The opening paragraph is definitely the main part of the article not including the headline. It is the first proper part of script, which you read, and it’s this part, which has to get you hooked for you to read on. The opening paragraph for this report definitely does that as it summarises the story in short form, so, if you like it, you read on, if you don’t, you read whatever does interest you.
Overall the written report is all about the event at hand, it doesn’t wander and talk about something else suddenly, it is about the one story only. There aren’t really any opinions but it does have people’s speech and comments e.g. some members of the council board have mentioned that there is a definite fault in the new grading system. It does mention that Tony Blair’s son Euan Blair could have also been affected by this event as he was taking his French A-levels at the time it happened. So Tony Blair is supporting any means of helping the situation.
In my opinion the reporters would find it hard to find this sort of story amusing and they have obviously looked into every fact and written each one about twice. So I think they certainly have their own opinions about this situation.
There isn’t really any proper slang as this is an important report and the language is aimed at all age groups. The reporters have made sure everyone can read the article. It isn’t written in superior or sophisticated words either, as the newspaper is not aimed at really high-class people . There isn’t any jokes or stock expressions, as they aren’t trying to make this story into a joke , it is a serious report.
I would say the overall tone of the report is earnest. This decision is supported by the title of the report which exaggerates the story and makes it sound very significant. The pictures support the tone as the students seem depressed and unhappy so they also make you think what has happened is not a good thing . The report itself is written as if they know exactly what their talking about and they want you to know.
I don’t think this is typical report for a tabloid newspaper because normally they add lots of stock expressions and use more colloquial language. I think the purpose of this report is to make you think. Think about the important things that are happening at the moment that aren’t actually affecting you, for you to realise what is happening in your community and to possibly act upon it. Maybe you can’t act upon this but maybe when there is something else just as important you won’t choose to ignore it.
In the broadsheet newspaper this would probably be categorised as an inside story as it doesn’t take up much room on a broadsheet page. Also this report doesn’t have any pictures but it does have a lot of writing.
The article is about the same subject as the tabloid, but the headline describes it in a different way. It doesn’t use any exaggeration but it tries to make the report sound more horrific by saying the number of examination papers that have to be reviewed, which is, ‘300,000’ where as the tabloid newspaper said the number of students that the grading scandal had hit, which is, ‘100,000’.
The report is a six-column layout with a short bold headline above it and a quick summary of what the story is about before you actually start to read the article and at the end of the report there’s an email address for the ‘Guardian’ newspaper online.
The opening paragraph uses no colloquial language and is written in a full but short sentence. The whole article is dedicated to the written report and there are no subsections on the page although in a broadsheet there were probably other features on the page or other stories. Again the writers or reporters names are on the page.
No slang words are used as the type of people who read the newspaper are mainly high-class people who wouldn’t read slang or colloquial language. There are a lot of people’s comments in the report. I suspect the reporters find this story very interesting as they include what a lot of people said and add the teacher’s names who work at the universities.
There are no stock expressions but I don’t think its just because this is a serious report, I don’t think they use them anyway.
I think the tone of the report in the broadsheet is not quite as serious as in the tabloid , the newspaper liked the story and decided to publish it to see if that would get the readers eye. I don’t think it was very high priority to the reporters as it was only an inside story and there were no pictures to support the tone of the article and the headline wasn’t very strong either.
The broadsheet would ever publish something like this as a human interest story, unlike the tabloid, as it would not interest the type of people who would buy this newspaper.
My conclusion is that I think tabloid newspapers are easier to read and they have pictures to support the article and the newspaper is smaller to carry around. They were both very informative but in their own ways. They are very different and that is because they are aimed at different audiences.
