1 a short headline that catches the reader's attention;
2 an introduction that gives information about the time,
place and people involved;
3 a main body that might be two
or more paragraphs long and
describes the event in detail;
4 a conclusion that includes
people's comments on the event,
actions to be taken and future
developments.
tenses used
in news reports we use past tenses to
give a description of what happened.
we use the past continuous to give
background infomation and talk about
actions that were happening for a while.
We use the past simple for actions that
interrupted other actions.
The birds were singing and people
were flying kltes. (Past Continuous - background information)
People were swimming and others were
sunbathing when the tsunami hit the
shore. (Past Continuous/Past Simple - actions interrupted by another action)