1. Lesson Nine
Journalism

2. The Sunday Times 1991 on the Miner’s Strike
From the start the Sunday Times took a firm
editorial line: for the sake of liberal democracy, economic recovery… Scargill had to be defeated. It was a position from which we never wavered.
Our views, however, were kept where they belong – the editorial column.
For us the miners’ strike was above all a massive reporting and analysing task to give our readers an impartial and well informed picture of what was going on.

3. Report. The Independent
New Year’s Eve end for USSR

4. Editorial: The Independent
A burden lifted for UN

5. Daily Mirror
Don’t be an ass, Fergie

6. The Sun
Up yours, Delors

7. Report Factual information greater use of past tense passive form
sensational (and redundant) lexis in tabloids
“meteoric rise in cancer cases”
“terrible catastrophe”

8. Editorial Cluster of elements (see Biber) present tense infinitives
modals (must, should, may, etc.)
suasive verbs
conditionals

9. The Times 16/10/03 - report
It was the ultimate Chinese take-away: twenty dishes were blasted into space from the Gobi desert yesterday, and eaten by a single man as he circled the Earth fourteen times.

10. The Times 16/10/03 - editorial
Space Junk
Yesterday’s launch into space of Lieutenant- Colonel Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut, is an event which has been long in coming….
There are no new lands to conquer, trade to generate, natives to pacify…
China would be well advised to temper national pride with pragmatism.

11. The Economist – A Decent Choice
Three weeks ago there was a strong suspicion…
Mr Gore probably won the first and third debates.
He has generally seemed more likeable…
And he has exceeded expectations
Elections can turn on trivial personal details
If people want to reject Bush
Mr Gore stands for a more interventionist America
But politics is rarely ideal.

12. The Economist – A Decent Choice (2)
Past Tenses 17
Present Tenses 26
Perfect Tenses 8
Progressive increase of present as text progresses.

13. Noun phrases One -word noun phrases Angela, Bolivia she, it
woman, country

14. Noun phrases (2) an illness an old, rather obstinate woman
The Angela I introduced you to last week

15. Noun phrases (3)
Government Environment Department Air Pollution Report Findings Scandal

16. Headlines
AIDS
RAPE
DEATH
FEAR
Extended noun phrases (lack of verbs)

17. Headlines (2) empty lexis
AIDS RAPE DEATH FEAR SCANDAL
AIDS RAPE DEATH FEAR CASE
AIDS RAPE DEATH FEAR PHENOMENON

18. Grammar for extended noun phrases
Vacuous phrases common
Verb in canonical sentence becomes head
Central adjectives modify head
Collocations remain
Modifier on left modifies element on right

19. Vacuous phrases common
Football bribes scandal
Iraq invasion threat
Teenager drugs concern

20. Verb in canonical sentence becomes head
AIDS RAPE DEATH FEAR
People fear that a person raped by an aids victim lmay die.

21. Modifier on left modifies element on right
Government > Environment > Department > Air > Pollution > Report > Findings > Scandal

22. Collocations remain
Government Environment Department Air Pollution Report Findings Scandal

23. Central adjectives modify head
Great fruit drinks con

24. A Text to Analyse A Breath of Fresh Eire
The time: a balmy October evening. The place: the National Film Theatre. An audience of several hundred people, most of them English, are sitting spellbound, listening to a small man talking animatedly about film, cultural hegemony, the information society and the future. “We don’t have to lie down”, he says, “before a culture that is driven by greed”. There is a collective sigh of approval. “It is surely wrong”, he continues, “that allthe images of the world should come from one place”. A ripple of agreement runs through the audience, like a breeze running over a field of ripening corn.