Out-of-Class #1: A Really Strong Example ...

... from one of youze, regarding the effects of multitasking. A strong lede and nut graf, good story structure and flow, and a nice range of interviews from a variety of relevant viewpoints, including a neutral expert:

With the busy lives we encounter today, multitasking can take a toll on how students throughout the country perform in school and within other activities they are a part of.

Students all around the United States are faced with school, work, sports, or clubs, sometimes all of the above, forcing them to handle a lot at once, which can affect their performance at such activities.

Saraswathi Bellur, an assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Connecticut, along with some colleagues, performed an online survey in 2013 on 361 college student samples at the university on how often they multitask and how that affects their grades and performance in college, she said.

Bellur said that “people who tend to multitask a whole lot,” their “GPA does in fact suffer.”

Students think that, because they multitask everyday, they are really good at it, she said.

“They feel ‘yes this is something that I do on a regular basis so, you know, no big deal, I’ll be able to manage it,’” Bellur said.

Head coach of the Women’s Rowing Team at Michigan State University, NO COMMA HERE Matt Weise said he does see an effect with the stress of multitasking within his athletes.

“There are times where they get into heavy exams, we’re traveling and they have exams,” he said “where they may get stressed and then their performance declines.”

Weise said there are 64 athletes on the team and they practice from three to six 3 TO 6 P.M., PER AP STYLE Monday through Friday followed by a Saturday morning practice, and the stress of that can take a toll on how they perform.

“If they get overwhelmed and are unable to handle it,” he said, “too often they will definitely feel burned out.”

Freshman at Michigan State University, Miranda Kalinowski, NO COMMAS HERE not only balances classes, but she said she also works outside of school.

“Sometimes, like mentally, it’s stressful because I have a longer commute cause it’s off campus, so that kind of affects me just because it takes time out of my academic work, so it makes me stress out more,” she said.

Kalinowski works as a tutor at Edgewood Village Network Center nine hours a week, she said.

Handling a lot at one time can put loads of stress on the shoulders of the student.

“Especially for freshman and first year students, it can be a bit more difficult to handle this because they’re already trying to get used to the new school environment and then if you add in a work element on top of that, it can just be really overwhelming,” Kalinowski said.

Cathy Stone, operations manager at the Spartan Bookstore at Michigan State University, deals one on one with these students who not only handle their education, but also having a job.

She said there are 56 student HYPHEN HERE employees who work at the bookstore and believes those who stay busier have a tendency to do better at school.

“The majority of the students that do well are the ones that have a lot higher GPA,” she said.

Stone said she thinks that having a job allows students to have a more structured schedule.

“By having jobs, you manage your time better than by being less structured,” she said.

There are perks of multitasking.

“I think those that can succeed by multitasking are also gonna succeed in the work force no matter what their education is,” Stone said.

For athletes, there can be even bigger benefits when it comes to multitasking, Weise said.

“I think athletics helps them learn it faster than just the general student population. I think the student population has to learn it too, I don’t think it’s a bad skill, but it is a skill that can be learned,” Weise said.

Kalinowski said she thinks working is a good way to relieve the stress of multitasking because it allows her to get her mind off of everything else.

“Being at work itself is a stress reliever because I love being around kids so it’s just a nice break from like my actual homework,” she said.

There can only be so much multitasking before there is a breaking point, Weise said.

“What happens when you multitask is you’re stacking stress, you’re stacking things up,” he said.

“You’re stacking only gets so high, it’s kinda like a game of Jenga,” he said, “it’s gonna start to topple at some point and your job as an athlete, or as a coach, or as a person is to try not to let it topple.”

Students need to become more aware of how to handle all the multitasking they do, Bellur said.

“I think part of it is just making students more aware and mindful of this relationship that,” she said, “even though they might think that it is something they do all the time, it does have a negative effect just because how our brains work.”

ASSIGNMENT GRADE: (GRADE REDACTED)

INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS: VERY STRONG WORK HERE BOTH OF REPORTING AND STRUCTURING THE STORY. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Word Count: 812

Sources:

Matt Weise

Head Coach of Women’s Rowing

(redacted)@ath.msu.edu

(517) (redacted)

Saraswathi Bellur

Assistant Professor in department of communication at University of Connecticut

(redacted)@uconn.edu

(860) (redacted)

Cathy Stone

Operations Manager at Spartan Bookstore

(redacted)@follett.com

(517) (redacted)

Miranda Kalinowski

Freshman at MSU

(redacted)@msu.edu

(630) (redacted)