To determine whether scientists and science students would accept a simplified writing style, two studies were conducted. In the first study, respondents--1,089 scientists from agricultural experiment stations, 20 station editors, and 59 editors of scientific journals--answered a questionnaire requesting biographical information and reactions to a…

A study investigated whether newspaper mug shots are perceived by readers as being positive or negative in tone and whether the mug shots that are selected match the roles of their subjects in accompanying stories. Twenty-three news and feature stories with associated mug shots were clipped from seven daily newspapers. Pictures and stories were…

A study examined the effects of published film reviews on viewers' interest in and evaluation of the reviewed film. In the film interest experiment, 89 undergraduate students were randomly assigned positive, mixed, or negative reviews of a British film. The control group received a review of a different film. Subjects were asked to read the…

A study was conducted to examine newspaper readers' responses to front page design and to explore the perceived differences among traditional, modern, and modular formats of newspaper design. Slides of the front pages of 10 pairs of competing daily newspapers were shown to 91 journalism students. After viewing three slides for each paper, subjects…

The diversity of textbook and scholarly book reviewers makes it difficult for an author to deal with reviews in any systematic or preplanned manner. There are, however, several helpful working assumptions: (1) the reviewer is always right, (2) the author is always right in principle but frequently wrong in practice, (3) the publisher wants what…