ASSIGNMENT 1: CRITICALLY EVALUATING NEWS REPORT Version Group 11 Trần Vũ Hà Ngọc Anh Nguyễn Thị Trâm Anh Đỗ Thị Thu Hoài Lê Lam Thủy I News report’s description Title: Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase reinvented toilet tech Date of publish: November 2018 Catelogy: Technology of BBC newspaper Article: Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase reinvented toilet tech November 2018 Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had his hands full on-stage in Beijing on Tuesday, showing a jar of human faeces The stunt was part of his speech at the Reinvented Toilet Expo event - a showcase for new toilet technologies The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent more than $200m on researching the field across the last seven years Twenty cutting-edge sanitation products were on display, intended to destroy harmful bacteria and prevent disease "I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I'd know so much about poop," Mr Gates joked at the conference "And I definitely never thought that Melinda would have to tell me to stop talking about toilets and faecal sludge at the dinner table." The entrepreneur was helping to launch the three-day event in China - where leader Xi Jinping has made a so-called "toilet revolution" across the country a policy priority The showcased products aim to revolutionise sanitation technology by operating off-grid to separate liquid and solid waste and remove harmful by-products "It's no longer a question of if we can reinvent the toilet and other sanitation systems," he said "It's a question of how quickly this new category of off-grid solutions will scale." The entrepreneur described the inventions on display as the "most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years" Deadly disease The technology giant pointed out the jar of faeces beside him could contain "as many as 200 trillion rotavirus 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs" Mr Gates' foundation - which he has donated billions to - operates in 130 countries According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2.3 billion people around the world still don't have access to basic sanitation facilities This can cause diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year Speaking to the BBC, Mr Gates discussed the inequalities in sanitation access "In rich countries we have sewers that take clean water in, flush some of the dirty water out, in almost all cases there's a treatment plant," he said "As we have these newer cities with lots of less wealthy people in them, those sewers have not been built and in fact, it's not likely they ever will be, so the question is, could you it? Could you process human waste without that sewer system?" The foundation has said they hope the reinvented toilet will first roll out in buildings like schools and apartment buildings, before costs gradually decline and they become affordable in households "You're only going to pay hundreds of dollars for a toilet - if it's really fantastic maybe $500," Mr Gates told the BBC "You're saving all the costs of the waters, the processing products, but we have to bring it down by almost a factor of 10 from what the models are like - but that's not atypical for new product markets." On his trip, Mr Gates also appeared at the First China International Import Expo in Shanghai, at a time of tension between the US and China The world's two largest economies have been engaged in a tit-for-tat trade war over tariffs for much of the year - Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46108083 II Analyzing Content and detail What was the headline for the story? -The headline is a particularly rich source of information about the field of cultural references This is because titles 'stand-alone' without explanation or definition; they depend on the reader recognizing instantly the field, allusions, issues, cultural references necessary to identify the content of the articles - The headline of this article is “Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase reinvented toilet tech” Effectiveness of the headline - When reading the title of this article "Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase reinvented toilet tech," we can easily see the information the author wants to transmit That is Bill Gates has launched a new toilet technology - the main content of the article The title summarizes the main content of the article, so readers know clearly what they are going to read However, the title is also attracted by the phrase "Bill Gates brandishes poo" which arouses the curiosity of the reader to find out why "Bill Gates brandishes poo" - The aim of the headline is to grab readers’ attention Therefore, any ‘unneccessary’ words are often left out - Articles: Bill Gates brandishes poo to showcase the reinvented toilet tech - The headline uses present simple tense to say that the story is happening now rather than in the very recent past - The headline also use very short words to make an impact This headline could also read “ Bill Gates uses poo to introduce sanitary technology is reinvented”; however, this does not have the same impact as the short headline above - This headline also is ambiguous making the reader look at the article “Bill Gates brandishes poo” is ambiguous because this makes the readers confused and curious Readers not understand why Bill Gates brandishes poo to introduce the new technology Briefly describe the factual content of the story related to the lead: 5W’s and the H • Who : Bill Gates • What: showcase reinvented toilet tech • When: on Tueday (6/11/2018) • Where: Beijing, China Evaluating the end of article - One drawback of this article is that the ending does not summarize the main points of the article The facts in this newspaper are supposed to be arranged from most to least - The article presents information about the event Bill Gates introduced toilet technology which destroys harmful bacteria and prevents disease - The author mentions the serious epidemics caused by harmful bacteria, access to basic sanitation facilities of rich and poor countries This information is just arguments to demonstrate the necessity and practicality of Bill Gates' new product The accuracy of the facts - The report posts a lot of photos of Bill Gates giving a speech in the conference Moreover, we can see the screen showing the structure of Bill Gate’s invention behind him in some photos These sources are really reliable In addition, all of the quotations included in the report belong to Bill Gate who is directly involved in the topic The use of quotations - The report is about the new invention of the Bill Gate’s company Therefore, the use of quotations which are from Bill Gate helps to increase the accuracy of the content - The topic is quite funny to the readers As the result, the quotation of Bill Gate’s funny jokes makes the report more interesting and closer to the reader Linguistic features Thing missed out - The only thing missed out in the report is the name of the author Analyzing features of the report Paragraph structure - This newspaper report is split into small units There is a subheading in the left to give brief information of each unit - The article is broken up into short paragraphs; each one has a few lines With short one, there are some resting-places for the eyes It is easier for readers to read than writing a long paragraph and readers would concentrate more - Moreover, this article has variation in type-size used For example, the first paragraph is bold to attach attention The subheading in the next portion is in the different font, larger size - Besides, we should focus on the line of space of the text The space between the headlines and story and the space between “CHAPEAU” and the story is quite large, which helps readers read easily, especially skim reading Complexity of the lexical choices: technical terms, interesting and varied words, figurative language Technical terms: - This article uses lots of sanitation technology terms: toilet revolution; reinvented toilet technology; sanitation systems; off-grid; liquid and solid waste; harmful by-products - Terms about the disease like cholera (bệnh tả), diarrhea (bệnh ỉa chảy), dysentery (bệnh lị), Shigella bacteria (khuẩn Shigella), rotavirus (virus gây viêm dày) Figuarative language: - Alliteration: policy priority; sanitation systems - Idiom: tit-for-tat( ăn miếng trả miếng) Sentence type and sentence structure Sentence type - Sentence type is largely statement There are some questions which not expect the answer; these questions have a role to keep the pace of the article from dragging - This report uses indirect and direct speech sentences Some verbs that this article used such as: described, pointed, said, appeared Sentence structure - This report includes simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences + The clauses in a compound sentence are joined by coordinating conjunctions such as and, but… for example: You're saving all the costs of the waters, the processing products, but we have to bring it down + Complex sentences: * Conditional clause: It's no longer a question of if we can reinvent the toilet and other sanitation systems * Relative clause: This can cause diseases like cholera, diarrhea and dysentery which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year - Major type is simple sentence; some complex sentences would be distributed among shorter sentences => readability and comprehension - Complex sentences tend to be avoided at the beginning of the articles Cohesive devices - Cohesive devices, sometimes called linking words, linkers, connectors, discourse markers or transitional words and these are words or phrases that show the relationship between paragraphs or sections of a text or speech - “and”, “but” are cohesive devices used in this report: + The showcased products aim to revolutionize sanitation technology by operating off-grid to separate liquid and solid waste and remove harmful by-products =>”and “is used to add information and to connect two verb phrases within one sentence + "You're saving all the costs of the waters, the processing products, but we have to bring it down by almost a factor of 10 from what the models are like - but that's not atypical for new product markets." => “but” is used to indicate adversative meaning relationship Tone Accompanyin g photo - There is no bias - The language of the report is neutral We cannot find any exclamations in the report The content is just about describing the new invention and Bill Gate’s speech without adding any emotion or private opinion of the author Chosen photos help enhance the story They grab the reader’s attention better than a block of text and lead to more people reading the article III Strengths and weaknesses Strengths - The title is catchy; it makes readers pay more attention to the article - The article is informative It splits into small paragraphs to read easier as well as not feel boring Weaknesses - The ending of article lacks summarising, so readers find difficult to sum up of all information - The illustration of the article is not diverse If the article has more images and videos, it will more attractive References Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46108083 ... contain "as many as 200 trillion rotavirus 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 10 0,000 parasitic worm eggs" Mr Gates' foundation - which he has donated billions to - operates in 13 0 countries According... also appeared at the First China International Import Expo in Shanghai, at a time of tension between the US and China The world's two largest economies have been engaged in a tit-for-tat trade war... not have the same impact as the short headline above - This headline also is ambiguous making the reader look at the article “Bill Gates brandishes poo” is ambiguous because this makes the readers