Compare one broadsheet with one tabloid. Comparison is by word length and sentence length.

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Introduction

There are many different newspapers. They range from tabloid papers to the broadsheet papers. The tabloids are a lighter read which may be using short words to the more involving complicated and longer words which might be in broadsheet papers. Different newspapers are written to suit different types of people e.g. Teachers, Doctors, Business People unemployed, labourers etc.  First I am going to collect data on number of letters per word and sentences in two different newspapers.  I am also going to present data in a meaningful way.  Finally I am going to interpret and analyze results and diagrams.  I am going to draw conclusions on my analysis, state whether I accept or reject the prediction.  If I reject the prediction then I need to make another one up because I will need at least 2 predictions in this investigation to show that I have understood.    

Aim

Compare one broadsheet with one tabloid.  Comparison is by word length and sentence length.

Prediction

I predict that Broadsheet (The Times) will have longer words than Tabloid (The Mirror).

I predict that Broadsheet (The Times) will have longer sentences than Tabloid (The Mirror).

Broadsheet newspaper is for business people, doctor, teachers etc so more complicated and longer words are used. Because the broadsheet has longer words it will have short sentences so longer the words shorter the sentences.

Tabloid newspaper is for anyone, it doesn’t have any specific user like broadsheet.  It has general information and gossip so it uses shorter words.  Because the tabloid has shorter words it will have longer sentences so shorter the words longer the sentences.

Objectives

I need to get two different national newspapers from the shop that is up to date.  There are lots of different newspapers in the world that are produced every year, every month, daily.  I can’t look at the whole population of newspapers because there are different ways of writing newspapers in different countries such as the different languages are used.  Because of that I am taking two samples.  My samples are going to be The Times and The Mirror.  

Fair Investigation

To make my investigation fair I can’t count all the words and sentences in the newspaper.  I am going to do main article and sport article from each newspaper.  I am going to use the same method in both newspapers because I will able then be to compare it and find out if my prediction is right or wrong.  To make even more fair investigation I am going to count 100 words from each main article and sports article.  I am also doing 100 words because so I can deal with it in a short time.  I can’t choose 100 words from where ever I like because that will not be a fair or random.  I am going to choose randomly from each newspaper so it won’t cause any bias.


Rules

I need to make a fair investigation by not counting any of the following;

  • No Numbers e.g. 1, 23, 45 etc Not Counting
  • Abbreviations e.g. b, w, q, etc Not Counting
  • Currency e.g. $ etc Not Counting
  • Misspelt words e.g. foucus etc Not Counting

This above points will help me to reduce the mistakes so it won’t cause any bias.

Method of sampling

To randomly select from the whole article I am going to count how many words there are in one story (words in total) then divide the total by 100.

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E.g. 639 words in total divide by 100 = 6.39

I will take every 6th word from the article.

 


Results

Mode is the most common word so in my data from above table I have found out the most common word is 3 and 4 because it has the highest frequency.

Median is the middle number another words is ½(Half) so in my data from above table is 4 because I did 100 words and I divide by 2 to find ...

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