.

Future______________________Future in the Past

“ I will go at the cinema tomorrow”, said Adrian.

Adrian said he would go at the cinema the next day.

Imperative or direct orders become infinitive clauses:

Direct: Write the article.

Indirect: She asked me to write the article.

Exclamations

­ are frequently paraphrases of direct exclamations or are object clauses

Direct: How nice to see you again!

Indirect: She said/ exclaimed she was delighted to meet me again.
She welcomed me.

Direct: Good morning!

Indirect: He greeted me./ He wished me a good morning.

Direct: What a terrible noise!

Indirect: She complained of the noise.

Questions and Answers

­ in reported questions the subject normally comes before the verb in standard
English, and auxiliary do is not used. The same structure is used for reporting the
answers to questions.

She wanted to know when I was leaving the town.

­ question marks are not used in reported questions:

She asked me where Tom was.

­ say and tell are not used to report questions. But they can introduce the answers to
questions.

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 I told her what date was.

Actions: promises, orders, requests, advice

­ speech relating to actions: promises, orders, requests, advice, offers, and

suggestions, is often reported with object + infinitive

She promised to take that interview.

The reporter told us to talk louder.
He offered to hold the microphone.

Indirect Speech: word order with what, who, and which

­ when there are reported questions constructed with who/what/which + be +

complement, be can be put before or after the complement

Direct: Who is the reporter here?

Indirect: She asked who was the reporter.
She asked who the reporter was.

Direct: What’s your problem?

Indirect: She asked what was the problem.
She asked what the problem was.

Direct: Which is your report?

Indirect: He asked which was my report.
He asked which report was mine.

Conditionals

­ after past reporting verbs, conditional sentences referring to “unreal” situations

are often reported with past conditionals

Direct: If I had any money I’d buy a new house.

Indirect: She said if she had had enough money she would have bought a new
house.

Negative Questions

- do can be used in indirect negative questions, as a negative auxiliary.

Direct: “Why don’t you read this interesting article ?”

Indirect: He asked why he didn’t read that interesting article.

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Indirect Speech Without Reporting Verbs

­ in British newspaper, radio and TV reports, reports of parliamentary debates,

records
of conferences, minutes of meetings, the indirect speech constructions often used
with
very few reporting verbs. The use of tenses is enough to make it clear that a text is
a
report.

The Managing Director talked about the results of the previous year. Profits on the
whole had been high, though one or two areas hadn’t been very good.

Request

Yes/no questions – in polite requests

Could you possibly help me for a second?

Would you mind watching my car for a moment?
You couldn’t help me for a few minutes, could you?

Indirect yes/no questions – in polite requests, too

I wonder if you could help me in lifting this luggage.

Modals

­ the modals would, should, could, might, ought and must are usually unchanged
after past reporting verbs in indirect speech
­ first person shall and conditional should may be reported as would in indirect
speech because of the change of person:

Direct: We shall/should be delighted to join you.

Indirect: They said they would be delighted to join us.

­ in indirect speech, can changes to could

will changes to would
must meaning necessity remains the same or changes to had to
may changes to might

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 HOMEWORK

Put the following into indirect speech:

1. “The new underpass is being officially opened tomorrow”, said the BBC
announcer.
2. “I know exactly what they said”, the private detective explained to his client”,
because I bugged their phone”.
3. “ This is quite a good model, madam. I used one of these myself”, said the
salesman.
4. “My new house is supposed to be haunted, but so far I haven’t seen any ghosts”,
she said.
5. “The advertisement said, “If you answer the questions correctly you may win
$100”.
6. “If the ground is dry on the day of the race, my horse might win”, said the owner.
7. “It’s time we began training for our next match”, the coach said to them.
8. “If it rains this afternoon it will be too wet to play the match tomorrow”, the
captain said.
9. “They couldn’t open the safe on the spot so they carried it away with them”, the
night watchman reported.
10. “I found an old Roman coin in the garden yesterday”, he said “and I’m going to
take it to the museum this afternoon”.
11. “Which team has won?”, asked Tom.
12. “Who is playing next week?”, asked Jerry.
13. “Who will be umpiring that match?”, asked Bill.
14. “Do puppies travel free?”, asked a dog owner.
15. “Can I bring my dog in compartment with me?”, she asked.
16. “Who owns this revolver?”, asked the detective.
17. “Why do you think it may be dangerous?”, asked he.
18. “Please fill up this form”, the secretary said.
19. “Open the safe”, the raiders ordered the bank clerk.
20. “Read it before you sign it”, he said to his client.
21. “Don’t put your hands near the bars”, the zookeeper warned us.
22. “Stand clear of the doors”, a voice warned the people on the platform.
23. The notice said: ”Leave this space clear”.
24. “Think well before you answer”, the detective warned her.
25. “ Pay at the desk”, the shop assistant said to the customer.
26. “Open your bag, please”, said the store detective.
27. “Follow that car “, the policeman said to the taxi-driver.
28. “Please book me a seat in a non-smoker”, said the traveler.
29. “Don’t wait till tomorrow”, said the advertisement, “post the coupon at once”.
30. “Beware of pickpockets”, said a huge notice.
31. “If I lose my traveler’s cheques, will the bank repay me?”, she asked.
32. “If the noise gets worse, you’d better complain to the police,” he said.
33. “When you hear the fire alarm, shut all windows and go downstairs as quickly as
possible”, said the schoolmaster.
34. “What will happen if the strikes continues?”, asked the reporter.
35. “When you’ve completed one section, go on to the next”, the teacher said.
36. The speaker on the radio said: ”The concert in the park will begin at 8:00”.

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37. In his televised speech, the president said, “My administration will cut taxes in
this country”.
38. The manager asked’ “Has anyone finished his or her report for the meeting?”
39. The weathercast said, “It is going to snow in this region”.
40. The lawyer said, “I told the witnesses to tell the truth”.

Translate into English:

1. “Tocmai am arestat doi trafican¡i de droguri”, a spus ªeful Poli¡iei Locale.
2. “Ace¿ti oameni au fost dependen¡i de droguri”, a spus doctorul Johnson.
3. “Vame¿ii au confiscat o valiza cu stupefiante”, a anun¡at prezentatorul de ¿tiri.
4. “Anul viitor va fi un congres interna¡ional despre combaterea traficului cu arme”,
a spus un înalt oficial.
5. “Poli¡ia a descoperit un laborator de preparare a drogurilor tari”, a spus purtåtorul
de cuvânt.
6. Mi-a spus cå a participat la multe conferin¡e, dar niciodatå nu a luat cuvântul.
7. El a declarat poli¡i¿tilor cå vecinii lui se ocupau de spålatul banilor (laundering).
8. A recunoscut cå participase la un jaf armat.
9. La controlul anti-doping sportivul X a negat cå luase acele medicamente.
10. Secretara a spus cå directorul fabricii nu va negocia cu muncitorii grevi¿ti.
11. Martora a declarat cå nu îi este fricå så spunå adevårul.
12. Martorul a spus ca nu putea så identifice ho¡ii.
13. Prezentatoarea buletinului meteo a spus cå vremea va fi schimbatoare în
urmåtoarele zile.
14. Reporterul a spus cå i-a fost interziså intrarea deoarece legitima¡ia lui era
expiratå.
15. ªoferul a declarat cå autocarul påråsise ¿oseaua cu 100 de metri înainte så se
ciocneascå de pom.

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