Introduction
In our modern academia, the controversy found within the modern education system is that students are expected to become better writers and professional communicators when they are not provided the necessary resources. With high expectations imposed on students, there are many flaws to this goal because of the continuous negligence of reading. In solution to this problem, author Ellen C. Carillo provides logical explanations and reasoning in her essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”, revealing the bad idea. As for the bad idea, it is that students should not be criticized for their lack of communication and writing skills when the solution in fixing this problem is to teach students how to become better readers. This goal is not impossible because teaching reading alongside writing can already produce better results and enforcement by the educational department can guaranteed success. Further sources that have helped her reinforce her statement, are the further reading source “The Transition to College Reading” by Robert J. Scholes and his for further reading “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction” by Jerome McGann which provides their own individual perspective about reading and how it is a problem.
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Better Idea in “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”
In a society that is continuously growing, and in high demand for well-educated newcomers, there is a reoccurring problem within our education system. This problem is that students are not being taught to read and write at the same time, resulting in a large depreciation in the level of literature skill for upcoming college students. Reading and writing, which were once taught next to each other at a young age, did show signs of improvement for both skills. However, despite it being taught simultaneously in the past, it does not have much value if students are not being taught the same way when they reach a higher level of education. Because of this Ellen C. Carillo, who is the author of the essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”, believes that “it is a bad idea to continue privileging writing at the expense of reading” (Carillo 38). There are many logical reasons why Carillo believes it is an unwise decision to prioritize writing over reading because reading plays a huge role in a student’s ability in becoming a good writer. For example, many professors who believe that students are simply poor at writing, come to this conclusion based off the student’s inability to answer the writing prompt.
This becomes worse as the level of reading becomes more difficult and words become unfamiliar. Carillo states that “while student’s eyes may make their way over every word, that does not mean that students have comprehended a text or… prepared to complete the writing task” (Carillo 39). This lack of comprehension does not only restrict a student from writing a good paper but also for elements outside of school, like society. Eventually, students will begin to accept any information brought towards them without questioning it or conveying their own opinions because they did not understand in the first place. In addition to this “many employers continue to vocalize the importance of effective communication skills” because many jobs require employees who can communicate well in order to have maximum performance (Carillo 41). Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Carillo greatly emphasizes that reading cannot be undermined compared to writing and that by doing would result in many negative outcomes which is a bad idea. To fix this bad idea, the better idea is to teach both skills simultaneously and provide students with more opportunities to experience reading that will be of use when writing and communicating.
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Better Idea in “The Transition to College Reading”
During the transition from a post-secondary school to a university, many professors have noticed that there is a serious problem with the reading skills of students. The primary reason why students struggle with the transition from high school to college is because they are unable to accept and understand the point of view of someone else’s if it does not apply to them. Although this problem has been noticed, it was unfixed for a long period of time because reading is not as noticeable as writing. For example, Robert J. Scholes, who is the author of the essay “The Transition to College Reading” explains that “writing must be taught from high school to college… because we can see writing… much of the writing we see is not good enough. But we do not see reading” (Scholes 166). Unlike writing, which can be visualize, reading is an ability that cannot be judged through seeing alone. If people were able to visualize the level of reading a person has than many of them would find themselves concerned and shocked.
To make matters worse, students are not only unable to comprehend the words written by another author but also the inability to see and understand from their position. In solution of fixing this problem, students are recommended to read sources that will oppose their point of view and cause them to disagree. This is lesson would be what the author calls, “teach the conflicts” which can be of much use (Scholes 168). Our educational departments are not the only ones at fault for hindering the ability of students from reading conflicting sources, but also the fault of society. For example, Scholes does not recommend or believe it is a good idea for “the Bush administration to tell television networks to censor the words of our enemies…” because it prevents the exposure of opinions from a foreign enemy. People do not only have the right to interpret messages in the way they believe but also to understand the motives of another country.
For these reasons, Scholes believes that modern teachers have the necessary power to prevent more students from being unable to dissect complex writings and to create a future where people are able “to assume another person’s point of view before criticizing it…” (Scholes 169). Therefore, the better idea is to enforce an equal amount of time on reading as spent on writing and to provide more insight on texts that students will struggle on, thereby freeing the concerns colleges have with the literacy skills in our current generation.
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Better Idea in “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction”
Through an experimentation that was conducted on both undergraduates and graduate students, a noticeable problem seen within these groups are the inability to comprehend fictional texts. This became a problem because students are unable to find deeper meanings within a text and remain at the surface of it. According to Jerome McGann, who is the author of the essay “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction”, he states that students are more drawn towards stories that “were not self-consciously reflexive and experimental” (McGann 144). Students have grown acquainted with the habit of connecting their personal experiences to those of the character in a story, which shortens their vision and inability to handle stories that do not.
The author also noticed that when students read fictional texts, they are more drawn towards specific story elements such as the plot and character. A few reasons is because students find it easier to imagine a character as living and the story follows a sequential timeline. Due to these distractions, readers are constantly drawn away from the medium of the story, resulting in the noticeable difference between those who are advanced readers and novice readers. Because of this, McGann states that only advanced readers can “negotiate, back and forth, the relation between the textualities of fiction and its sublime imaginary construction” (McGann 145). While much of this experiment is to train undergraduates in comprehending fictional texts in a more advanced way, students are easily lost when they are asked to find elements that would make the text more realistic. This also applies when students are asked to point out an event that did not appear to have much importance to the plot of the story but in truth did.
In hopes to resolve this, McGann divided his project between the undergraduates and graduates, where he provides students with more contact with an assortment of fictional texts as well as techniques students can use to recognize specific qualities in the text. While the role of graduates was different from those undergraduates, many students saw the difficulties of teaching fiction because they simply believed that fiction could be taught without creating more ideas. Although there were many obstacles that slowed the process of the experiment, the author found his answer to what he believes is a better idea. This better idea is to teach students techniques in dissecting fictional stories that may seem broad on the surface but truthfully contains valuable knowledge.
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An Agreeable Better Idea for All Authors
Reading, an important skill that has been forgotten in the world of academia, proved to have many uses in our modern society. This skill has not only trained students in preparation of becoming well educated men and women but is necessary if they plan to succeed in society. Starting with the surface of the problem, Ellen C. Carillo believes that the bad idea in her essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected” is because many educators in our academia request for students to become better writers but do not see the importance of reading. Because reading is viewed as less important, students are not sure how to approach writing prompts that require the comprehension of the passages.
As for what led Carillo to believe that writing and reading are not two separate skills, she was influenced by the author Robert Scholes. In his essay “The Transition to College Reading” Scholes believes that the bad idea is that students are unable to comprehend texts without finding a connection between their personal experiences and those expressed in the words of another author. He believes the current academia does not expose students to more conflictual texts and should be fixed by prioritizing reading on the same level as writing. This point of view on our current literary education is like those of Jerome McGann, who in his essay “Reading Fiction/ Teaching Fiction” believes that students are not capable of interpreting textual evidence in more ways other than to themselves. McGann realizes that many students struggle with the comprehension of fictional texts because they do not know how to approach them. Communication skills are also hindered because students do not know how to recite knowledge from the text. With many logical evidences that shows the amount of problems students have with reading, a common idea that each author would agree on is to train students to read better as much as they do with writing. By providing students with exposure to more difficult texts, the outcome will result in better communications skills as well as writing.
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What Could Be an Even Better Idea?
While the enforcement of reading by teachers would in fact help students become more comprehensive, there is also the problem of whether students are willing to put in more effort outside of school. If students are not willing to actively enact in self-improvement, the problem with reading will continue to occur despite the changes in our academia. College professors and teachers from primary schools are only able to assist students to an extent, therefore the real outcome will be based off the amount of work the student is willing to put in. Students will soon be able to differentiate their previous writing skills to their current because of improvements they made with their reading abilities. Not only will their writing have been improved but their communication skills as well. Reading would not longer be undermined compared to writing and students are able to understand the point of views from another author, as well as find deeper meaning in them.
Citations
Carillo, Ellen C. “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected.” Bad Ideas About Writing. Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe, West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp. 38-43.
Scholes, Robert J. “The Transition to College Reading.” Pedagogy, Duke University Press, vol. 2 no. 2, 2002, pp. 165-172.
McGann, Jerome J, et al. “Reading Fiction/ Teaching Fiction”: A Pedagogical Experiment.” Pedagogy, Duke University Press, vol. 1 no. 1, 2002, pp. 143-165.