Methodology

The data I have collected is 6 editor’s letters in magazines, 3 from girls magazines and 3 from women’s magazines. I made sure of this by searching the best selling magazines on the internet.
I have purchased all of the magazines from supermarkets so I know that the extracts that I take come from very reliable and reputable sources.
I chose to select three of each because it will make a much fairer investigation rather than just picking out one or two.
I decided not to choose magazines based on what I would like, because they could be biased and unfair, so I chose to select the top three women’s and the top three girls magazines.
They are comparable because they are aimed at the same gender. The girls magazines are comparable because they are aimed at the exact same age and the woman’s magazines are too.
The reason i chose editors letters was because they all serve the same purpose and will be the bets to compare as i will have more to write about.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that there will be a vast difference in the chosen language that is used within the publications. I think that the magazines aimed at younger girls will use much more selective so that it cannot offend young readers or their parents.
I have selected 3 of the top women’s magazines and 3 of the top magazines for young girls, I am yet to decided how I will narrow down what texts in these magazines to use.
The communication accomodation theory says that people adjust what they say to accomodate others, it has links with language, context and identity. There are two main accommodation processes described by this theory. Convergence refers to the strategies through which individuals adapt to each other’s communicative behaviors, in order to reduce these social differences. Meanwhile, Divergence refers to the instances in which individuals accentuate the speech and non-verbal differences between themselves and their interlocutors. This theory fits my investagation well.