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Sean Vroom

Professor Thomas

UWRT 1103 – 020

Annotated Bibliography 5:

Rachel Costahaude, an experienced writer for Sundial, an online journal site, specializing

in writing that has to deal with college students. Costhaude wrote an article titled “Morning

Classes Prove to be Better for College Students”. In this article, she interviews multiple students,

one of the first students is Ari Emurian, a 23-year-old economics major. Costahaude included a

quote that he said, discussing many potential benefits of morning classes: “‘(After a morning

class) you don’t have to worry about it anymore and you can have time to study or go out,’ Sol

said. ‘You’re fresher in the morning. Toward the night, you’re just tired.’”. In addition,

Costahaude included information about a study conducted at St. Lawrence University. From this

study, it was concluded that those students who took morning classes tended to have higher

grades than those who did not take morning classes. Some students such as Rayn Witkosky, who

is a senior geophysics major at California State University, stated that he much prefers morning

classes opposed to ones later in the day: “I get tired later on in the day, and it’s harder to focus

and concentrate,”. Costahaude also states that even if students have classes later in the day and

are able to get more sleep, this sleep is useless if this sleep is sporadic and not a quality of REM

sleep, where the body is able to properly rest and recover.

Analysis: Rachel Costahaude, is an experienced writer about the many issues concerning

different aspects of life for college students such as class time and studying strategies. The read

that Rachel Costahaude provided was geared toward incoming college students and
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underclassmen who are trying to find their way through college. The idea of morning classes

providing a great environment for college students ties directly into the question of can morning

classes provide a successful environment for college students. This idea is supported largely

throughout this article as Costahaude provided many positive testimonials from college students

such as Ryan Witkosky and Ari Emurian, who enjoy morning classes. These sources of colleges

students is a way that Costahaude is able to back up her argument. There is some bias portrayed

in this article as all the students that Costahaude interviewed attend California State University.

However, Costahaude was able to combat this minor bias by including multiple education

majors in her interview process, allowing a variety of different backgrounds in her data.

Quotes:

 “The study, conducted by psychology professors Serge Onyper and Pamela Thacher,

found that students who took later classes slept more but also had more time to go out

with friends, which may mean late nights. The reasoning behind this is the level of

maturity when it comes to handling a college career.” (Costahaude)

 ““If you know you don’t have to be in class until 2 p.m. then why go to bed at 9 o’clock

the night before just to get up at eight in the morning just to sit around,” said Sam

Wachtor, geology senior.” (Costahaude)

 “The effects of later class-start times might include more sleep,” said Thacher in a

prepared statement. “But this might be offset by lower quality sleep, which in turn might

affect students’ ability to engage, intellectually, with their coursework.” (Costahaude)

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Ari Emurian

MLA Works Cited:

Costahaude, Rachel. “Morning Classes Prove to Be Better for College Students.” The Sundial,

22 Sept. 2011, sundial.csun.edu/2011/09/morning-classes-prove-to-be-better-for-college-

students/.