1) Newspaper editorials are structured using triads that each contain a lead, follow, and valuation turn. 2) These triads can be classified based on their position and function, such as situation, development, and recommendation triads. 3) Triads combine to form movements, which along with other movements make up the overall structure of the editorial.

1. The structure of newspaper
editorials
Adriana Bolívar

2. Text
• Shaped in social interaction.
• Needs to respond to communicative needs
that are born and maintained within groups
and cultures.
• Evaluation has the fundamental role of
contributing to shape text structure - and may
serve as a potential indicator of genre.

3. Editorials
• Their agreed social aim is to evaluate current
events, and so
• An opinion or recommendation for action is
obligatory.

4. Evaluation
The type of information that concerns
the expression of feelings and
opinions.

5. • In the course of structuring a text, the writer
makes evaluations which are expressed in
sentences.
• From a grammatical point of view, in this
structuring, the writer exchanges
ideational, textual and interpersonal meanings
with the reader (Halliday).
• The most important of these is the interpersonal
because this is concerned with the lexico-
grammar of mood and modality.

6. Change
• The most important notion for the study of
evaluation in written text.
• Changes are taken as signals of interaction
because they indicate the writer’s evaluations
about the state of knowledge and the
evaluations of the reader.
• Main clauses in sentences: where changes in
mood take place.

7. In the analysis of written text
Text structure Text organization
Prospective patterns. Retrospective patterns .
Speech acts assumed to be Patterns likely to be discovered
performed by the writer. by the reader .
Interaction between writer Interaction between the
and reader. reader and the text .

8. A text can be described on two planes
interactive autonomous
• relates the text to the • Each participant in a turn
participants (real or has an opportunity to
imagined). develop his personal
• Bolívar uses the term messages out of what has
posture to account for what gone before.
the writer is ‘doing’. • Recall refers to what the
writer is ‘saying ’, the
semantic content.

9. The model of analysis

10. The triad • The basic unit of
interaction in written text.
« a coherent
segment of
• Consists of three elements
text with a of structure.
topic and a
function» • Its function is to negotiate
the transmission of
information and evaluation
in written text.

11. Its internal structure can be described
in terms of three turns
 Lead (L)
 Follow (F) and
 Valuate (V)
realized by sentences conceived as the product of
ordinary language behaviour (Lyons 1977)

12. Content triad
• The lead introduces the «aboutness» of the
triad and a posture or modality.
• The follow responds to this initiation, keeping
the same topic and evaluating the preceeding
piece of information.
• The valuate closes the unit with an evaluation
of the preceeding two turns.

13. Boundary triads
• Used between movements when the writer
refers to the text itself to guide the reader
along the text.
• May indicate an act of identification (the
event to be dealt with), analysis or
explanation, conclusion, recommendation, or
a reminder.
• Most consist of only one turn.

14. Not all content triads consist of three
turns
• Triads can exhibit more than three turns
provided the sequence L F is repeated and V is
final.
• This happens when the writer delays the
evaluation either to introduce more
information or to make the reader wait for his
opinion on a particualr point.

15. Triads can be classified according to
position and function
Situation Triad (S): initial position. They refer to
an event and evaluate it.
Development Triad (D): medial position. They
develop the reference to and the evaluation of
the event considered in the preceeding S triad(s).
Recommendation Triad (R): final position. They
close the reference and the evaluation of the
event introduced by the S triad that initiates the
sequence.

16. Movement
• Triads may combine with other triads to make up
a unit at a higher rank: a movement (Mv).
• Movement, then, is the second largest unit in the
model.
• A movement may combine with other
movements to make up the largest unit at the
highest rank: the artefact.
• The size of a movement depends on the number
of triads that relate the text to the world of
events within the same modal perspective.

17. Movement types
• Type A: the actual world, a world that is or
was.
• Type B: the world of possibilities, or the world
that might be.
• Type C: the world that should be. Constitutes
a major evaluation that refers back to
movements A and B.

18. Turn-change and turn-maintenance in
triads
• It is necessary to examine the forms used by the writer in
the L turns: tense selection , modality selection, and lexical
anticipation.
Informing triad: typically contains a L realized by a sentence in
declarative syntax.
Eliciting triad: initiated by a L in interrogative form. Has the
function of asking a question in order to obtain an answer.
(In editorials, rhetorical questions are used to give information
in evaluative terms or simply to evaluate already given
information).

19. Tense selection
• Tense selection in the lead indicates the time
dimension.
• Tense changes can be classified by adverbials
(last year, this year, etc.) or by discourse
adjuncts which indicate agreement or
disagreement (In fact, Indeed, But, However).

20. Modality selection
• The most common way of indicationg turn-
change and turn-maintenance in an editorial.
• Through signals such as modal verbs, modal
adjuncts, special nouns, adjectives, verbs and
others, the writer indicates his attitude
towards his own speech.

21. Lexical anticipation
• Can also serve as a signal for turn-change.
• Expressed by means of a noun, an adjective or
a prepositional phrase.
• Commits the writer to give new information in
another turn.
• These signals are typically evaluative.
• Must be distinguished from enumeration,
which is a category of prediction.

22. Triads consistently close with Valuates
 Concluders: indicate that a conclusion has
been reached, with reference to the present
time
 Prophecies: indicate the assessment of
probabilities for future developments. They
are typically realized by verbs that indicate
futurity.
 Directives: propose or suggest «desirable»
courses of action.