A British national broadsheet newspaper on the same day, with the same topic will have on average, more letters per word than a tabloid newspaper.

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Statistical Investigation into Newspapers

Introduction

There are many different kinds of newspapers for sale, which cater for the diverse range of readers' preferences. These range from the more descriptive and complicated broadsheet newspapers, to the less so serious styles of the tabloids. In addition, the style varies accordingly between the levels of the newspapers, for example, it is common knowledge that the broadsheet newspapers are more descriptive, and is harder to understand because of its longer words. While tabloids are easier, to read as it makes used of shorter words and the topics reported are often done so in a light style and depth.

Specify and Plan

Aim

My aim, is based on the hypothesis that:

This aim is to prove the common belief that broadsheet newspaper uses longer words than a tabloid one, which may lead to the conclusion that by the use of longer words a more complex vocabulary and sentence structure may occur. Which leads to the complexity of reading it, while a tabloid uses shorter words to get the information across, it also shows the readability of the different newspapers.

In my further investigation (once I have finished my primary objectives), I will be analysing any correlation between the average lengths of words and sentences within articles. This stems from an intriguing theory, which I would like to prove or disapprove: do longer sentences mean that there are longer words in it or is it because there is a large number of small words in it?

Original Aim Objectives

* To collect data (100 randomly selected words) on the number of letters per word in both a tabloid and a broadsheet paper, from a similar article. The random selection of words, will consist of taking a random number from the calculator by using the random number generator. This number will be used as a starting point (e.g. the fourth word) and then another random number will be used to determine the number of words between the starting word and the next sample, the number will be the first significant figure of the random number. This will be done at least 100 times, to get a very random sample of words from the article, in order to reduce bias. This will be repeated on the other newspaper as well.

* To present data in a meaningful way, using frequency/tally tables.

* To interpret and analyse results and draw suitable diagrams.

* To draw conclusions on analysis, see whether the hypothesis is correct.

Original Hypothesis Problems

* What is a tabloid and a broadsheet paper? It is general knowledge that The Mirror is a widely bought tabloid newspaper, while The Times is a well-respected broadsheet paper, these two will be used in the investigation. However other papers such as The Daily Mail/The Express are in a grey area, they are in a level of their own, the "broadloids," where no clear distinctions are made. However, for this two newspapers of clearly different levels is sufficient, ie. The Mirror and The Times.

* The letter number may be affected by the style of the writing and the topic written about.

* Does headlines/subtitles/names count in the investigation?

* Does accidents (such as typing errors) in the newspaper count and what about hyphenated words?

* What happens if I get to the end of the article without finishing the survey?

* Time is very limited

Original Hypothesis Plan

I will allow for the expected (and more) problems as follows:

* The paper will be used in the investigation will be of the same date; the date has been drawn from the random number generator. In this case, it is the 29th of March, this is to reduce bias.

* A similar article will be selected, therefore reducing the chance that a scientific article containing long words e.g. medical terminology will be unfairly compared with a normal text, therefore reducing bias.

* Hyphened words will be treated as one word.

* Headlines will be omitted, as they are sometimes not in proper sentences and not strictly part of the passage and might affect the result, they are written mostly by the editor and therefore not writer written.

* Subtitles (in the passage itself) will be included as they are part of the passage.

* No local papers will be used, to forgo local words that might affect the results.

* No adverts as the style of writing is different in every advert.

* All dates, numbers (in graphical form e.g. 4) are to be ignored, unless they are in text form.

* The names of the reporter is omitted as it will affect the result and is not a part of the passage
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* Typing errors and the accidental joining of words, (e.g. accidentaljoining...) will be a valid part of the sample, as they appear to be familiar in newspapers.

* The names of the people and place names in the article will count as a valid sample.

* Apostrophes and punctuation marks will not count, abbreviations will not be counted as a letter as it is not a proper word.

* If I get to the end of the end of the article before the 100 word random sample is finished, I will just continue from the ...

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