In my years of teaching college writing and literature, sometimes students tell me, “I don’t like to read” (the actual word they use is “hate”), or simply: “I don’t read.”
You don’t read? I point out that you’re actually reading every day: text messages, emails, social network posts, news alerts, and more. “But,” a student might say, “that’s not reading reading.” So what do we mean by reading reading? In 2018, is it even necessary to read beyond a headline, a text message, or an alert? I’m going to argue that, yes, it is necessary. For one, there are so many accusations of “fake news,” that it’s easy, at least for me, to disregard a shocking headline and just scroll down the page to that story about the birth of a baby giraffe. For this blog, I’m asking you to make an argument for or against reading reading (in other words, reading an entire text, whether it’s an article, a chapter in a textbook, or a novel). Take into consideration the kinds of reading you do on a daily basis.
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About this blogA blog is an online conversation. This one is for students of writing and is an extension of our face-to-face classroom. Here is where we can continue a discussion started in class, ask questions, and test new ideas. Archives
March 2020
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