Tom Chaloner 11P July 2002
Maths Coursework - Statistics
For my maths coursework I am investigating how the number of letters in a word and number of words in a sentence is affected by what newspaper it appears in. My hypothesis is that tabloid newspapers will have words with fewer letters and sentences with less words in them compared to broadsheet newspapers. To carry out my investigation I will be using one tabloid newspaper (The Mirror) and one broadsheet newspaper (The Independent). These were chosen because they are different types of newspaper aimed at different people and would make a good comparison.
When I had both newspapers and any advertising leaflets or pull outs had been removed the investigation began. I decided to have 40 words and 40 sentences from each paper, to give a large range of data so results could be accurate as possible. It is very important that all my samples are chosen randomly so that the data is representative of the population. To make the word and sentences samples random I use a calculator with a random sample button to input how many pages in the certain newspaper, then it takes a random page number. Once I have the page number I estimate how many words or sentences there on the page, and then input that information into the calculator. Again I can take a random word/sentence number and record the data. For example the random page 23 (out of how many pages in total), then word 135 which may be INDUSTRY, so the word length be recorded as 8.
Maths Coursework - Statistics
For my maths coursework I am investigating how the number of letters in a word and number of words in a sentence is affected by what newspaper it appears in. My hypothesis is that tabloid newspapers will have words with fewer letters and sentences with less words in them compared to broadsheet newspapers. To carry out my investigation I will be using one tabloid newspaper (The Mirror) and one broadsheet newspaper (The Independent). These were chosen because they are different types of newspaper aimed at different people and would make a good comparison.
When I had both newspapers and any advertising leaflets or pull outs had been removed the investigation began. I decided to have 40 words and 40 sentences from each paper, to give a large range of data so results could be accurate as possible. It is very important that all my samples are chosen randomly so that the data is representative of the population. To make the word and sentences samples random I use a calculator with a random sample button to input how many pages in the certain newspaper, then it takes a random page number. Once I have the page number I estimate how many words or sentences there on the page, and then input that information into the calculator. Again I can take a random word/sentence number and record the data. For example the random page 23 (out of how many pages in total), then word 135 which may be INDUSTRY, so the word length be recorded as 8.
