Research Report Example

1. 0 Introduction 1. 1. Background of Research Nowadays, we can consider written form of message is the most effective as written communication will not change and the message to be delivered will always be consistent with no reduction or addition information in the message when compared to the messages conveyed through speech from one person to another. It is no wonder most important data is stored in written form. According to Knowles in the book of Patterns of Spoken English: An Introduction to English Phonetics, written language has the advantage that it is permanent so that it can be studied conveniently and at leisure, but spoken language is more elusive. In other words, written language looks like an imperfect version of spoken language. Since written communication is the most widely used to convey important messages, does the spelling errors in written communication will affect the message to be delivered? Nowadays, brief messages but important are often delivered in written form. For example, if a company wants to introduce their new products to the market, the company would choose to make use of sign board and written communication. The question now, if the sign board has spelling errors, does it have an impact on the message to be delivered and thus affect the sale of their products? There are many factors that cause English spelling errors in the sign boards. One of the factor is the mother tongue. In Malaysia, people come from a various races and ethnicities. Therefore, we are also have different native languages. The Malays with their Malay language, Chinese with their mandarin and many more. Since English is a second or third language in our lives, we often to misspell the word in English. In addition, a person who produces these signs are not concerned about spelling in their advertising. Sometimes the person responsible for making the sign board that using English language also does not have a good command of English. From the problem that we face, how one can prevent this problem? Among the solutions that can be taken is to use software or a spell checker before making billboards that use English. In addition, these signs should be going through the process of inspection or proof read the words. For someone that want to make their own sign board for the purpose of their small business, they can carefully and slowly read their writing out loud. Often your ear will hear what your eye did not see. Read your writing, sentence by sentence, from the last sentence to the first sentence. This technique interrupts the logical flow of the prose and neutralizes any impression of correctness arising from your knowledge of what you meant to say. Also, one can use their dictionary to check any words of which they are unsure, and to check for the spelling. This is a brief overview of the research that we want to conduct. Every point will be discussed further in more details and with an analysis. 1. 2. Statement of Problem The purpose of this research is to study the importance of spelling in advertisement. First of all, why spelling is so important when we want to convey a message in the form of written communication? Spelling is important because it aids in reading. It helps cement the connection that is shared between sounds and letters. Delivering very important information, for example information about the security at construction sites, but there is spelling errors in the signs. That would be a dangerous thing for anyone who cannot receive the message. In addition, if there are spelling errors in signs that seeks to promote a business, it will affect their business. Bad spelling gives others a bad impression about you or about your business. No matter what you say, if the spelling is poor, the reader will notice this before anything else. Punctuation errors often go unnoticed, but everyone notices spelling errors. Then, if the tourist that use English as their mother tongue read the sign board that have a spelling error, it will give a bad impression to our country. Then what will happen if the spelling errors are found in the sign board that is from a prestigious university. For example a parking sign board in a Cambridge University. The sign boards misspell the words ‘college’ to ‘collage’. This is a not a serious spelling errors, but it affect the reputation of the academic institution itself. 1. 3. Objectives of study i. To investigate the factors of spelling errors in advertisement. ii. To discover the impact of spelling errors in advertisement. iii. To find the most effective solution to avoid spelling errors. Research Questions i. Do spelling errors in advertisement prevent the message from being conveyed? ii. What are the factors that lead to spelling errors in advertising sign board? ii. What is the impact of spelling errors to the readers? iv. Which sectors are usually having spelling errors in their ad signs? (business or informative) v. Which sectors of the advertising sign board that have spelling errors are most affected? vi. How is the best way to avoid spelling errors in advertising signs? 1. 4 Significance of the study Sometimes, the wrong usage of language will cause different meaning for something. Somehow, nowadays, people are influenced by the foreign language, mother-tongue language, broken language, and other that cause the misuse of advertisement. Advertisements language usage is important because it is going to be a tool to remind or inform the others about certain information. A wrong use of language in advertisement sign board will cause troublesome to the reader or user in terms of understanding. 1. 5 Limitations of study The main scope of the study will be the student of UTHM. We choosing 20 respondents for engineering field and 20 respondents form Non-engineering filed. Initially, we will set the hotspot place like library, food court, bus stop, and etcetera. We are going to use questionnaire to collect data. The main constraint will be how to approach the students for them to spend time answering our questionnaire. Meanwhile, we also face problem of time management for going to the hotspot places in UTHM. Besides that is also having limitation of getting the field of study cause we need find 20 respondents for engineering field and 20 respondents form Non-engineering filed to fulfills the task. 1. 6 Definition of terms The main concept of our research is to identify the suitability of the usage of language in advertisement or sign board. This concept has been proposed due to too many confusing, annoying, and funny word or arrangement in all over the world. Our research has been decided due to the important of the advertisement and sign board. This is because of the wrong use of language to express something will be different for the original meaning and very confusing. In our proposal, we are using some abbreviation. They are as follows: a. UTHM : University of Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia b. FKEE : The Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering c. FSKTM: Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology d. FPTPK: Faculty of Technology Management and Business 2. 0 Literature Review Spelling skill is a very important tool especially in conjunction with writing. As Croft (1993) states â€Å"the only possible justification for learning to spell is that accurate spelling is necessary for effective writing. † A misspelled word will quickly take the mind of the reader away from the meaning of the message. Spelling is necessary for good communication too. Kyte (2001) explored the causes of common spelling errors. These included carelessness, mispronunciation, phonrtic errors, homonym confusion and handwriting errors. Because of the citizen of our country, there are many dialect. The Pronunciation of a given word may vary widely while the spelling is the same. Mother tongue interference is cause of spelling error. Wilkins observes â€Å"When learning a foreign language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer. The transfer may prove to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar – in that case we get ‘positive transfer' or ‘facilitation' – or it may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different – in that case we get ‘negative transfer' – or ‘interference'. (Wilkins, 1999) â€Å"English spelling has traditionally been difficult for those who teach it as well as those who must learn it† (Johnston, 2000). Lack of simple one-to-one letter/sound correspondences in words and apparent exceptions to spelling rules contribute to spelling errors. â€Å"Due to the complexity of the task, it cannot be assumed that students will absorb good spelling practices without explicit instruction† (Gentry, 2001). The spelling of words in the English language is difficult for even the most adept students. In addition, students must be able to see an advantage to learning Standard English in order to develop a desire to spell correctly. â€Å"Though spelling may be difficult, it need not be dull. It is, indeed, by no means the least interesting element in the structure of our rich, living, and complex language† (Vallins as cited in Johnstone, 2001). â€Å"Spelling errors provide a visual representation for students, processing of linguistic information as well as their knowledge of English orthography †. (Henry, 2003) Chiang T. H. (1981) and Chiang P. J. (1993) explore the errors in Chinese college and senior high school student English compositions. They points out three prominent features in the error of vowel substitution: â€Å"first, errors often occurs in non-stressed syllables; second, the substitute letter(s) and the target letter(s) are often pronounced the same or similarly; last, a target letter may be replaced by its phonetic symbol†. They explores the errors through the data from a vocabulary translation test. In this test, students are asked to translate Chinese words into English equivalents. They find five types of spelling errors: (1) substitution (one or more letters are substituted with others, e. g. rabbit/ ribbit, present/prasent), (2) omission (one or more letters are missing from the target words, e. g. bigger/biger, August/Augst), (3) transposition (one or more letters are misplaced, e. g. minute/miunte, first/frist), (4) addition (extra letter is added to the target word, e. g. October/Octorber, pencil/pencial, bench/beanch), and (5) combination of the above. One of the most applicable solution to avoid spelling error in advertisement is proofreading. Proofreading is a highly complex process, it is a process of inspection. It involves more than just reading text. In proofreading, the reader must be trained to look consciously at what he would normally need to ignore–features of the code itself† (Shaughnessy, 2003). Proofreading involves looking closely at orthographic structures in words and using morphological information to check their correct usage. This is a highly developed skill. The purpose of this literature review is to study the causes of spelling errors, not solely at the advertisement area but also spelling errors in writing documents and so forth. Within this review, I argue that spelling is important to the development of written language skills. This has implications for academic performance in curriculum areas that rely on written language for assessment purposes. Students who have poor spelling skills often limit the quantity and quality of their written language in an effort to minimise errors. â€Å"Because of this, they may judge themselves, and be judged by others to be less capable than they really are, in the area of language expression† (Moseley, 1993). 3. 0 Methodology 3. 1 Sample The report is aimed at student of engineering student and non-engineering student (undergraduate) who study in UITHM. We have completed the data collection through questionnaire distributed to UTHM students, mainly divided to two groups. First group is engineering students (FKEE, FKMP, FKAAS) and the other is non engineering students (FTMM, FPTPK, FSSM). We have collected 40 samples of respond from this two groups, each 20 respectively. 3. 2 Data Collection We have gathered the data needed by employing observation. Observation is done to monitor the errors of spelling in advertisement in the closest area. It is also conducted to have wider understanding on â€Å"what’s going on† from taught material point of view. The observation done several times before finally we found an imprecise answer to what we were seeking for. That were the factors and the impact of spelling errors in advertisement. Participant observation is regarded in the best position to collect data about the observable features of the most effective solution to avoid spelling errors. The students will be investigated during the gap time between classes. It will be carried on in the hotspot area around UTHM. 3. 3 Data analysis As the result of the observation, the first method, the data would be analyzed by firstly comparing the data collected from each student. It have been done with the focus of evaluation of the material given in its role to evaluate what the effect of spelling error in advertisement . Then it would be classified into several categories which are constructed into more systematic arrangement of each After that, as the result of the each answer calculation, the researcher will transform it to percentage. The data will be shared in the form of tables and graps. 3. 4 Instrument The instruments refer to the method used in testing our hypothesis or answering our researched question. The instrument that we used is a survey in the form of questionnaire. We created the questionnaire based on our statement of problem and hypothesis. Then we gave the questionnaire to the students and ask them to answer. After that, we collected our questionnaire and analyzed our data. From the questionnaire, we had different opinion from respondents. Besides that, we also searched internet to get more information about this task . 3. 5 Research Procedure SELECT THE BEST TOPIC BRAINSTORM FOR TOPIC FORM A GROUP SUBMISSION OF REPORT ANALYZE THE DATA COLLECT THE QUESTIONNAIRE FORM QUESTIONNAIRE RESEARCH DISTRIBUTE THE QUESTIONNAIRE Firstly, we are divided into several groups by our own choice. Secondly, we have conducted the first meeting for brainstorming ideas to find the right topic. Only after several meeting, we found the most suitable topic which is â€Å"Spelling errors in advertisement†. Thirdly, we started the research by finding more information about our topic from the internet. To assist our data findings, we have made some questionnaires that are next distributed to the respective samples. Next, we have collected the data in the questionnaires and divided them into several specialized groups to make it clearer for analysing. 4. 0 Data Analysis The bar graph states the number of respondents answering the questionnaires distributed according to gender and section of study which are non-engineering and engineering students. Among the non-engineering students, the female students are the major respondents and same goes to the engineering students. The bar graph compares the number of respondents who have and have not seen or read billboards or signage with spelling errors on it. It seems that most of the respondents from engineering courses have seen some. While only six respondents from the non-engineering course stated that they have never seen it in live. Factors of spelling errors in advertisement according to the students’ point of view. Factors| Engineering| Non-engineering| Influenced by mother-tongue language. | 10| 10| No careful consideration on advertising messages that they want. | 11| 13| The person making billboards or signage sometimes is not expert in English. | 8| 7| Others| 2| 2| Discussion This statement or question was introduced to collect the point of view of students about the factors of spelling error in advertisement. Our respondent consisted of two groups of students, which is from engineering field and non-engineering field. Respondent can choose one or more factors in the question or choose others if they consider the spelling error of advertisement is caused by other factors. According to the data distribution, the main factor of spelling error in advertisement is caused by no careful consideration on advertising messages that they want. This recorded a highest percentage of 35. 48 in engineering students and 40. 63% in non-engineering students. On the other hand, both 10 votes from two different fields of students that suggested the spelling error in advertisement was influenced by mother tongue language. The data recorded a total of 31 votes from engineering students and 32 votes from non-engineering students respectively. This is an important factor that leads to the spelling error because the respondent is from multi-racial and have their own mother tongue language. Next, the person making billboards or signage sometimes is not expert in English also stands a high percentage. 25. 81% engineering students and 21. 88% non-engineering students support this factor of causing spelling error. Last but not least, both 2 votes from two field of students on others factor that caused this phenomenon to happen. In conclusion, there are many factors that caused this phenomenon to arise and we cannot conclude solely single factor that lead to this problem. The data collected also shown a quite equal percentage from each factor and this has proven the spelling error is caused by several factors. Table 4: Sector of (profitable or non – profitable) that are often has spelling error in their advertisement. Students| Sector of advertisement| | Non – profitable (informative)| Profitable (business)| Engineering| 13| 7| Non – engineering| 16| 4| The bar chart shows the sector of advertisement(profitable or non-profitable) that often has spelling error in their advertisement. 80% of Engineering student show it is from non-profitable sector while 20% show it is from profitable sector. For non-engineering students, 65% show it is from non-profitable sector while 35% show it is from profitable sector. The result from engineering and non-engineering students almost same for question which sector of (profitable or non – profitable) that are often has spelling error in their advertisement. They agreed that profitable sector are often has spelling error in their advertisement. Table 5: Understanding Level of The Students On Advertisement Containing Spelling Errors. Students| Understanding Level of The Students On Advertisement Containing Spelling Errors. | | Yes| No | Engineering| 19| 1| Non – engineering| 15| 5| The bar chart shows the understanding level of the students on advertisement containing spelling errors. 95% of Engineering student stated that they understand the real message that the ads even if the advertisement has spelling error while 5% stated that they do not understand the ads . For non-engineering students, 75% of non-Engineering student stated that they understand the real message that the ads even if the advertisement has spelling error while 25% stated that they do not understand the ads. The result from engineering and non-engineering student almost same for understanding level of the students on advertisement containing spelling errors. They agreed that they still can understand the real message that the ads even if the advertisement has spelling error. Table 6: Sector of advertisement (profitable or non – profitable) that most affected by spelling error in the advertising. 1-no influence 2-partially influence 3-strongly influence) Students| Level of Influence| | Non-profitable (informative) advertisement| Profitable (business) advertisement| | 1| 2| 3| 1| 2| 3| Engineering| 6| 8| 7| 7| 4| 10| Non – engineering| 4| 1| 9| 9| 5| 12| Discussion From the data, we found that most of our respondent said that profitable (business) advertisement are most affected by the spelling error in their advertising. This represents 62. 37% of our entire respondent vote. From this 62. 37%, 44. 83% are represented by the non- engineering student’s respondent. While the rest are from the engineering student’s respondent. From 62. 37% that said profitable (business) advertisement are most affected by the spelling error, 37. 93% of them put level 3 which level 3 is represent strongly influence. Only 44. 83% of our respondents said that non-profitable (informative) advertisement are most affected by the spelling error. The difference is almost 20%. From the analysis made, we can assume that most respondents said that profitable (business) advertisement are the most affected by spelling errors in their advertising because it involves the profitability of the business. Compares to non-profitable (informative) advertisement, even the message cannot be conveyed successfully it will not cause loss in investment like business. Students’ Opinion About The Effect Of Spelling Error In Advertisement To The Business. As we observe the figure above, we can know the students opinion about the effect of spelling error in advertisement to the business. If we look it more detail and deeply, he percentage of students who agree with the statement above is nearly same which is about 37. 5% -42. 5% which is from the engineering and non-engineering students. Other than that, the number of students who are not agree with the statement is a small amount only which is only 20% which is from the engineering and non-engineering students. Besides that, the students who agree with the statement by saying yes for the respective question is actually they might do not understand the message or not confident with the advertisement where it happens in the daily life in the aspect of business world whereas, the number the students who aren’t agree with the statement by saying no is trying to mean that the advertisement is not affected, they still can understand the message. Besides, they are trying to mean that the spelling error is easy to fixed and recognize and lastly they can be presented as a creative thinker. What do you think is the most suitable applicable solution to avoid spelling error in advertisement? * Use software, spell checker to check your word * Proof read before advertise (go through possess of inspection) * Native speaker (fluent in English) who guides to prevent bad translation Figure 8 Table 8 Students| Software checking| Undergo process of inspection| Native speaker| Other| Engineering Students| | 8| 12| 0| 0| Non-Engineering Students| 9| 7| 3| 1| Total| 17| 19| 3| 1| Discussion: The data obtain by questionnaire method. 20 respondents for engineering student and 20 respondents for Non-engineering student. From the table, we can see clearly that the â€Å"proof read before advertise â€Å"having the highest rate of choice that is 19 out of 40 respondents. After that follows by â€Å"use software, spell checker to check your word† with 17 respondents choice. Then is the native speaker with only 3 respondent’s choice. They a respondent give respond other which state that â€Å"check carefully first†. According to the analysis, we can make hypothesis that engineering student do not face problem of native speaker. Besides that, we also can predict that undergo process of inspection is more effective way to solve the problem. 5. 0 Conclusion In a nutshell, the research of this project had been done perfectly and we able to achieve all the objectives of the study. First of all, we would like to explain the main objective of the study which is to investigate the factors of spelling errors in advertisement. In this view of opinion, we can observe the research from the questionnaires which given to the engineering and non-engineering students for the purpose of this study which is the factors of spelling error in an advertisement wise. Secondly, we move to the next step of this study which is to discover the impact of spelling errors in an advertisement. By referring to this statement, we can say that the impacts are wrong information will be delivers to the readers and could create some confusion among the messages and fail to attract attention from the readers. Thirdly, adding with the next objective of this study which is to find the most effective solution to avoid spelling errors. If we look deeply and open our eyes and mind frankly, we can get to the meaning of tis statement which can be said this is another alternative method to deliver certain message to the readers correctly and accordingly, besides that can be said that by doing or creating some effective method to avoid such mistakes is to reduce the popularity of people getting confuse of some advertisement. Finally, I would like to combine this and try to compare in our daily life things, there are advantages and disadvantages whenever and whatever we do in our life time journey. Thus, what I’m is trying to is we as a educated community should concern and aware about this problem and prevent this thing to stay on and destroy our future generation’s language and their capability in the reading and grammar usage wise . We should do and react towards this problem in a big group and not depending someone ,its like we are saving and do not want the proper grammar usage to be extinct fully. Suggestion There are many ways to overcome or prevent this type of problem to be continued or occurred in the publics or medias. One of the way is by checking the advertisement before it shows to the public and there should be an checking errors team such as Quality Control(QC) team in any company projects work, such as the flow of the pattern and stages of grammar checking. Besides that, if let say there is an error in the advertisement which already showed or advertise, immediately change it through in another alternative way which we can say as a back up way to overcome such problem. Lastly, we as a creative thinking person should able to understand the purpose of an advertisement and try ourselves to correct it if there is any error in an advertisement such as erased such error occurred advertisement and change it to the proper sentence. 6. 0 Reference Chapter 2. 0 UW-Madison Writing Centre. (2009) Writer’s Handbook http://writing. wisc. edu/Handbook/index. html. The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 11 Dec, 2011 Seymour, P. (1997). Foundations of orthographic development. In C. A. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Fayol (Eds. ), Learning to Spell. Research, theory and practice across languages (pp. 319-338). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Asociates. Sloboda, J. A. (1980). Visual imagery and individual differences in spelling. In U. Frith (Ed. ), Cognitive processes in spelling (pp. 231-250). London: Academic Press Inc. Ltd. Beck, I. L. (2006). Making sense of phonics: The hows and whys. New York: The Guilford Press. Bertucci, C. , Hook, P. , Macaruso, P. , & Bickley, C. (2003). Vowel perception and production in adolescents with reading disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 174-197. Birsh, J. R. (Ed. ). (1999). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. New York: Paul H. Brookes. Chapter 3. 0 McNeil, P. & Chapman, S. (2005) Research Methods. 3rd Ed. Routledge: Oxon Chapter 4. 0 Gillhooly, V. (2008) Business English-Charts, Graphs & Diagrams. Learnwell Oy Website: www. thelanguage. com. Retrieved 12 Dec, 2011 Caprette, D. (Aug 2007) Writing about Graphs. Rice University. Website: http://www. ruf. rice. edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform. html. Retrieved 16 Dec,2011