Hypotheses
My hypotheses:
- I expect to find that the broadsheet has longer words.
- I expect to find that the broadsheet has longer sentences.
- I expect to find that the broadsheet will have an older average reading age.
- I expect the broadsheet to devote more of its page area to an article.
Word Length Results
Daily Telegraph
The Sun
Word Length Statistical Analysis
Using the data gathered I found:
The sun
Mean – 419/100= 4.19= 4 letters per word
Median – 1,1,2,3,5,6,9,11,17,21,24 = 6 letters per word
Modal – 1 letter per word
Range – 11
The Daily Telegraph
Mean – 441/100= 4.41= 4 letters per word
Median – 1,3,3,3,6,9,9,12,16,17,21 = 9 letters per word
Modal – 3 letters per word
Range – 10
Word Length Comments
Sentence Length Statistical Analysis
Comparison by sentence length (word count)
The Sun
Modal sentence length = 23, 22 +11
Sentence length range = 15
Median sentence length = 22
Mean sentence length = 18.2
The Daily Telegraph
Modal sentence length = 28, 17 + 15
Sentence length range = 17
Median sentence length = 17
Mean sentence length = 19.4
The sun
The Daily Telegraph
Area’s
Conclusion
My hypothesis was that broadsheet newspapers would contain sentences of larger words and greater length.
The data gathered from two newspapers printed on 8th April 2006, relating to a booby trap device, shows the following:
- The Broadsheet newspaper had a higher frequency of longer words than the tabloid newspaper.