生活化的「新聞英語」--楊欣欣教授演講，我的筆記

This noon I attended Ms. Yang's speech on news English.  Ms. Yang is a correspondent of AFP (法新社) and a teacher at NTU. The following are my notes.

Topic: 生活化的「新聞英語」

Speaker: 楊欣欣女士

Place: 台灣大學應用力學館400室

Time: 2-4pm, Apr. 13, 2009

Notes of the speech:

I. News: What's happening around us.

   What's news? 

   * Anything that's new, different, unexpected, controversial, significant, interesting and touching.

   * Anything that attracts/interests people. 

   * News is not hard; we are just not familiar with it.   To get familiar with it, read a lot.

    * News provides good opportunity for lifelong learning.

II. Forms of News:

   Text

   Photos

   Graphics

   Animated graphics

   Videos

   Audios

III. Fields/Types of News:

     International/World, Business, MIlitary, Disaster, Technology, Arts, Fashion, Environment, Celebrity, Health, Travel, Animals, Crime.

IV. How Do You Choose News Stories to Read?

    1. Where to go?

        * Local English language papers

       * Websites: China Post, New York Times, CNN, BBC

      * news.yahoo.com

      * news.google.com

  2. Which Ones to Choose

       The following can help us choose what we'd like to read. 

       * Headline

       * Lead: the first paragraph, usually less than 25 words

       * Body

V. Some Mechanics about Headlines

      1. Verbs In the present tense

          Compare the following headlines:

          * N. Korea to launch missles     (=is going to launch)

          * N. Korea launces missles        (=launched)

          * Missles launched                   (=were launched)

          * Obama campaigning             (=is campaigning)

 VI. Some Characteristics of News Reports

     1. simple

     2. short

     3. clear

     4. straightfoward

     5. third person account

     6. superlative degree seldom used

     7. the use of adjectives avoided   (because adjectives usually involve subjective views)

     8. sources/attributions

         e.g. * a foreign ministry offical said

               * informed sources said

              * according to the company spokesman

VII. Elements of News

      5W, 1H  (Who, When, Why, What, Where, How)

VIII. Rules to Follow by Journalists

      Do's: Facts, Fairness, Balance, Objectiveness

      Don'ts: distort, mislead, fabricate, editorialize, be sensational

IX. The Duty of Journalists

      To inform, educate, and serve

X. Suggestions from Ms. Yang

    1. Encourage students to express their opinions.  For example, after students read a piece of news, ask, "Why do you think it is significant?"

    2. Have students memorize some good English every day, for example, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

    3. There's no shortcut to learning English.  It's the result of accumulation.

    4. News magazines, such as TIME, Newsweek, and Economist, are different from newspapers.  The former focus on in-depth reports on the impact of some news, with their articles most often written by top writers.   While the news stories in newspapers are like inverted pyramids, with the most important part on the top so you can skip the near-tip part at the bottom, the articles in news magazines are worth reading from the beginning to the end.