Problem - Solution pattern in English online brief news on Vietnam

VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) 146-153 
146 
Problem-solution pattern 
in English online brief news on Vietnam 
Ngo Dinh Phuong* 
Department of Foreign Languages, Vinh university, 
 182 Le Duan, Vinh city, Nghe An, Vietnam 
Received 4 February 2009 
Abstract. Prolem-solution pattern is one the most frequently used structures in online brief news. 
This paper aims at analyzing the ways the writers use it in online brief news of economic, political 
and social issues on Vietnam. The research results can help Vietnamese learners of English apply 
the above pattern to improve their English speaking and writing skills. 
1. Rationale* 
Nowadays, presses in general and online 
press in particular have become more and more 
popular means of communication. A lot of 
people search webs to find information and one 
of their favorite places is online brief news. 
Online brief news is said to be a useful and 
typical demonstration of text patterns. It is 
where the authors often convey as sufficient 
information as possible within the limit of news 
and it is also a place where certain features of 
language are clearly manifested. 
Text patterns play important roles in 
organizing a discourse. In English discourses, 
such patterns as problem-solution pattern, 
general- specific pattern, claim-counter claim 
pattern, advantage-disadvantage pattern are 
most usually used in organizing a discourse. 
Among them, the former is the most widely 
used. According to Grimes (cited in [1]: “both 
plot of fairy tales and the writings of scientists 
______ 
* Tel.: 84-038-3855392. 
 E-mail: ngodinhphuong@vinhuni.edu.vn 
are built on a response pattern. The first part 
gives a problem and the second its solution”. 
The role of problem-solution pattern in creating 
coherence in discourse is clearly realized [2-4]. 
Being interested in problem solution pattern 
with a hope to help Vietnamese learners to have 
a wide range knowledge of English and writing 
organization the author wishes to focus on 
dealing with the following questions: 
- How is problem-solution pattern 
manifested in English online brief news on 
Vietnam? 
- How is problem-solution pattern applied 
in English learning and teaching? 
2. Problem-solution pattern 
The problem-solution pattern begins with 
the description of a situation that contains a 
problem. The problem requires a response, 
which is followed by a description of its result, 
with an evaluation of the response or result at 
the end. According to Hoey [1], “any genre of 
text, such as the plot of fairy tales or the 
N.D. Phuong / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) 146-153 
147 
writings of scientists, includes the problem- 
solution pattern”. This pattern is typically used 
in persuasive writing. The problem is stated and 
accompanied by some potential solutions. In 
addition, in problem-solution pattern, the key 
element that marks the completion of the 
pattern is a positive evaluation of at least one of 
the possible solutions. 
Hoey [1] states that problem-solution 
pattern arises as a result of the writer answering 
a predictable series of questions which reflect 
the relationship between the sentences of the 
text. The order in which these questions are 
answered is, however, not fixed. Such questions 
would be of the type: “what problem arose 
you?”, “what did you do about this? “which 
would be the key questions, and “what was the 
result? Another of the main characteristics of 
this pattern is that it is lexically signaled. In 
Hoey’s words “Text can be defined as the 
visible evidence of a reasonably self-contains 
purposeful interaction between one or more 
writers and one or more readers”. This 
interaction can be seen as series of hypothetical 
questions the reader makes to the writer and 
that the latter answers, or should answer, both 
locally (at sentence level) and globally (at 
discourse level) and that may be prefixed and, 
therefore, known both to the reader and writer. 
Problem-solution pattern is the most common 
one which is characterized by the following 
elements: an optional previous situation, which 
provides a context for the pattern; the problem or 
aspect of a situation requiring a response; the 
response to the problem and a positive result or an 
evaluation [2,5]. 
3. Data sources 
In the world of integration today, online 
brief news plays an important part in 
transmitting information. It has become a more 
and more powerful mean of communication; 
authors usually adopt appropriate ways to 
indicate information. For this reason, we decide 
to choose this topic to help learners know how 
to organize a text effectively. 
The data for analysis is taken from online 
brief news on internet via the website: 
 in which several 
sources are presented such as Reuters, AP, 
AFP, etc. 
4. Structure of online brief news 
Online brief news is a type of news that is 
widely used nowadays. It often indicates the 
facts without the writer’s opinion about it. 
Typical news is structured into three main parts: 
the headline, the lead and the body. In the 
headline, the main idea of the news is usually 
presented. The lead is the opening paragraph 
and usually contains the main idea but in more 
details. And the body-the rest of the news - 
describes the news in full details. This structure 
is often applied in online brief news. Let us 
give an example to illustrate for the structure: 
Headline: Vietnam car sales rocket 83 
percent in first nine months 
Lead: Vietnamese car sales have rocketed 
83 percent in the first nine months of the year, 
manufacturers said on Saturday. 
Body: Sales have shot up to 49,240 vehicles 
against 26,934 in the same period last year, the 
Vietnamese Automobile Manufacturers’ 
Association (VAMA) said. Passenger car sales 
between January and September were reported 
at 10,882 vehicles, a rise of 145 percent. The 
figures were compiled from 16 of VAMA’s 18 
members. Data were not available for the other 
two members. The biggest rise belonged to 
Japan’s Honda which sold 2,729 locally 
assembled vehicles, up 858 percent from last 
year’s 285. Next in the list was Vidamco, a 
joint venture between South Korean GM 
Daewoo and a Vietnamese company with a 305 
percent rise in sales. In September alone, 
VAMA members sold 7,683 units, up by 99 
percent against the same month of 2006. 
(AFP, October 6, 2007) 
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148 
4.1. Problem-solution pattern in English online 
brief news on Vietnam 
4.1.1. Headline 
The headline is a very important part of each 
news. It often contains the main idea of the whole 
news. When considering any news to read, the 
reader often pays much attention to its headline. 
Therefore, the headline is organized in an attractive 
way to attract the reader’s attention. If the headline 
is the reader’s interest, they may decide to read the 
rest of the news. Usually, the headline is written in 
full form like (1) and (2) below: 
(1)Vietnam approves plans to sell shares in 
Vietcombank in Oct. 
(Dow Jones, September, 30, 2007) 
(2)Vietnam car sales rocket 83 percent in 
first nine months. 
(AFP, October, 6, 2007) 
In this paper, we analyze news-in-brief to 
see a particular aspect of discourse analysis-the 
problem-solution pattern. As mentioned above, 
the problem-solution pattern starts off with a 
problem that needs to be solved. However, off 
all 15 headlines of this kind taken into analysis, 
only 9 ones reveal a situation, accounts for 
60%. If the headline is studied in separation 
with the rest of the whole news, no signal of 
problem-solution pattern can be found. In fact, 
we have studied these headlines in the linkage 
and in a particular setting of news. 
Our survey also shows that, there is no 
solution or evaluation that can be found in the 
headline. And the situation is indicated mainly 
via single words. Of all 129 words in the 
analyzed headlines, signaling vocabulary is 14, 
taking 10, 9% in which the proportion of nouns, 
verbs, adjectives and adverbs are as below: 
Table 2.1. Signaling vocabulary in the headline 
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Total of signaling 
vocabulary 
Total Percentage Total Percentage Total Percentage Total Percentage 
14 3 21.4% 7 50% 3 21.4% 1 7.2% 
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4.1.2. Lead 
The lead of news is often the first sentence 
(or the first paragraph of news). It is often a 
sentence and in this part; the theme of the news 
is more detailed stated. The headline is often 
restated but in more details. The lead often 
gives information of who, what, where, when 
and how the news is about. Following is an 
extract for illustration. 
(4) Headline: Vietnam trade deficit tops 7.6 
billion US dollars- estimate 
Lead: Vietnam estimated Friday its trade 
deficit topped 7.6 billion US dollars in the first 
nine months of the year, raising fears of a 
record year end figure, an official said. 
(Thomson Financial, September, 8, 2007) 
Who: an official 
What: its trade deficit toped 7.6 billion US 
dollars in the first nine months of the year 
When: Friday 
Where: Vietnam 
This lead not only restates the situation but also 
a problem through signaling vocabulary: raising 
fears; these two words tell us that trade deficit 
would lead to a problem- that is a record year-end 
figure. The table below indicates signaling 
vocabulary occurring in the analyzed leads: 
Table 2.2. The presence of vocabulary in leads 
surveyed 
Leads Occurrences Percentage 
Without 
vocabulary 
8 46.7% 
With 
vocabulary 
7 53.3% 
Total 15 100% 
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4.1.3. Body 
Obviously, the body is the longest part in a 
news story. If the headline is a short sentence 
and the lead is often a sentence that restates the 
headline in more details, the body is where the 
news is informed in full details. For this reason, 
it is where textual patterns are manifested 
clearly especially problem-solution pattern. The 
table below shows the average length of the 
news taken into analysis in terms of number of 
sentences and paragraphs. 
Table 2.3. Statistics of bodies of selected news 
Paragraphs Sentences Total of 
bodies Total Per body Total Per body Per paragraph 
15 43 2.87 214 14.27 4.98 
Table2.3: Statistics of bodies of selected news
As the fact that the body accounts for the 
largest part in the news, therefore, problem- 
solution pattern is manifested the clearest in this 
part. The problem-solution pattern can be 
indicated through the pattern (situation-problem-
solution-evaluation) or through signaling 
vocabulary. Let us examine one piece of news to 
illustrate the pattern. 
(5) S’pore imports of Vietnam foodstuffs 
jump as it becomes top global supplier Problem-
solution pattern analysis of the selected news: 
Hoey [1] says problem-solution pattern is 
signaled by the means of questions. He suggests 
that written passages are implicitly designed to 
answer spoken questions. We adopt the way to 
analyze of Couthard as in the example mentioned 
above to analyze its structure: 
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Situation (1) Vietnam is the top food products supplier in the world (seafood, rice, pepper, coffee) 
Problem (16) Poor quality of products 
(15) Uneven quality of goods 
(20) Exporting countries scrutinize goods for contamination 
Solution (to the 
problem) 
(13, 18) Improve goods quality 
(21) Invest heavy in post- harvest technology 
Evaluation (of the 
solution) 
(21) Food product quality will be upgraded 
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There is a given situation. Vietnam has 
emerged as a leading supplier of food products - 
from seafood to pepper and coffee-to the world, 
including Singapore. However, the whole 
situation is not completely clear in this 
sentence. In (2), (3), (4), the information about 
Vietnam food products is stated. Singapore’s 
imports of Vietnamese products increased 
considerably in comparison with two years ago. 
The reader can see in the viewpoint (5), (6), (7) 
and (8) the additional information to support the 
situation - Vietnam is the world’s top exporter 
of pepper, No.2 exporter of seafood and rice. 
Recently, it emerged as the world’s second 
largest coffee exporter after Brazil. At this 
point, the reader is most likely provoked to ask 
the question: “what seems to be the problem?”. 
What is the problem? 
From the word “booming” “issue”, 
“uneven quality” indicated the situation in 
which we see a problem is that Vietnamese 
food products has not reached its higher 
position for its poor quality. 
What aspect of the situation required a 
response? 
From point (13) to (18), the reader sees how 
the situation is; Vietnam is the world’s top 
exporter, and our product quality has been 
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150 
improved steadily; it is not as good as that of 
other countries like Thailand or Brazil. 
What was the solution? What was the 
result? 
In point (21), the reader sees (suggestions 
on how to improve goods quality) possible 
solution to the problem. It is to improve our 
food product quality. To do that, we need to 
invest heavily in the post-harvest technology. If 
we can do that, our food product quality will be 
upgraded. And it means that we solve the 
problem of uneven and poor quality of 
products. In the last point, the reader can also 
see an evaluation of the solution although it is 
not indicated explicitly. 
4.1.4 Signaling Vocabulary 
Vocabulary identifies the topic and the 
structure of a discourse. McCarthy mentions 
that when text is read, the reader can “match the 
words with the segments” and that the reader 
“can account of what the problem-solution 
pattern is” [6]. 
In the following table, specific vocabularies 
and phrases are shown in how they occur in the 
news and in what part of the problem- solution 
pattern they fit into: 
Situation Leading supplier of food 
products, the next time, 
quadruple, triple. 
Problem Booming, quality control, issue, 
uneven quality, poor quality 
Solution (to 
the problem) 
Invest heavily, post-harvest 
technology 
Evaluation(of 
the solution) 
Quality upgraded 
The given - new principle in which he 
explains that all texts have “beginning and 
endings” [3]. The start of the problem-solution 
pattern with the word ‘emerged’ is the 
beginning of the situation and it is further 
informed with the phrase “leading supplier of 
food products”. From the word “booming”, 
“uneven quality”, “issue”, we see a problem; 
and from the word “invest heavily”, “post- 
harvest technology”, we see the solution for the 
problem. And the word “upgrade” reveals an 
evaluation for the solution. In the right column 
of the table above, there are no completed 
sentences but just words and phrases that relate 
to the segments of the problem-solution pattern. 
Our survey shows that the problem- 
solution pattern is mostly indicated through 
signaling vocabulary. The table below informs 
the vocabulary that is used in all analyzed news: 
Table 2.4. The presentation of pattern and signaling vocabulary in news selected 
Bodies With pattern Without pattern Total 
 6 (40%) 9 (60%) 15 (100%) 
With vocabulary 6 (100%) 5 (55.5%) 11 (73%) 
Without vocabulary 0 (0%) 4 (44.5%) 4 (27%) 
Total 6 (100%) 9 (100%) 15 (100%) 
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From the table above, we can see that of all 
the 15 news of this kind taken into analysis, 
there is no news that is written without 
vocabulary but with pattern. From this point, it 
is easy to realize the important role of signaling 
vocabulary in organizing a text, especially with 
problem- solution pattern. Only through some 
key words, the reader can see the problem. 
In our survey, in terms of signaling 
vocabulary, we pay much attention to parts of 
speech that contribute to indicating pattern in 
text. The table below shows the proportion of 
parts of speech which are most widely used to 
indicate problem in the news surveyed in terms 
of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. 
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151 
Table 2.5. The proportion of signaling vocabulary indicating problem 
Parts of speech Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Occurrences 
Total 25 21 14 5 65 
Proportion 38.5% 32.3% 21.5% 7.7% 100% 
Table 2.5. The proportion of signaling vocabulary indicating problem 
As seen in the table above, of all 65 
occurrences of vocabulary, nouns account for the 
largest proportion with 25 occurrences (38.5%) , 
verbs ranked the second with 21 occurrences 
(32.3%), and adverbs hold the least proportion 
with only 5 occurrences (7.7%). 
Also shown in our survey is that, to reveal a 
problem, the following words are mostly used: 
Problem, concern, lack, inflation, difficult, 
dangerous, issue, increase, face, uncertain, etc. 
Let us give an extract to illustrate for this fact: 
(6) Vietnam faces port capacity shortfall 
Infrastructure bottlenecks, including a lack 
of highway access to a new port complex at Cai 
Mep, could threaten Vietnam’s export base, 
according to a leading manufacturer, writes 
Keith Wallis. 
Jeff Ross, director of global ocean 
transportation for sport wear maker Nike, said 
infrastructure construction on ports, roads, and 
railways as lagging behind the growth in 
container volumes. He estimated there would be 
a shortfall in port capacity of 220,000 tons in 
southern Vietnam this year. This is seen as a 
key concern especially as ports in Hochiminh 
city handle about 72% of the country’s 
container traffic, while Haiphong, near Hanoi, 
and handle around 22%... “Our concern is even 
as they build the port there is no infrastructure”. 
Creaking road and bridge links in the city 
dash; the Dongnai Bridge could also collapse at 
anytime according to officials’ dash; are also a 
concern. 
(Lloyd’s list September, 19, 2007) 
In the body of this text, there are a lot of 
vocabularies (the underlined and italic words) 
that support the problem of a shortfall in port 
capacity. It links information leading to the 
problem in text and makes the text coherent. 
From these words, we can see that the key 
problem is infrastructure for port capacity. In 
which, several examples of infrastructure are 
given. They are all inefficient or downgraded- 
from railway to road and bridge. In this piece of 
news, there are some typical words that relate to 
the problem-solution pattern such as concern or 
problem. 
We also analyze the solution part to see 
how signaling vocabulary is used in this part. 
The result is summarized in the following table: 
Table 2.6. Proportion of signaling vocabulary indicating solution 
In bodies Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Occurrences 
Total 6 17 1 3 27 
Proportion 22.2% 63% 3.7% 11.1% 100% 
Table 2.6. Proportion of signaling vocabulary indicating solution 
As shown in the table, verbs hold the largest 
proportion with 17 occurrences (63%), while 
adjectives take the least with only one 
occurrence (3.7%). By contrast with problem 
part, signaling vocabulary seems to occur less 
in this part. This is explainable for the fact that 
the body takes the longest part in the news in 
which the problem is gradually stated. At the 
end, possible solutions are given to resolve the 
problem. It means to do something to solve the 
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152 
problem. Therefore, verb is the most suitable 
adoption to solve a problem. Let’s examine the 
following example to see this: 
(7) ADB lends Vietnam nearly $1 bln for