An Experimental Study of the Effects of Style and Organization on Reader Perceptions of Text

Abstract

With regard to message as a persuasion variable, this study investigated the question of whether or not persuasive writers actually can engineer a match between their stylis tic and organizational intentions and their readers' perceptions of those elements of a text.

To that end, 180 upper division accounting majors at a major state university were asked to respond to six stylistic and organizational variations of a single advertise ment for the Totaltape CPA Review. To assess whether intended perceptual classifica tions could be engineered across various alterations in organization (2 levels: direct and circuitous) and style (3 levels: forceful, personal, colorful), a 2 x 3 between - sub jects factorial design was employed. Characterizing this experimental format were six separate treatment conditions and the random assignment of subjects to each.

The results of the study indicate that with care, a consistent writer/reader percep tual match can be achieved. However, the study also indicates that persuasive writers should be very sensitive to the synergistic relationship of all elements of a document and to the readers' probable use of heuristics or schema in responding to a persuasive text.