Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Usually, when a college professor does such a study, the random people are students of the college and frequently students in his department. That's one of the dirty little secrets of social science studies and why so many studies generate rather slanted results.
My first comment is after reading the paragraphs, I'm rather surprised that anyone did more than scan them.
Here is the first sentence - "Jim takes a deep breath, bracing himself before pushing open the glass door. Mrs. Moyers glances at him once and then drops her eyes to her menu, which she continues reading with improbable intensity ..."
That's horrible writing. Maybe they should have recruited someone from the English department to write something for them, or given the state of universities these days, maybe they did.
Now, if they were to say that certain keywords caused people to read the text with more care, I would agree. But I certainly don't see how they could come up with the conclusion that they did. Frankly, a lot of their assertions seem to be based of subjective criteria and supposition.
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Horrible would be a step up.
On the study, I might be willing to bet you get extra credit on your next test if you participate in the study. So that gives you the great students and the need to bring my grade up to pass students.
So not random people and probably not even readers.