SWA 1

Professor Michael Skube has many concerns regarding today’s college students. His biggest concern, simply put, is that students are not good readers and writers. Even coming from high school with solid grade point averages, students still lack basic reading and writing essentials. This includes a weak vocabulary. For example, Skube mentions in his article how he could not carry on a conversation with a student a semester away from graduating college because the student did not understand some of the vocabulary. Skube attributes this to student’s lack of outside, casual reading.

Based on my own experiences, I full heartedly agree with Skube that students do not like to read just for the sake of reading anymore. I will admit that at times I too am one of these students. Whether it is because of a lack of free time, or just a general disinterest in reading, students do not think twice about opening a book anymore. For me personally, it is a little of both. During the school year especially, I was very crunched for time with sports, normal homework assignments, and other extracurricular activities to squeeze in time for casual reading. School reading assignments over the years have also driven me to the point where I do not want to read for fun anymore. I still very much enjoy reading, especially during the summer, but certainly not critically or analytically like we are asked to do in school.

Todd Hagstette’s “aggressive reading” could very well be the solution to some of the students, myself included, problems mentioned in Skube’s essay. Hagstette calls for readers to buckle down, focus, and re-read the text in order to gain a better understanding of it. If students were to do this, not only would they be able to better understand and interpret what they read, but they will also pick up on more of the vocabulary terms that can be used in everyday conversation. Students would benefit in many different ways by just taking a little extra time and putting in a little extra effort while reading.