three pges, put the two pges article into 5 pgs. add two primary sources

Mary Lindsey

Rhet 105

2016/03/01

How does Entertainment affect GPA of College students?

There have been many arguments on whether student entertainment affects their performance in class. My research work will focus on the students who take alcohol during the week and on weekends and see whether such form of entertainment affect their performance of study. The main of objective of this paper is to compare two secondary sources that have explored the effects of entertainment on class performance of learners. The paper starts with an introduction of both sources, and then goes on to provide a vivid comparison between the two sources and how the authors of each source sought to convince their audience. The first source, “Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students," by Royce and Wolfsons sought to examine whether there are relationships between drinking alcohol, sleep and academic performance of students. To accomplish the study personal interview among college student were conducted where students were asked and disclose their GPA from their official college records. A second source, "The effects of heavy episodic alcohol use on student engagement, academic performance, and time use,” by Stephen and Pryor seeks to examine whether heavy drinking affect academic performance of students. The study employed use of interviews among student across various universities in order to determine the effects of alcohol use.

Firstly, there are some differences between two sources in terms of how the study was conducted. In the first article, “Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students," the researchers only used 234 students from one college to conduct the study (Wolfson and Singleton 358). While the second study, “The effects of heavy episodic alcohol use on student engagement, academic performance, and time use,” the researchers use 41, 598 students from 28 selective private colleges and universities to conduct the study. To identify the gap of the study, the researchers first take their readers through a vivid literature review on topics related to the one they are studying and thereafter, present their methodology in a clear precise manner. To achieve their objective, their collected data is analyzed among different samples. For instance, the data collected from different institutions is analyzed differently as well as data collected from males and females. The sample size is an important factor to make a good survey by showing strong evidence toward the relationship. Therefore, I found the third article talking about the effect of alcohol use on academic performance of university students(Osain and Vladimir). In this article about the sample size, it only has 46 participants to take the questionnaire. In this extreme small sample size study, the conclusion is not really convincing. Compare the main two articles I used for this paper, I think the second article has achieved greatly compared to the first one because the sample size and population of the study is diverse and large enough to provide more accurate results. For example, the first article only uses one institution to examine the research topic with only 234 students forming the study populations unlike the second on which selects different institutions offering different courses and selecting over 40, 000 students to participate in the study (Porter and Pryor 457).

Secondly, the two studies examine different variables related to alcohol consumption and how such affect student performance. In the first article, the researchers explore how alcohol consumption is related to sleep-wake behaviors of students and their general performance as the second study seeks to explore heavy drinking patterns and how they affect student performance in class. The research targets different institution offering different courses in order to increase the reliability of the study.

Despite many different variables that were measured in these two different studies, the results from both studies reviewed that there is a direct relationship between alcohol consumption and academic performance. For example, in the first study, “Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students," it was established that alcohol consumption as a form entertainment make students to sleep for longer hours and as result their academic performance is affected (Wolfson and Singleton 355) Similarly in the second study, "The effects of heavy episodic alcohol use on student engagement, academic performance, and time use,” it is generally agreed that alcohol drinking affect student performance. The results of the study review those students who reported heavy drinking had a low GPA compared to those who do not drink at all. The study further reviews that the probability GPA of student getting A or A- decreases as episodes of heavy drinking in every 2 weeks interval decreases (Porter and Pryor 463). Therefore, the two studies are in agreement with the end results of drinking habits among students and how it affects their class performance.

In conclusion, the two studies have provided a diverse approach of conducting my research topic. As these two studies use different approaches to achieve their study objectives, I believe both two are good informants of how I should go on with my research. First, I find both studies relevant especially the research methodology and design that has been used to conduct the study. I think to make my study more interesting and accurate I will have to embrace some approaches used in these studies. Secondly, to increase the reliability of my study I find both studies relevant as they have provided a good correlation relationship between different parameters that I intend to explore in order to achieve my research objectives. For instance, my research thesis is to examine whether there is any correlation between entertainments and student GPA owing that a bigger percentage of college student take alcohol as their main form of entertainment. Lastly, the literature review examined in both articles has helped me have deep insight on the gaps that I should focus on exploring in my study. Therefore, I do find both articles to be of great help in my study.

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Works Cited Osain, Menizibeya Welcome and Pereverzev Alekseevic Vladimir. "The Effect of Alcohol Use on Academic Performance of University Students." Annals of General Psychiatry (2010). Porter, Stephen R. and John Pryor. "The Effects of Heavy Episodic Alcohol Use on Student Engagement, Academic Performance, and Time Use." Journal of College Student Development 48 (2007): 455-467. Wolfson, Amy R. and Royce A. Singleton. "Alcohol Consumption, Sleep, and Academic Performance Among College Students." 3 Jan 2015. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 3 March 2016 <http://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsad.2009.70.355>.