Compiled in lesson Numbers of Letters per word
However, it appeared that my hypothesis was incorrect, and that both newspapers had a pretty equal word length as the table shows. This makes this set of results unreliable as a source of the differences between the newspapers.
Although the graph on the previous page displays very little for analysis purposes, it does show by looking at it that my hypothesis was incorrect. And although toward the 9, 10 and 11 letters mark The Times seemed to be displaying my hypothesis; The Times had more than double that of the Mirror on 3 letter connective words, which surprised me a lot. I think had gone through more articles the results would have agreed with my hypothesis.
For my second investigation I have chosen to look at the length of headlines in the same two newspapers, the times and the mirror, I will look at sixteen headlines in each. And basically do everything I did for the previous investigations, however, alter the table slightly to fit with the subject.
Hypothesis No#2
I predict, that The Times will have on average longer headlines than The Mirror, this is because The Times has a more serious side than the Mirror, and the Mirror likes to use humour and Puns in the headlines.
Compiled on 16/02/02
For a total, lengths of headlines in letters added all together for The Times equals 296, and for the mirror the totals for letter in headlines is 206.
For a mean for The Times, 296 divided by 16 equals 19 (rounded from 18.5) letters on average per headline.
For a mean for The Mirror, 206 divided by 16 equals 13 (rounded from 12.875) letters on average per headline.
Judging by the results from my table, it is clear that my hypothesis was correct in thinking that on The Times on average has longer headlines than The Mirror. My graph displays that the totals also prove this.
And for my last investigation I will be looking at the lengths of newspaper articles, 16 in total, eight for each newspaper. I will be using the Microsoft Word ‘word count’ tool, I will be using this to cut down on wasting time counting. I will make a table, similar to my previous two with alterations. This last investigation will exclude headlines and editor/writers names.
Hypothesis No#3
I predict that if the newspaper article has the same subject in use, then The Times will have a longer article written about the subject than that of The Mirror’s article. I assume this because generally broad sheet newspapers such as the Times are on average much thicker papers, which suggests to me that the story’s are lengthier and have more content.
Cumulative Frequency Table
Evaluation of investigation No.3
The Cumulative frequency table displayed well that The Times was always ahead on word count with the articles, but I am happy with the graph on this investigation as it clearly displays that The Times generally has more words per article than The Mirror and this proves that my hypothesis was correct.
Final Evaluation Of Investigations
On looking at my sets of results I can see that the first and the last investigations were badly done to start with, but I redid the last one, but I can see that the first investigation was pointless and difficult to organize results wise. The first investigation was definitely not effective, and were I to do the same investigation again, I would have found a different method to present the results, and demonstrate their value at proving or disproving the hypothesis. The hypothesis however was also weak, as I had very little evidence to prove my idea in the first place, and one survey would not prove the hypothesis properly at all.
My second investigation was the possibly most effective and the most clear to understand the results of. The third investigation after altering it twice has turned out well, and with the inter-quartile range the analysis has become quite an effective investigation. I am still disappointed with the first investigation. There was little math involved and my hypothesis proved wrong. There was more math’s involved in that investigation and I see that, although the results could have been managed in a better way, it was by far the best to prove my hypothesis than that of my other investigations.
William Davies, 10.07