maths coursework

Maths Coursework

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Anthony Williams

15/01/08

Suresh is comparing magazines and newspapers. He chooses a passage from one newspaper and one from a magazine. They each contain 100 words and he counts the length of all the words. Suresh then says that the magazine has the shortest words.

Write a hypothesis about the length of words in newspapers and magazines.

Design and carry out an investigation to test your hypothesis.

Aim

My aim is to establish whether the words in a magazine are actually shorter than the words in a newspaper by comparing and contrasting the two; by applying as many statistical comparatives as possible.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that the words in both newspapers and magazines depend on the readers, target market, that the article is pitched at and the amount of sophisticated language within the text. Comparatives include tabloids and broad street publications. However I think that magazines in general and tabloids will be shorter, due to the fact that it is structured for light reading and entertainment. Publications such as broad street newspapers contain more formal and sophisticated language.

It would be prudent to mention the considerations made when undertaking the investigation. I have taken samples of 6 articles pitched at a wide target market in the level of read.

I have not counted punctuation as a letter, or considered and figures as a letter within the word. Hyphens were considered separate words due to the lack of attention paid to punctuation. Abbreviations were counted as a word and the letters were counted as part of a word due to the pact the abbreviations have underpinning meaning within the text and demonstrates how words are shortened for an easy read. Headlines have been counted as words within the article.

Methodology

Raw data has been counted and displayed in a tally chart to make it easier to view ...