Findings: Document Word Frequency
Initially I planned to directly compare the primary lexicon between the textbook definitions and student samples. I realized, however, that these two categories' audiences were fundamentally different, and this altered the vocabulary used.
To account for the tonal and stylistic differences between definitions and examples, I chose to group the document terms into four categories. I also chose to focus part of my research on "reflection characteristics" (explored in another section).
action words – reflection characteristics – studied objects – surrounding influences
These categories allowed me to focus more specifically on the differences between each corpus. I compared the vocabulary in each category to discover how these documents relate to each other.
Additionally, Voyant Mandala visualizes the differences between documents in the corpus by comparing frequent document terms. As this visualization demonstrates, some documents focused specifically on research, while others emphasized learning. All documents in the corups had a slightly different take on what "reflection" truly means.
