Does font affect reading rate? By: Jael Epple Grade 9 Bellwood-Antis HS

1. Does font affect reading rate? By: Jael Epple Grade 9 Bellwood-Antis HS

2. Have you ever had to give a memorized speech and wanted to review it?

3. This project idea came to me when I was in English class preparing for an important speech I had to present that day. • I wanted to read through the majority of my speech before I present it.

4. Problem: Does the font of text affect the rate at which you read?

5. Background 1) www.psycology.witchita.edu Times New Roman font was more legible and people read it more quickly than other leading fonts. 2) Ascender Fonts, “Times New Roman has crisp, clean neutrality that has recommended it to the general printing industry.”

6. Hypothesis: 12 point Times New Roman font is read at a faster rate than other 12 point fonts.

7. Experimental Overview • gathered a group of 10 students • short stories of three paragraphs • timed how long it took the students to read the short stories.

8. Experimental Design: Experimental Variable Different fonts Experimental Groups: freestyle script Viner Hand ITC Curlz MT Arial Jokerman

9. Control Group: My control group was printed 12 point Times New Roman font because it is the most commonly used font.

10. An example of the different fonts: • Ben Franklin was a man of vision. In the 1700's, - Curlz Mt • Ben Franklin was a man of vision - Arial • Ben Franklin was a man of vision. - Viner Hand ITC • Ben Franklin was a man of vision. - Freestyle Script • Ben Franklin was a man of vision. - Times New Roman • Ben Franklin was a man of vision. - Jokerman

11. Control Variables: Subjects ages 14-18 same reading ability – PSSA Scores (all students scored advanced) ate the same foods 4. not permitted to talk during the experiment.

12. Control Variables: Story three paragraphs between 265-270 words. same reading difficulty – PSSA ranked 4. 12 point font.

13. Control Variables: Environment • Lighting • 2. Temp • 3. Time of day • 4. Same stop watch

14. Experimental Procedure: • Seated all the students • Told each student my experimental overview • Gave each student the same food. • Waited for all the students to finish eating • Gave each student a short story of 3 paragraphs in printed freestyle script font • Started stopwatch • Once the students finished reading they raised their hand • I recorded their times

15. I waited 2 minutes until I distributed the next story • for the next test I handed the students a short story of a different font • I started the stopwatch • Students raised their hands to indicate when they finished • Recorded results • I repeated this process until all the fonts were used • I followed this procedure for my control group, the times New roman fonts

16. Average Time of Fonts Being Read.

17. T ime in seconds Font Styles

18. Next, I factored in standard deviation, with standard deviation results were inconclusive.

19. Further Analysis So I ranked the amount of time it took each person to read a story in a particular font 1-6 (1 being the least time to read and 6 being the most) I found that the standard deviation was much less.

20. Conclusion: My data supported my hypothesis. Therefore, I accept my hypothesis that Times New Roman font is read at a faster rate than other fonts.

21. Improvements: • Switch order of the stories. I handed the students the same short stories at the same time. I should have given the students the stories in a different order. • Make all students get the same amount of sleep • Studies by the National Sleep Foundation show lack of sleep limits ability to: listen, learn, communicate, solve problems and focus

22. Further research Different PSSA scores – I only used people who scored advanced – I would also use people who scored basic, average, and proficient

23. Thank you for your time and attention. I will now be answering any questions.