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.
Narrator:
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
Professor:
It is often said that people are reading less literature today than they used to. What should we make of this?
Well, first, a book doesn’t have to be literature to be intellectually stimulating. Science writing, history, political analysis, and so forth aren’t literature, perhaps, but they’re often of high quality. And these kinds of books can be just as creative and well-written as a novel or a play—they can stimulate the imagination. So don’t assume that someone who isn’t reading literature isn’t reading a good book.
But let’s say that people aren’t just spending less time with literature, they’re also spending less time with books in general. Does that mean that the culture is in decline? No. There’s plenty of culturally valuable material that isn’t written: music and movies, for example. Are people wasting their time when they listen to a brilliant song or watch a good movie? Do these non-literary activities lower cultural standards? Of course not. Culture has changed. In today’s culture there are many forms of expression available other than novels and poems, and some of these creative forms speak more directly to contemporary concerns than literature does.
Finally, it’s probably true that there’s less support for literature today than in earlier generations. But don’t be too quick to blame the readers. Sometimes it’s the author’s fault. Let’s be honest: a lot of modern literature is intended to be difficult to understand. There’s not much reason to suppose that earlier generations of readers would have read a lot of today’s literature either.
The reading states that less reading of literature -novels, plays, and poems have unfortunate effects on culture and future of literature. However, the professor explains that though often said that it declines culture, it has nothing to deal with it and refutes each of author's reasons.
First, the reading claims that decline in literature reading leads to reduction in intellectual stimulation. The professor refutes this point by explaining that literature is not the only form to exercise imaginations. She says that, the Science writings, History, and Political analysis related books are creative and well written. They also do encourage intellectual stimulation and instigates us to exercise our imaginations and empathize with others.
Second, the reading posits that the deviation from literature leads to lowering culture. However, the professor contends that it doesn't mean to lower culture. According to the professor, culture has changed greatly and new forms are evolved in the meanwhile. Watching movies, listening movies are not simply waste of time. They carry forward and convey our culture more directly and effectively than literature.
Third, the reading avers that now-a-days because of poor standards of audience the reading of literature is likely to decline. The professor opposes this point by explaining that it's unfair to blame audience. The author blames this as author's fault because most of the modern literature writings can't be understood easily.
| 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:
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...nd refutes each of authors reasons. First, the reading claims that decline i...
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...inations and empathize with others. Second, the reading posits that the devi...
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Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...However, the professor contends that it doesnt mean to lower culture. According to the...
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Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ly and effectively than literature. Third, the reading avers that now-a-days...
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Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
... most of the modern literature writings cant be understood easily.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, second, so, third, well, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 26.0 30.3222958057 86% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1264.0 1373.03311258 92% => OK
No of words: 226.0 270.72406181 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.59292035398 5.08290768461 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.87727950738 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.77484081734 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 136.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.601769911504 0.540411800872 111% => OK
syllable_count: 395.1 419.366225166 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 23.957445266 49.2860985944 49% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 90.2857142857 110.228320801 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.1428571429 21.698381199 74% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.71428571429 7.06452816374 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 4.19205298013 119% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.204494112886 0.272083759551 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0677497954942 0.0996497079465 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0773494209569 0.0662205650399 117% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.126679101361 0.162205337803 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.036382982438 0.0443174109184 82% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.78 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.85 12.2367328918 121% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.18 8.42419426049 109% => OK
difficult_words: 68.0 63.6247240618 107% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 90.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 27.0 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.