There has been some discussion in the Comments section of the site recently about what distinctions might be made between a ‘news report’ and a ‘news article’. So, people ask, what instructions should be given to students so that they make the right choice in the exam? You may not have caught these discussions, so I review the issue here.

To start with, the term ‘news article’ doesn’t appear in the list of text types to be used in the exam – so it will never appear as one of the options. The point that people have made, reasonably enough, is that the instructions in the task may appear to point towards an ‘article-type’ approach, rather than a strictly ‘news report ‘ approach. Laurie Mountjoy cites the following task from the M21 HL paper:

Your city has become a very popular destination for tourists from around the world. You have inquired into the impact of mass tourism on different groups of people in the city. You want to inform the public about your investigation. Write a text in which you describe the situation, highlight opinions from the different groups of people, and draw attention to what needs to be addressed going forward.

The text options offered were:

News report     Set of guidelines      Speech

… and the appropriate text type was specified as ‘news report’. Now, my understanding of the ground rules for a ‘news report’ is that it is essentially the factual reporting of a distinct event, objectively recounted – whereas this task seems to deal with a general situation, based on “opinions”, and even suggesting “what needs to be addressed”. All of which seems to indicate a broad-based ‘article’ approach, including personal views, to give an overall background report.

So what should the students be told? It would appear, based on that M21 task, that paper-setters have a broad, or loose, idea of what is meant by a ‘news report’. If that is the case, I recommend that students be told to concentrate first of all on the elements of the task itself – what are they actually being required to do (the three elements at HL, and the two at SL). If they carry out these elements clearly and methodically, they will score well on Criterion B Message at least.

At the same time, they should apply ‘process of elimination’ to the choice of options, bearing in mind what they are trying to do. In the case of the M21 example above, ‘Set of guidelines’ can obviously be ruled out – guidelines for what, and for whom? A ‘speech’ might be fairly appropriate, but would a ‘speech’ reach “the public” in general? So, the student should be aiming to write an informative news text (whether we label it a ‘news report’ or a (news) ‘article’ – and that will put them into the 5-6 band for Criterion C anyway.

That decision made, students should then recall the conventions expected for each of the two text types (see the two pages under  Text type expectations ):

Article

register and tone -

* will have a semi-formal to formal register

* will have a tone appropriate to task e.g. suitably serious

conventions -

* will have a relevant headline/title

* will have an introduction intended to catch the readers’ attention

* will use techniques that engage and interest readers e.g. direct address

News report

register and tone -

* will have a semi-formal to formal register

* will have a generally impersonal tone, and use a neutral/objective style (eg presenting ideas without personal opinion of the writer)

conventions -

* will have a title/headline

* will have an introduction and conclusion

* will have a clearly structured layout (eg sub-headings, short brief paragraphs/sections, etc)

Now, if you look at all that, there are not huge differences between the two text types, are there? If the students stick to (i) semi-formal/formal; (ii) serious/impersonal tone; (iii) title/headline; (iv) introduction + conclusion; and (v) use clear structure, they would be all right.

When you think about it, good writing most often relies on a clear idea of the communicative purpose, rather than a strict adherence to particular minor rules and conventions...