By Dave King
Reading - one of the three original R's - has been increasingly taken for granted in our public school system. Sure, we are assigned thousands of pages of reading every quarter here at UC Santa Cruz and schools across the nation, yet do we always complete it? And, if we do finish it, do we always understand it? Not a chance. To combat this lack of comprehension and general lethargy of the student population, professors have taken to the idea that assigning more reading will increase results - yet this ideology has proved counterproductive. Instead, more and more students use the obtuse reading requirements as shortcuts: "Shucks, I'll never finish these 200 pages of Popular Radicalism in Nineteenth-Century Britain, so why even try?" As Americans, our inherently short attention spans (I blame the Micro-Machines commercials of the early 90's) are leading us to cut scholastic corners by shaving down the reading. Unfortunately, this yields negative results in the other two areas of academia: Riting and Rithmatic. As confident writers, we know that good writing spawns from a close understanding of text, and great writing results from an interactive analysis and fluency with our readings. Often, inadequate writing is a direct result of inadequate reading - a vicious cycle in which everyone loses. One of our duties as writing tutors is to ensure that our students realize the paradoxical importance and co-dependency of reading's relationship to writing: one cannot exist without the other. However, this duty cannot help but beg the question: what specific tutoring techniques can we employ to practically emphasize the value of reading while combating the devious influences of laziness, lethargy, and apathy? To answer this, we must first explore the importance of understanding text at the college level and the motivation to slack.
Albert Einstein, a famous rithmatician, once said that "reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." Einstein was a fool. He proves that society's value of reading has been waning since the days before the atom bomb, even amongst "smart" people. Had Einstein bothered to pick up a book he would have surely realized their importance. Closely reading and attempting to understand text is the key to understanding others' perspectives and ideologies. Simply skimming or skipping (as Einstein apparently did) is the key to becoming unknowledgeable, uneducated, and ignorant. As students of the University of California it is our responsibility to choose the correct key, and as writing tutors it is our responsibility to make copies of the key and give them to our students. That way, we can all get into the metaphoric house I like to call "Critical Thinking."
In her article "Reading and the University," Judy Simmons states that professors "stand united in their conviction that the experience of reading in a professional, scholarly environment should equip graduates with high-level analytical skills, the capacity for critical reasoning, self-reflection and conceptual grasp, together with the ability to learn autonomously and to exercise flexibility of the mind."1
If reading is so crucial to academic writing and performance, why do students choose to neglect it? The most common reason that we have all experienced is disinterest: perhaps the student doesn't care about radicalism in Victorian Britain - maybe she only really cares about that radical new MTV show or Ninja Turtle action figure. Disinterest usually transforms reading sessions into daydreaming-fests about the weekend, sex, or anything remotely more interesting to the individual than the subject at hand. Another factor resulting in the loss of motivation to read is the seemingly ominous amount of text assigned. Often this leads the student to rush through their books, ensuring that they'll miss important pieces of evidence and ideas the author was trying to convey. And finally, the number one roadblock to a sincere reading is distractions. Most of our tutoring subjects are freshman, which means they've been institutionalized in one of the ten dormitories on campus. Life in these barracks, for those who have chosen to shut it out of their memory banks, usually melds into one gargantuan distraction: nothing ever gets done. The roar of “Late Night with Conan O'Brien” from the television mixes with the beeps of instant messages fluttering back and forth across the information super-highway. The pounding bass of the neighbor's stereo combines with your roommate’s tweeters rattling off ancient and overrated Sublime hits. The smell of cannabis permeates through the open door from across the hall, only to combine with the stench of burnt popcorn from your roommate’s previous mishap. All the while intoxicated valley girls keep walking by your doorway - which you must keep open to air out the foul stench of burnt butter - pointing and laughing. Chaos. How can one be expected to open a book in this forsaken environment, let alone read it? Yet thousands of UCSC freshman face similar situations every day. Through our writing assistance we can help provide alternative ways of reading that will increase their productivity and efficiency, as well as improve their college-level writing skills.
The first hurdle one must jump over (or plow through) is allotting time to read. Unfortunately, this idea is closely linked with responsibility and integrity, two values that writing tutors cannot teach. One thing that many students take away from high school is that reading is an unnecessary evil; one can attain all the information necessary through Spark Notes, movie adaptations, or friends who had already read it. Entering college with this mentality only sets the student up for failure (literally). It must be ingrained into their heads that reading and understanding the text that is assigned is crucial to positive academic performance.
The next obstacle, disinterest, is also difficult to remedy. I cannot pretend that I could make someone even remotely interested in Victorian Liberalism. Instead, as writing tutors, we can ask questions to inspire the student's thought process. The "Think-Aloud Bookmark," which is designed to help students think about their readings as they work, provides some catalysts to piquing interest: "I predict that…,” "I can picture…,” "This reminds me of…," "I'm confused about…," "I think/believe/wonder…" While these won't force the reader to instantly regard the text as fun or fascinating, it will force the student to develop an interpretation of the content. Other questions tutors may ask may include: "What is your opinion about the piece?", "Why do you think the author is writing this?", and "what does this prove?" When we read critically we are subconsciously asking and answering thousands of questions in our minds. By asking our students analytical questions, we are jump-starting their interest and paving the road towards critical understanding and enlightenment.
The final barrier to creating an environment conducive to reading is the many distractions that whittle away efficient study habits. We will never be able to fully rid ourselves of distractions, and as technological innovations continue we find ourselves with more gadgets, gizmos, and crap that seems to be designed solely to sidetrack us. Even here in the wooded knolls and pristine beaches of Santa Cruz we still find technology infringing on our natural rights to silence and concentration. So how can we find solitude amongst the cell phones, Playstations, portable MP3 players, and snap-bracelets? Aside from becoming a "woodsie" and living off the land in the outskirts of town, there is only one alternative: the library. Some may find the smell of old books in the McHenry Library to be comparable to the stench of death in mausoleum, but one gets used to it. Here exists everything one needs to succeed as a reader: peace, quiet, privacy, and books. A lot of books. In addition to being the perfect place for reading, the campus library also offers services that compliment the other two R's: computers, printers, reference materials, email stations, textbook reserves, and comfortable chairs to nap in. The library is truly a wonderful place for those who cannot seem to escape the distractions of the 21st century. I hold all of my tutoring sessions at McHenry in order to expose the students to a serious academic environment and provide a substitute to attempting to accomplish their readings in their dormitories.
Writing a coherent paper begins with critically reading text and understanding ideas. Too often have my students misinterpreted the author's intent or argument, thus producing a misguided essay that doesn't fully cover the topic, opinions, or readings that the prompt requires. Many students also lack the motivation to check their sources to make sure they are using the texts correctly. In some instances, without my comments or redirecting of their interpretations, they would surely not have even received a passing grade on their work. It is important for tutors to first ensure that the student's foundation in reading critically is adequate before focusing on the more miniscule details of the writing. We must alter the illogical paradigm supported by Einstein: instead of viewing reading as inferior to the rest of academia, we must prove that it is its foundation.
1Reading and the University, 2002, Judy Simmons, p. 162.
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