英语新闻的结构特征新闻的种类很多，按分类标准的不同，有各种不同的分类方法。
如按照事件的性质分类，新闻可分为“硬新闻（hard news）和“软新闻”（soft news）两大类，硬新闻也就是“纯新闻消息报道”，指题材严肃，具有一定时效性的客观事实报道；软新闻是指情感味浓，写作方法诙谐，轻松幽默的社会新闻，不注重时效性。
新闻英语中常见的体裁主要有三大类：消息（news）、特写（features）和新闻评论（commentaries and columns）。
新闻写作由于记者写作风格不同，文体结构无定格。
但大体上说新闻文体的主体结构是由标题、导语、正文三部分组成。
标题（headline）：浓缩概括全文的中心实质问题。
导语（1ead or introduction）：通常为文章的第一段。
文章的第一段提供主要话题和最主要的事实。
正文（body）：在导语的基础上，引入更多的与主题相关的事实，使之更加详实、具体，并展开评论，进而得出结论。
在此我们以消息为例，详细分析一下它的基本结构。
消息类新闻属于“硬新闻”，是广泛采用的的一种新闻体裁。
消息报道中的导语十分重要，它位于第一段或第一、二段。
通过它点出新闻的主题，这是消息这种新闻文体区别于其它文体的一个重要特征。
五个W和一个H（When？Where？Who？What？Why？和How？）是构成一则完整的消息不可缺少的要素。
直接的消息报道或纯消息报道一般采用“倒金字塔形式”（the Inverted Pyramid Form），其特点是按新闻报道最重要的五个W和一个H头重脚轻地安排材料，把新闻的高潮和结论放在最前面的导语里，然后以事实的重要性递减的顺序来安排（in theorder of descending importance）材料。
在报纸、广播、电视等新闻媒体每天刊载和播发的新闻中，百分之九十是用倒金字塔结构写成的。
对于报纸来说，倒金字塔结构的新闻有自己的优势。
主要是可以使读者很快得到新闻的精华部分；在生活节奏越来越快的今天，一般读者很少把一条新闻从头到尾读完，他们可能随时放下报纸，因此，报纸有必要让读者首先读到最重要的新闻内容。
为了帮助读者了解这种倒金字塔式结构，请见西方新闻学著作中的图表说明：The Inverted Pyramid FormIntroduction containing most important or most interesting??information?导语包括最重要或最吸引人的消息more facts 更多的事实材料supporting information or background 辅助性消息或背景材料quotes or more facts of lesser importance引语或次要的事实材料minor details 细节材料least significant information 最不重要的消息??为了说明“倒金字塔结构”的新闻文体特点，现举美联社2001年11月22日的一篇报道为例：NOVEMBER 22，19：43EST，2001??28 Killed in Colombia Landslide??By JUAN PABLO TORO??Associated Press WriterFILADELFIA Colom bia（AP）—Rain-softened walls of a condemned strip mine crashed down on scores of gold miners in western Colom- bia Thursday，killingat least 28 and leaving 40others missing，authorities said．The victims were said to be poor people who ignored government warnin gs that erosion hadmade the mine unsafe．It appeared both the illegal digging and recent heavy rains were toblame for the accident．Survivors said two separate mudslides occurred at the site in Filadel fia，a small town120 miles west of Bogotá．The second avalanche buried miners who were trying to rescue friends who had been engulfed in the first avalanch e．Rescuers shoveled furiously for hours in hopes of finding som- ebody alive，butonly recovered bodies．As night fell Thursday，national disaster chief Eduardo Jose Gonzalez said hopes of finding a nyone alive waned as crews prepared to suspend operations．The search was to resume Friday．Gonzalez said 28bodies had been recovered，and at least 40 people were missing． Thirty-two miners were reported injured and taken to hospitals．Hundreds of people had gathered at the scene，many of them anguished and weepingrelatives．Emergency crews from the Red Cross andthe civil defense forces were using heavy machinery to remove the thi ck mud spread overthe site．Complicating the?recovery effort，huge pools of water had seeped into the sitefrom a river running up to the hillside—used by the miners to rinse gold particles fromdirt．Survivors said the earth crashed down without warning on a group of a bout 200 people trying to scrape gold from the well-worn hill-side．T he workers were toiling with shovelsand picks inside a deep hole they had carved into the hill．The caver n had no structuralsupports．Many workers managed to scramble out of the way or crawl out from ben eath the mud．Others were not so lucky．“We heard a very loud sound and the hill suddenly fell down upon us ，”said 20-year-old Manuel Loaiza．“I was trapped up to my knees bu t some of the others dragged me out．”Loaiza said he made less than ＄9a day at the crude mine．His 39-year -old uncle is still missing under the mud．According to Julian Arboleda，an aide to Caldas State governor Luis Alfonso Arias，of- ficials ordered the mine closed several months ago．But residents thrown out of workby Colom bia’s econom- ic downturn took the risk of working there anyway，Arboleda said．Landslides triggered by rains are Colombia’s most common natural dis aster，killing dozens of people annually．Thursday’s accident was the worst such tragedy in recent years．According to the g overnment’s disaster relief agency，nearly 200 people died in a poor neighborhood in the city of Medellin when a 1987 landslide buried their houses．Landslides buried 150 dam workers in 1983 and a rescue team sent on their behalf．首先要注意消息报道导语（第一段）里的“电头”（dateline）“FILADELFIA，Colombia（AP）”即“美联社发自哥伦比亚费拉达菲亚的消息”。
美联社新闻报道的时间通常置于消息的最前面（NOVEMBER 22，19：43EST），即美国的标准时11月22日19点43分。
第一段十分简单明了地告诉读者：星期四，哥伦比亚西部的一露天金矿由于大雨而发生坍塌，至少28人死亡，40人失踪。
第二段增加了新的新闻事实：金矿坍塌的遇难者是贫民，虽然政府警告说由于侵蚀使采矿危险，但他们置若罔闻；金矿的坍塌可能是由于非法的开采以及近日的大雨造成的。