A recent study reveals that people, especially young people, are reading far less literature—novels, plays, and poems—than they used to. This is troubling because the trend has unfortunate effects for the reading public, for culture in general, and for the future of literature itself.
While there has been a decline in book reading generally, the decline has been especially sharp for literature. This is unfortunate because nothing else provides the intellectual stimulation that literature does. Literature encourages us to exercise our imaginations, empathize with others, and expand our understanding of language. So by reading less literature, the reading public is missing out on important benefits.
Unfortunately, missing out on the benefits of literature is not the only problem. What are people reading instead? Consider the prevalence of self-help books on lists of best sellers. These are usually superficial, poorly written, and intellectually undemanding. Additionally, instead of sitting down with a challenging novel, many persons are now more likely to turn on the television, watch a music video, or read a Web page. Clearly, diverting time previously spent in reading literature to trivial forms of entertainment has lowered the level of culture in general.
The trend of reading less literature is all the more regrettable because it is taking place during a period when good literature is being written. There are many talented writers today, but they lack an audience. This fact is bound to lead publishers to invest less in literature and so support fewer serious writers. Thus, the writing as well as the reading of literature is likely to decline because of the poor standards of today's readers.
Both the reading passage and the lecture talks about the reasons, why there is a downfall in the reading of literature in the modern generation. The former talks about the benefits of reading literature and what are three reasons that there is a decline in the reading of literature in the current generation. However, the latter opposes all three reasons mentioned in the passage.
First of all, the passage mentions that there is nothing equivalent that will have the similar intellectual simulation that literature has and people are becoming less imaginative and less empathetic. However, the professor in the lecture contends this and mentions that there are more options for intellectual simulation like science, history, political books and some are better than literature books. According to the professor, these books also induce creativity and also stimulate imagination in the people reading these book.
Second of all, the passage mentions that people are reading books that are superficial, not written properly, and doesn't demand any intellectual use. The passage gives self-help book that are currently on the best sellers lists as an example of the book people are reading. Due to this the culture is suffering in the modern generation due to decline in reading of books. On the other hand, the professor in the lecture argues that less time with literature books or any kind of books doesn't results in a decline in culture because there are other ways the people can follow the culture, for example, listening to a song or watching a movie. According to the professor, there is a change in the culture and there are more interesting things for the people than reading literature books.
Finally, the passage mentions that in the recent times more good literature is being written and more talented writers are out there. Because of the lack of reading audience the publishers invest less in literature which in turn is reducing the number of writing and reading literature. Nevertheless, like the two suggestions before, the professor in the lecture proclaims that this recommendation is not feasible because, recent writers are writing more complex literature and it is difficult for the people to read such complex literature and that is the reason people are not interested in reading. According to the professor, the earlier generation would have also ignored or avoided the literature written by the current generation because of it is complexity.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-05-15 | fmichela | 76 | view |
| 2023-05-15 | fmichela | 80 | view |
| 2023-04-25 | Yam Kumar Oli | 76 | view |
| 2023-03-09 | Alana Gerber | 80 | view |
| 2022-12-09 | predatoros | 85 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 115, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... superficial, not written properly, and doesnt demand any intellectual use. The passag...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 486, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...h literature books or any kind of books doesnt results in a decline in culture because...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, nevertheless, second, so, for example, kind of, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 10.4613686534 239% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 7.30242825607 219% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 30.3222958057 155% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 5.01324503311 219% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2079.0 1373.03311258 151% => OK
No of words: 400.0 270.72406181 148% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.1975 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.472135955 4.04702891845 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73759817176 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 161.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.4025 0.540411800872 74% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 673.2 419.366225166 161% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 21.2450331126 122% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 60.3212142524 49.2860985944 122% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.6 110.228320801 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.6666666667 21.698381199 123% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.6 7.06452816374 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.296295160562 0.272083759551 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.112057969827 0.0996497079465 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0705698467572 0.0662205650399 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.19103675156 0.162205337803 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0497522751895 0.0443174109184 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.4 13.3589403974 123% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.63 53.8541721854 68% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 5.55761589404 202% => Smog_index is high.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 11.0289183223 132% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.01 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 63.6247240618 123% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 10.7273730684 112% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 10.498013245 118% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.