English Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

English Language - Essay Example Time zero is now, when Osama bin Laden, the international terrorist and top leader of the terror organization al Qaeda, has been killed by an elite US Navy special action force, the Zeal. The abstract is a summary of the entire article, which can be summarized here in a few words – that Omar bin Laden accuses the United States government of violating international law in killing their father. The first sentence, including the title, is full of meaning, that assuming that we do not know the man bin Laden, we can understand that violence was used against violence, that bin Laden was a violent man and that the US government stopped him by killing him. This was followed by S2 which affirms that the man who was killed was an unarmed terrorist leader who was summarily executed by the US government. However, we can also assume that the writer of the essay, which appeared in an online periodical, The Los Angeles Times, assumes in his abstract, that indeed the reader of this article kn ows Osama bin Laden, the top al Qaeda leader, the mastermind of the bombing of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in which thousands were killed. The time expression in the story about Omar’s accusation provides a brief explanation of the events that transpired before that fateful day of May 2, 2011. First in S2, there is the statement and reaction of the bin Laden family. Omar’s sentiments clearly showed the immediate past – that he was communicating with his father. The ‘recency’ includes his (and his family’s) doubts over the statement from President Obama that they had killed bin Laden. Although, there is less doubt over the statements of the US government (another assumption), this news story has many underlying stories and sub-stories. We can still follow Bell’s framework on the role of the abstract in this subject of news English. The abstract is the introduction, or it introduces into the main theme or point of the stor y. The main point or idea of the story is that Omar is complaining and accusing that if indeed President Obama was correct in announcing to the world that they have killed bin Laden, the US government committed an illegal act in doing so. Bell says that double abstracts are common in news English, and this was ‘committed’ in this article – there is an accusation of the illegal act and the fact that Omar’s father may already be dead. There is a second presumption that the US President could have lied in saying that the al Qaeda leader is dead. The presumption is that it could be that Obama was lying, implying that he was using psychological warfare against the members of al Qaeda. It was probably to demoralize the members of the organization, and the United States was winning against the war on terror. The abstract in Bell’s framework also tells that is also linked by time expression, which portrays a cause-and-effect, i.e. Omar bin Laden is accusing the United States after they have killed his father. But there is another presumption, which is if Obama was telling the truth. The headline according to Bell’s framework is an abstract of the abstract, which is just a last-minute insertion by an editor. The ‘real’ abstract is the first sentence by Andrew Malcolm, the author. The attention of the reader is caught by the first abstract, the title, although we are sure, Malcolm’