Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

3 Material under investigation
Newspaper discourse encompasses a large number of discourse types which 
have their own distinctive features that are determined by the discourse type 
itself and also the topic/theme. Therefore, any research into newspaper discourse 
must take these factors into account to avoid superficial generalizations.
The present study draws on my long-term research into the language of 
crime reports and their subtype – ‘verdict reports’, i.e. reports that announce the 
verdict in high-profile murder cases, the 
victims being children (killed by one 
of the parents) or teenagers killed by strangers. Within the research 40 articles 
about ten murder cases (i.e. four reports about each) from four different British 
national daily newspapers (both broadsheets and tabloids) were analyzed to map 
the typical discursive strategies in this type of reports, mainly with a focus on the 
status of the victims and killers. The aim of the qualitative analysis presented in 
the following sections is to explore coherence and cohesion in a particular type 
of newspaper report and thus demonstrate the wide range of linguistic devices 
that newspapers and journalists may employ not only to inform effectively but 
also to achieve the desired effect on or desired response from the 
audience, since 
language choices are the essence of newspaper discourse and contribute largely 
to meaning interpretation by the reader.