The direction that he is aiming for is the exact one that he is using to build his argument. He wants his audience to agree that the decline in reading will indeed have a negative effect on society. Dana Gioia even went in debt and stated, “ The decline of reading is also taking its toll in the civic sphere.” (P.7 Dana Gioia) He based this statement on a 2003 study about civic knowledge.
“Twilight of the Books” By Caleb Crain & “Reading for Pleasure is in Painful Decline” By Stephen L. Carter. In this essay, I will be Supporting my Claim on the best and the more intelligently Written Passage on Readers of America. Both Texts support the claim of the decrease in readers in America along with Reasoning’s as to why this may be the start to something hazardous to our society.
In “Why Literature Matters”, the Dana Gioia emphasizes the importance of literature. Using logos and pathos, he justifies his claim on how the waning interest in literature is affecting America’s society in many negative ways. In the sixth paragraph, he uses logos to appeal to the working class by referring to a poll in 2001 taken by the National Association of Manufacturers. The poll was taken on their members about the skill deficiencies among their workers.
Moreover, the study proved that the amount of people reading has declined in our world today. It also proved what age the majority of people not reading are.
Dana Gioia talks about the decline of reading in America in her passage. She argues that it is having many negative effects on young Americans. The author uses many different tools to persuade the reader and make an argument. One of the tools she uses the most is facts. Dana uses facts to help strengthen her point.
“Teachers of English and literature have either submitted, or are expected to submit, along with teachers of the more "practical" disciplines, to the doctrine that the purpose of education is the mass production of producers and consumers” (Berry). Berry uses the word practical to describe the way in which we produce students as though they were massed produced. School systems today demonstrate specialization, and with that follows oversimplification. “In our society, which exists in an atmosphere of prepared, public language-language that is either written or being read illiteracy is both a personal and a public danger” (Berry). While schools relax their education standards and primarily focus on profitability, we become vulnerable to loss of literacy through
Dana Gioia builds a strong argument that persuades the audience that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society. He states the negative effects not reading will have on American society, and the positive effects reading will have on our society. Dana also build his essay in a strong way. Gioia uses negative and positive effects in his essay. Dana includes negative effects not reading will do to a person, to try to convince a person to read more.
People can bend truth, but numbers do not lie. With facts like “38 percent of employers complained that local schools inadequately taught reading comprehension”, people cannot deny the problem. Facts like these hold up the arguement by proving there are negative effects of reading. To cement her arguement, Dana Gioia talks about the social effects of not reading.
Humans are becoming less and less interested in reading literature. Dana Gioia tells her readers why it is astronomically important to stop this. In her essay, "Why Literature Matters," Dana Gioia exemplifies the importance of reading literature and how the declining percentage of Americans reading is severe. Gioia builds an urgent tone using logos, examples, and argumentation. Interest in literature has diminished, and although most Americans think nothing of it, it is riskier than they can imagine.
As the digital age comes upon us, more and more Americans become dissatisfied with the state of literacy in this generation. Because the Internet paves the way for shorter and shorter interactions, namely articles versus novels and six-second viral videos versus films, many people that grew up in the age of the Internet have a preference for this condensed form of entertainment. Dana Gioia of The New York Times asserts in his essay “Why Literature Matters” that the decline of reading in America is destined to have a negative impact on society as a whole. Gioia opens his essay with a bittersweet account of which trend is occurring in the twenty-first century America arts scene. He notes that as college attendance rates blossom, the interest
In his article “Locked in literacy: why reading isn’t always good for you,” Leo Robson explains how reading can in fact do more harm than good. He provides detailed descriptions on the side effects, quoting other authors, of how reading causes damage to: the influence of readers and their authors, a person’s mentality, and a person’s time. The world is full of people who are able to write. However, while there are numerous books, the ability to write what one desires instead of writing what other’s desire has began to dissipate.
E.D. Hirsch begins chapter one with the decline of literacy within the classroom. Early in the chapter he makes a statement that “in the United States only two-thirds of our citizens are literate” (Hirsch, p. 2). He continues to state that “even among those the average level is too low.” The chapter further discusses how cultural literacy has declined to a point that many students weren’t as familiar with basic knowledge. Many students in America were not adequately meeting the same standards that students in other countries were surpassing.
In this article “ Why literature matters” by Dana Gioia explains that American art has changed. It points out the fact that literary knowledge is declining. Some of the changes that were pointed out is that most people no longer read. His main purpose is to encourage people to begin to read again and that will help them improve their intellectual level. In the article Gioia expresses reasoning and includes evidence of the importance of reading.
(2000:8) mention that literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices and that literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and some literacies become more dominant, visible and influential than others. There are many purposes for the use of literacy depend on the people and also depend on where they are as many institutions which also patterned the use of literacy. This research use three main significances of literacy which are proposed by Scribner; Literacy as adaptation, literacy as power, and literacy as state of grace. In TSOP, the social institutions in the story is the American society and Educational institutions; St. Regis and also Princeton in the 1920’s which still affected by the system of social class where there is the upper-classes, middle-classes and also lower-classes. For Amory, literacy has three significances in his life.
Everyone knows that reading is important, but have you ever asked yourself why is that so? Reading is one of the most beneficial and practical activities that a human being can do. Unfortunately it is a disappointment that people these days read less. As we know, books were the main source of entertainment centuries ago, but with the widespread of technological advances such as the cinema, television, internet, among others, many people left their books on the bookshelf. The purpose of this speech is to present the benefits and the importance of reading.
