Background Information
Before the study was conducted, extensive research on this topic has been done and the results are as follows:
Research Through Internet
I used Google to search for relevant information regarding the topic. I entered the words “books”, “movies”, and “study” into the search bar. The website returned more than one million hits. However, none of them were relevant to the topic at hand. So, I replaced the word “study” with “survey” and found more than four hundred thousand hits, none of which are relevant. So, I replaced “movie” and “survey” with “critical reading skills”. This search proved successful as I found the website of The World newspaper. The inferences I will be making from the project rely on the some information published by The World Link website. According to the columnist, Kendal Rautzhan of The World newspaper, “books expand the circle of knowledge”, especially critical reading skills and thinking skills. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that students at North Olmsted High School possess critical reading skills and writing skills, which they will improve in the future, if they prefer books to movies.
The link to the website mentioned above is found here or to the side.
That's not the end though. To be more thorough, I did some more browsing on the internet and here is what I found for your reading pleasure:
More...
I tried another search method to see if the books on my survey can improve the reading skills mentioned by The World newspaper. I entered “reading books survey” in the search bar. The website returned more than five million hits but none of them seemed relevant to the topic at hand. So, I added “improve” to the key words used previously. This search returned nearly two million hits. This trial seemed successful as I was led to the Dance With Shadows website.
According to Dance With Shadows, a recent survey in the United Kingdom revealed that the Harry Potter books enhanced the literacy of children. According to the survey, eighty four percent of the teachers think that reading Harry Potter books has had a positive impact on their students. More encouraging is the fact that Harry Potter books turn non-readers into readers. Sixty seven percent of the teachers believe that children who are not motivated to read books have been reading Harry Potter. Nearly four out of ten teachers (37%) felt that the Harry Potter books have had a bigger impact on literacy than the Government's National Literacy Strategy.
Since many of the other books listed on my survey are similar to Harry Potter books, it is quite reasonable to infer that most of the students have high reading levels if the survey results show that books are preferred over movies. However, if movies are preferred, no conclusions can be drawn.
The link to the website mentioned above can be found here or to the side.
And:
I used Google to determine if any study has been done on the reading patterns of students who read books in high school. I entered the key words “reading books survey continue reading” in the search bar. The search returned nearly 2 million hits. Of the hits, one website seemed helpful. According to Reading Today Daily website, “countries that continue to show progress in education share one thing in common--a devotion to reading”. According to the article “Literacy: A common currency”, countries that show progress in education, i.e. the adults in these countries continue to educate themselves after high school, have citizens who like reading. Hence, the conclusion that students at North Olmsted High School will continue to read books and educate themselves is reasonable if the survey results show that books are preferred over movies.
The link to the website mentioned above can be found here or to the side.
Research Via Paid Resources
For you Bibliophiles out there, I used the paid research resources in the library to obtain further details about my topic. Through the EBSCO Host search engine, I found a recent article about a survey similar to mine conducted by Boston University students. You can thank me later. Enjoy:
College of Communication (COM) study, a recent study on this topic, has been conducted by students at Boston University as a part of their Mass Communication Research course. But the study was done to infer things different from those my study will try to infer. One of the students said, “We were hoping to find out if there was a way to predict by the success of a book how successful the movie would be.” Of the 515 participants in the survey, the majority preferred the movie to the book, mostly because many did not read the books that the movies were based on. The Boston University students found that 80 percent of the participants who watched the movies did not read the books they were based on.